Road safety mascot at Calderbridge

Pupils at a Wishaw school won a unique alien adventure experience to help them learn to stay safe on the roads.

Calderbridge Primary in Coltness triumphed in a national competition to earn a visit from Road Safety Scotland mascot Ziggy through the organisation’s Go Safe campaign.

Youngsters welcomed Ziggy to join in with playtime, before taking part in a storytelling session starring the alien character learning about road safety after arriving on Earth.

Calderbridge’s team of junior road safety officers, from its primary five and six classes, led the school’s winning entry which saw them share clips and photos of pupils making use of the free road safety resources.

They were pictured reading one of the storybooks in the series, Ziggy

Visits Granny, to the nursery and P1-3 classes and helping the younger pupils to learn about staying safe on and near roads.

Calderbridge teacher Gillian Allan said: “We love using the resources in class and everyone was so excited to welcome Ziggy to our school.

“It was a really fun way to reinforce the road safety messages we’ve been teaching and remind the children how to stay safe on the roads, and we’ll enjoy reading the stories together even more after this special visit.”

Go Safe with Ziggy books are made available free to all primary one classes and early learning and childcare centres in Scotland and are designed to “equip children and parents with the skills, knowledge and attitudes that will help keep children safe on our roads now and in later life”.

Families can also read and play audiobook versions of the titles – which feature Ziggy and his friends going to school, the park, on holiday and even out for Halloween – on the Road Safety

Scotland website.

They are written by children’s author Lynda Kennedy and illustrated by Lynn Taylor, and are also available in Scots and Gaelic.

Road Safety Scotland assistant director Debbie Nicol said: “Ziggy is a fun character with an important message and visits like these help create lasting memories about road safety.”

“It’s important that children are immersed in positive road safety attitudes from a young age, both in the classroom and at home.”

And she added: “We know that early experiences shape children’s future behaviour, reiterating the importance of practising and teaching safe road habits.”

It was a really fun way to reinforce road safety messages we have been teaching Gillian Allan