On Friday 19^th June McGee visited the City of London School for Girls to help give pupils an important lesson in safety. A whole host of activities organised by the City of London Corporation’s Road Safety team, saw almost 100 children learn about road and construction site safety – with a little help from special guest, Ivor Goodsite.

Ivor Goodsite is the Considerate Constructors Scheme’s mascot who, when not on site, spends his time visiting schools and local communities to promote health and safety.

Construction site celebrity, Ivor, was kept busy throughout the day promoting the safety message to pupils, even helping McGee’s Marc Byrne, Head of Community Liaison, give informative but fun lessons for each class on how to stay safe around construction sites. Each lesson lasted around 20 minutes and covered topics including: the importance of safety signs and equipment; the types of and purpose of personal protective equipment; identifying types of machinery on a building site and spotting the kinds of hazards that might also be found. Following the lesson, each class had the opportunity to complete a range of Ivor Goodsite colouring-in sheets or design their own safety poster.

In conjunction with the City Police, McGee also provided an ‘Exchanging Places’ experience in the playground where pupils put on a McGee yellow high-viz vest and sat in a lorry to see the view from the driver’s perspective and learn more about HGV blind spots.

Marc said: “We were once again delighted to work in partnership with the City of London’s Road Safety team, the City Police and of course, Ivor Goodsite. These events are a great example of how the business community can help to play an important role in keeping children safe. The McGee team thoroughly enjoyed meeting all of the girls and giving them an insight into road and construction site safety. We would also like to say a huge thank you to all who beautifully completed their safety posters. We will be proudly displaying these on one of our construction sites for all site workers and visitors to see. We look forward to cascading the safety message to more schools throughout the City in the near future. ”

Sheila Moules, Road Safety Officer of the City of London Corporation said: “The City of London Road Danger Reduction Partnership has an on-going programme of initiatives which are designed to help reduce road casualties. The City has a very low child population and only five schools; the number of child casualties is very low with no fatalities.

The Road Safety Team has a comprehensive program of road safety education in the City’s schools in accordance with the City’s statutory duty to promote road safety. This is very well received by the participating schools and assists with ensuring that casualties remain at a low level.

We were delighted to work in partnership and deliver a truly successful day for the children at the City of London School for Girls. ”

Dina Mallett, Deputy Head Teacher of the Preparatory School said: “The girls not only had enormous fun but also learned many valuable lessons. The Prep Staff were most impressed by the organisation and smooth running of the day. The allocation of resources and staff was fantastic.”

On behalf of the girls, a spokesperson said: “We really enjoyed you allowing us to use the lorries and the Police car, testing us with a quiz and road and cycle safety, providing us with a fact filled lecture on construction sites and giving us the opportunity to test our awareness.”