To improve safety and well-being among students and staff of Dulwich College Shanghai, science class 7AL designed a cycle safety display to raise awareness. The idea was soon adopted by the college leadership and grew into a college wide campaign.
The ideas
The idea began with a cycle safety display project in a science class with 7AL. Their objective was to create a poster, leaflet or some other means of distributing information to the wider college and community on the benefits of cycle safety. Many put forward the wearing of helmets as the major target area, as they knew that several staff members had already had serious accidents since the beginning of term.
Shortly after the display was completed, the Senior School leadership decided to create a new student/staff committee to address the issue of cycle safety across the College.
The plan was to:
1) Identify the most important aspects of cycle safety
2) Create a proactive awareness campaign to promote better cycle safety across the College (primarily the wearing of helmets)
3) Monitor the effectiveness of the campaign and make recommendations for further projects
The initiatives
The campaign so far has been approached three ways:
1) A poster design competition for ages 11-18 to create a logo for the cycle safety campaign
2) A video, including student and staff interviews, to examine both the reasons people do or don't wear helmets and the consequences of such actions
3) A reward scheme providing House Points for students who cycle to school and wear a helmet
The 3 winners of the poster competition had their designs combined to create the official logo and each won a helmet. The logo has been transferred to posters, stickers and leaflets and distributed across the College and wider community.
The video has been shown to every student in years 7-12 and the response has been very positive, with a proceeding increase in the number of helmet wearers among both students and staff.
The reward scheme has also been successful in terms of increasing the number of helmet wearers and in terms of collecting valuable data on the attitudes and thinking of students via surveys.
The campaign has so far been included in the Friends of Dulwich Newsletter, which reaches more than 2,000 individuals every week, the school newsletter and magazine, as well as being a regular feature on every wall, notice board and laptop case across Dulwich College Shanghai.
