Santa's Visit to the Walking Bus
I've been working on our December e-newsletter today. Of course there has to be a Santa story this month so I put in a bit about when Santa came to visit our Walking Bus last year.

The kids loved it especially as our junior conductors were his helpers and helped give out free wristbands to those who took part. The press also came and took photos (Santa stories in December somehow seem to attract journalists). We had some new recruits, some of whom even came again when Santa wasn't there.

I think any walk to school scheme can do with a publicity/promotion boost like that every now and then just to keep the numbers up and help keep the profile high within school and to the wider public.

The only problem was we used a bit of a cheapo 'beard' - it didn't take the kids long to notice the elastic at the sides but at least they were impressed with the rest.

Where are the Cybermen and Welsh Dolls in Cardiff?

For the last couple of days I've been at a conference in Cardiff showing off our BrightKidz high vis wares to lots of school travel advisors (people who work for the council and help you start walk to school schemes and school travel plans etc).

I was also there as a speaker to talk about informal Walking Bus schemes and how they work. They were a friendly crowd so it was a good couple of days (and not too scary speaking as it is a subject I am passionate about).

Of course souvenirs were required for the kids. To them, Cardiff means Doctor Who (as filming is based there), so a model Tardis and first hand description of a meeting with David Tennant and a cyberman would have been first choice. Failing that a Welsh doll for my daughter (black hat etc) for a bit of tradition.... but I couldn't find any of those... and just had to make do with magazines.

High Vis Fashion Parade for Assembly

As part of our 'Be Bright Northants' project I went to Victoria Infants School in Wellingbrough to do an assembly last week. Here are some of the kids kitted out in BrightKidz fluorescent, reflective clothing etc for the 'mini fashion show' at the end.

We talked about different jobs where people wear fluorescent, reflective clothing and why they need to be seen. Walking to school is high on the agenda for the school so it was also a good chance to plug walking to school and the 'park and stride' idea which the school is trying to promote.

It's not that difficult to explain to four+ year olds that reflective (shiny) shows up at night and fluorescent (bright colours) show up in the day (I wish adults would understand it that easily). And yes, I know 'fluorescent' is a very long word for a 4 year old - but it is surprising how keen they were to learn it once I told them lots of adults don't know what it means!

Will the Alien Keep Cars off Pavements Outside School? Well, not exactly an alien...... more like a face on a box on a stick, stuck into a traffic cone with a speech bubble saying 'This Is Not A Car Park' and 'Pavements Are for People'. This was my Sunday morning burst of creativity to persuade parents not to park on pavements outside school at pick-up time. They are such a hazard as parents with buggies can't get past, children have to step on the road, children can't see round them, other drivers can't see children and worst of all sometimes the pavement parkers start to manoeuvre, reverse and drive off with children right next to them. Rather than direct confrontation (not my style, I prefer tact), my 'alien' will appear on the pavement outside school one day soon. Hopefully good use of an old Rice Krispies box and the Saturday magazine ad photos. I'll let you know how it goes!

Today is Social Enterprise Day As BrightKidz is a social enterprise we should really have marked today in some way. Last year children from a local school came to visit us for Social Enterprise Day, tried on lots of products and learned a bit about what a social enterprise is (and that business doesn't have to be just about making money). This year we're so busy packing orders that we had to give it a miss!

I went over to Gretton Homes near Corby this morning to pick up some zip clips which had been assembled by some of the residents. It's a care home for people with Prader-Willi Syndrome - an old house in a gorgeous setting, especially beautiful looking across their garden on a crisp autumn morning like today.

I heard about them a year ago on the radio as they put out an appeal to local businesses to give them paid work to occupy the residents, eg assembling jobs. I thought it was a brilliant idea so now we've set up paying them to put together our zip clips and some reflectors...... which is actually one example of what social enterprise is about.

Lambeth JRSOs
Here's a great photo of Junior Road Safety Officers getting kitted out with BrightKidz gear at the London Borough of Lambeth launch of their JRSO scheme. Looks like they enjoyed their high vis fashion show. (Photo courtesy of London Borough of Lambeth Road Safety, reproduced with permission).

Rain, Rain Go Away
June has been a washout as far as the weather is concerned and we've had flash floods here in Northants. The ford in the village was closed - a wise move as last January a car was washed under the bridge and down the river (luckily the driver was rescued by some TV aerial repairmen with their ladder). Who says nothing happens in sleepy villages?

Our BrightSportz golf umbrellas are proving handy for the Walking Bus and after school when I walk back with my own children. If storm clouds that are brewing start to burst... we're all covered.

JRSOs Learn the Bright Bits
This week I have been all over the county for the five launches of the Junior Road Safety Officers scheme. My bit has been to teach the children taking part the 'be safe be seen' message, particulary 'fluorescent for day, reflective for night'.

The kids seemed to enjoy it, especially the 'high vis fashion show' we had at the end of each session. (Had to say I did feel a bit mean when they asked if they could keep the garments and bags and I had to explain that I needed to keep them for other sessions, but at least it proves how much they liked them).

I think the teachers learnt a lot too judging by their comments afterwards.

