Youth Travel Ambassador Programme

This year we have introduced the Youth Travel Ambassador (YTA) programme at Meridian High School. 9 students from across years 7 and 8 were selected to take on this important student leadership role, with the aim of them being integral in raising awareness about the importance of road safety and identifying and finding ways of addressing any road safety issues that our students might encounter on their journeys to and from school.

Last term, the YTA’s took part in a series of workshops with Transport for London to write a road safety assembly, which they delivered wonderfully to every House in the school. They did an amazing job at raising awareness about the distractions that teenagers face when walking near to or across roads and encouraging our students to use the roads more safely on their journeys to and from school. They worked extremely hard to ensure that their assembly was engaging and interactive for their audience and it was great to see them so engaged in such an important topic.

This term, the YTA’s will continue their work with Transport for London by creating a presentation and short film as they prepare to pitch for some money at a ‘Dragon’s Den’ style event at the Council offices in Croydon. The YTA’s conducted research last term to find out what the most pertinent road safety issue is for our school community. It was found that the majority of staff and students felt that pedestrian safety and traffic control outside of the school at the end of the day was the most important road safety challenge that we face. Therefore, the money they are pitching for will help them to continue raising awareness about this whole-school road safety issue.

We are very privileged to have such a dedicated group of students working so hard on raising awareness about road safety in our local area and we are really excited to see how the work of the Youth Travel Ambassadors this year will positively impact our school and the wider community over the coming months.