If you are looking for something to do with the kids over the school holiday that is fun and educational then look no further than the Constable Care Road Safety centre in Maylands. They are running morning sessions on selected days over the school holidays to introduce families to these new state of the art facilities where school-aged children can learn about road safety.
Image Credit: Constable Care Website
Road trauma is the leading cause of death for children in WA and the second leading cause of hospitalisation for serious injury. This centre creates a unique early-intervention education approach.
The centre has its own scaled-down version of Perth streets including street signs, roundabout, traffic lights, pedestrian crossings and even a train crossing with boom gates which are controlled by the staff for the kids to have a safe and interactive experience.
We started our morning exploring the facilities, the outdoor environment is fenced in so it was safe to let them explore the area on their own. Not long after we arrived the kids were brought into the classroom for a short road safety lesson to learn about all of the signs that they may come across in the real world. The staff were interactive and inclusive and also added in a short bike safety lesson to ensure all of the children understood how to check their bikes and helmets were safe to use.
The children were then led around the outdoor environment to see how everything worked and to understand how to use these facilities safely.
Whilst you are able to bring your own bike and helmets to use, the facility also provides bikes and helmets for the children if required (training wheels are also available upon request). We opted to borrow the equipment as it is quite difficult to fit two bikes in the back of the car. After choosing the correct bike size based on the child’s height the kids were off onto the scaled-down roads where they were able to put the lessons they learnt into action.
The staff were amazing and interacted with the children, helping them make safe choices and providing stickers for those doing the right thing. My boys absolutely loved riding around and it was good to see how much they had learnt during the lesson, and if they made a mistake they were able to immediately rectify and practice the correct thing to do.
Another interesting concept was the augmented reality lesson, which is broken up into 2 different timeslots for the younger and older age groups. The centre has iPads for each child which hangs safely over their necks.
They are then taken on another tour of the outdoor environment where they stop at particular checkpoints, lift the iPad up and they see interactive characters on the screen with multiple choice questions on what the safest option is for things like crossing the road when the traffic man light is red or green. The kids earn online badges once they answer the questions correctly.
I was really impressed with the staff both with the important information they taught the kids as well as the way they interacted with them and supported their learning whilst on their bikes.
A coffee van comes by around 11am for the parents. Winning!
During the school terms the centre runs school sessions, this would be a very valuable excursion for all school-aged children to attend. You can find more information online.
For more information about their school holiday sessions, you can find it online.
Image Credit: Constable Care Website
Constable Care Road Safety Centre
48 Sixth Avenue, Maylands. It is easily accessible via train, bus or car.
08 9272 0000
Bookings can be made online, www.cccsf.org.au
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Kia is a mum of 2 crazy & energetic boys that loves to get out and about! Life as a mum is amazing, scary & challenging all rolled into one, but in her spare time Kia also works for herself as a Tupperware consultant to help support her family and is studying for a diploma in Social Media Marketing. She loves exploring Perth and WA and is looking forward to more family trips in and around the state and beyond.