The JRSO scheme is organised by our County Council (and others across the UK). It's a great way to get kids to learn about road safety. Two children per school take part, and they pass down the information to other children in their school by holding assemblies, competitions and setting up displays.

Anyway, playtime over for me and back to the office next week.

A Camping We Will Go

This weekend my eldest went off on his first cub camp. Made me very nostalgic about when I went camping as a Girl Guide... I remember collecting wood for the fire and scrubbing cold porridge out of big pans (there's no way I'd have agreed to do that at home!).

Someone always seemed to trip over one of the guyropes. This weekend I noticed some of the newer tents had fluorescent guyropes... what a good idea...they're much easier to see in daytime and especially as it starts to get dark... so no more excuses for tripping over them!

Talking of being seen, all the cubs went off on a nighthike on Friday and were well kitted out with their BrightKidz fluorescent, reflective waistcoats - custom made in green with dark green edging and their scout group logo printed on. Afterwards they had fun with torches by shining on each other's reflective bands when they played 'wide games'.

Supernanny Uses Shiny Feet Stickers to Get Toddlers Walking to School

On TV the other week Jo Frost (aka Supernanny) was trying to get a toddler to walk to school with his sisters and mum without the young boy having a strop.

To get him interested in the journey Supernanny produced some ' happy feet stickers'.... which I immediately recognised as the Shiny Feet stickers which we sell. They had drawn a simple map of the landmarks they'd see on the way to school and each time he spotted one he was allowed to put a sticker on the map. it was a brilliant way to get him to concentrate on the walk and made life so much easier for his mum and sisters.

We love your idea Jo!

Fluorescent Fleece Beanie Caps

Last week our first stock of our new fluorescent Beanie Caps arrived. According to my dear colleagues I'm not cool enough to model them!!! Blooming cheek!!! Anyway they're only £4.30 each at the moment (get a bit of a discount if you're a school or local authority). Yellow fluorescent items are always popular but I prefer these in orange.

New Catalogue Now Available

Remember I said we'd been working hard on the new catalogue? Well they've been delivered and we've got thousands of them. So if you want one or some please let us know. Tel: 01536 454994 (UK). Lots of interesting info on how to be bright plus loads of new products.

Saying My Bit - Institute of Road Safety Officers Conference 2006

In July I was invited to speak at the Institute of Road Safety Officers’ Conference. It sounded a bit daunting when I was first invited because I had never spoken at a national conference before.The theme of the conference was how road safety should be taught within the school curriculum.

The talk I gave was about linking road safety education with sustainable transport initiatives. In non-jargon speak, that was about making kids safer on the road and getting them to walk.

I think in the past some road safety tactics have been a bit scaremongering, the “one false move and you’re dead” approach to teaching children about being safe on the streets isn’t really going to help them in the long term. It makes parents scared to let their little darlings out, therefore they go everywhere by car, therefore don’t get used to walking along the road, and don’t get any road-sense whatsoever whilst cluttering up the streets with cars, making it more hazardous for all the children.

Personally I think the best way to make children safe near traffic is to get them used to walking, and get them used to dealing with traffic and understanding it, and being able to react to it.

If parents are to be persuaded to let their children walk, then they need to feel that their children are safer so we need to do everything we can to make the children safer but without restricting them and stopping them from walking. So that’s why I think pedestrian conspicuity is so important for children.

Anyway, the audience, who were mostly road safety officers, were interested in the way we’ve been promoting child conspicuity through projects with schools, mini workshops, the information we’ve supplied on our website and, most of all, through our product development....... and I think they quite liked having a real mum there who's got a bee in her bonnet (hmmm...high vis bonnets...hmmm...maybe good for 'Victorian Day' at school).

By Car Is Not The Only Way - Work Travel Plans

A couple of years ago I went to a conference on sustainable transport. As I arrived I saw a guy who had come by train and bike asking a conference site manager where he could put his bike, and then having a bit of a dispute over the fact that there were no bike storage facilities. Slightly ironic I think.

Anyway, that incident did inspire me when I was writing our own location details on how to find us on our website recently.

Why assume that everyone is going to come by car? They are more likely to come by car if you assume that they will come by car. If you give them directions on how to reach you by walking, bus, bike or train or any other ways, then they are more likely to use those ways, because they might not have thought of using those ways until you suggested it.

So, for our location directions we give info on how to get to us by bus, train, bike and train, and finally, at the bottom, how to reach us by car with a mention of car-sharing if you can.

Nowadays many organisations (like us) have a work travel plan which gives ideas of how to reduce the amount of car travel by employees and visitors. There are lots of things that organisations can do to reduce car travel, and it doesn’t even have to cost them anything. Having directions on an organisation’s website which don’t make the assumption that everyone will come by car is a really good way to increase our culture of sustainable travel and even help the organisation financially by reducing demand for car parking spaces.

Some people might say what is the point in putting information about where our bike storage facilities are or how to get from the local station to our offices by bike or whether the local train line will accept bikes on its route. They might think
no one cycles anywa so the info is pointless, but you have to look at it the other way. If people see the information, they might think, oh yes, I'll cycle instead, so then more people start to cycle or walk or take the train instead of all turning up in their droves to fill up the car park.