The road safety team, The Honest Truth organised the competition as part of the launch of their campaign featuring the ‘Zoo Song’ Each toy animal represented a character from the song.

More than 80 children have been seriously injured or killed on roads Devon’s roads since 2008 and the ‘Zoo Song’ and animation has been composed to help primary school children everywhere remember key road safety messages in a fun way.

The animation features vibrant, bold animal characters that children can easily identify with. While the song has a catchy chorus that helps the children to remember the key messages through repetition.

Tanya Hamlet, class teacher in year one said: “It’s been a fantastic opportunity to be involved with the Honest Truth and we feel very privileged. We think it’s genuinely provided the children with a really engaging context to talk about the importance of road safety. The messages they have taken away have had a huge impact on them. It’s been a really fun and educational experience for everyone involved.”

The competition followed a day of activities held at Willand Primary school in November, concluding with the entire school learning and singing the song.  Pupils from all from years were then asked to colour in various animals, as well as write their own road safety messages.

Andrew Priest, Safer Travel Officer said: “Judging the competition proved to be really challenging as we had so many amazing entries. We saw some very artistic and beautifully colored animals. Even more satisfying was the fact that there were many personal pledges, written by the children that showed they had really thought about and taken on board the safety messages.”

Francesca Lewis, PSHE Co-ordinator and KS1 teacher said: “We feel very privileged to have had DSFRS into our school to provide a road safety programme. The children engaged really well with the road safety song and thoroughly enjoyed learning about the animals and singing along.

“They came up with their own actions to help learn the choruses, which they picked up quickly. We also chose children to feature in the song acting as the different animals to help reinforce the safety messages from each animal and they loved acting as the animals and being silly!

“The song and video are very captivating for all children across the age ranges and it was lovely to see how quickly the children knew the different animals and understood the messages of the song. The children enjoyed having the fire service in to our school, and the year 5 & 6 children benefited greatly from workshops that reinforced the key messages from the road safety song.

“Road safety is such a key aspect of the curriculum and as a school we are constantly looking at ways to engage children in their learning so that road safety messages are imbedded for life not just a lesson. The road safety song and fire service helped impart vital messages across our school and community in an engaging and multi-sensory way, which has made a lasting impact on our children.”

Laura Pratt, Road Safety Officer from Devon & Somerset Fire & Rescue Service said: “This has been a really exciting opportunity to be delivering our new multi-agency partnership road safety educational package to key stage 2 students. Our aim is to reduce the risks to young people when using our roads as pedestrians and when travelling as passengers in vehicles.

For more information visit The Honest Truth at their website. Listen to the Zoo Song.