"Two big steps", one big step towards ensuring our children remain safe when waiting for the school bus.
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Kinder students and some year 1 students at Young's schools have been receiving an introduction to bus travel courtesy of Young Police and bus driver Bill Ottey.
The bus safety team made their final stop on a tour of schools at Young North Public this week as part of a program presented by the Young branch of NRMA.
During a short presentation from all three bodies involved in the program the students were told how to line up for the bus as well as how to wait for the bus, importantly how far to stand from the kerb while waiting.
"Two big steps", the students were told on more than one occasion in Tuesday's lesson at Young North Public.
Mr Ottey, who has run the program for a number of years said the amount of content presented to the children has increased over the years, including now presenting the material as a slide show.
The safety lesson starts in the classroom before the students are taken to a bus stop where they safely board a bus, buckle up and set off for a ride around town to the Young Railway Station before returning to school.
"They line up safely at school, they hop off at the station and then we come back again," Mr Ottey said.
"We re-enforce the two steps back message away from the school environment where they actually wait for the bus inside the school grounds.
"It's that re-enforcement, a simple but effective message, hopefully," Mr Ottey said.
Teaching the children at a young age the importance of bus safety, Mr Ottey says, "does have an impact".
"You've planted a seed that you can re-enforce, if you don't plant the seed you can have problems.
"If you can communicate with the kids early in their time at school, they're keen to learn, you can see the interaction with them.
"The messages we really ride hard is two steps back, no pushing and the wearing of seat belts.
"They need to know there are ground rules.
"If we weren't doing this it would be a bit more of a task for the individual driver," Mr Ottey said.
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