On Friday 13 July South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive (SYPTE) will deliver its 200th lesson in its interactive training bus – the only one of its kind in the UK.
The event will take place at Hallam Primary School, in Sheffield, and to mark the occasion Nick Clegg, MP for the Hallam area, will be at the school.
The specially designed vehicle - Mark’s Cool Bus - goes to junior and primary schools across South Yorkshire to educate Year 6 pupils on how to use public transport.
The unique lessons are delivered by SYPTE’s Education and Safety team who use role play sessions to teach young people how to behave responsibly.
To learn more about public transport, pupils are given the chance to plan their own journeys using the Journey Planner on travelsouthyorkshire.com - South Yorkshire’s public transport website.
They also learn about the MegaTravel Pass, which entitles 11-16 year olds to travel around South Yorkshire for a concessionary fare, making travelling even easier and cheaper.
A helpful booklet containing all the information delivered in the lessons together with practical examples, fun quizzes and a certificate is also given to every pupil.
To back up the lessons in schools, Year 6 pupils also attend the LifeWise Centre, at Magna, which is made up of ‘film set’ scenarios, one of which is a public transport Interchange and full size bus. The centre is run by South Yorkshire Police and teaches citizenship skills - from a public transport perspective it talks about the consequences of anti-social behaviour on buses, trams and trains.
David Brown, Passenger Services Director at SYPTE said: “We are committed to educating young people about public transport as they are our travellers of the future. We want young people to feel confident about using public transport and also ensure that they know how to use it safely and responsibly.
“Taking a real life bus to the classroom is a very unique and creative style of teaching and I am delighted to say that it is working and the children are really enjoying it. We are even gaining national recognition from Government Ministers and receiving enquiries from a number of other local authorities and public transport operators throughout the country who are keen to learn from our experience.“
Nick Clegg, MP for Sheffield Hallam said: “Taking a bus to schools is an excellent, interactive way of teaching young people how to use public transport and it shows just how much South Yorkshire is leading the way forward. Young people are our future and it is important that they are educated from an early age on how using public transport can help save the environment.”
So far this academic year SYPTE has delivered Travel Awareness training to 200 schools across the county but since the scheme was introduced there has been a high demand for the training bus to visit schools across the county.
Next year SYPTE plans to deliver lessons to all 363 junior and primary schools across South Yorkshire. If you would like Mark’s Cool Bus to visit your school contact the Education and Safety team on 0114 276 7575 or log onto www.travelsouthyorkshire.com
SYPTE is a member of the Travel South Yorkshire partnership.
The aim of the partnership is to bring public transport together, encourage more people to use it, make it easier to understand and deliver new, innovative public transport products and services.
Travel South Yorkshire is the new identity of the public transport network in South Yorkshire.