Schools Count!
Schools Count! is a ready-made teaching package to teach pupils to take a critical look at mobility around school and in their neighbourhood. With the help of objective traffic counts, together they make suggestions for a child-friendly school environment.
What is School on the Counter?
To make school environments safer, it is important to first understand what makes them unsafe. School on the Counter is a ready-to-use teaching package that makes 4th, 5th and 6th grade pupils work on safe and child-friendly school environments. Using objective traffic counts, pupils take a critical look at mobility around school and in their neighbourhood. They think about the routes people take, discuss the dangers and impact of traffic and, together with parents, local residents and policymakers, look for solutions and improvements for a healthier neighbourhood.
Every child has the right to go to school in a safe, active, autonomous and healthy way. Solutions for child-friendly school environments that are devised and tested together are more likely to succeed. This way, School on the Counter creates more insight, more knowledge exchange and ultimately more human-sized streets.
Climate warming and mobility are anything but a distant memory for the students. They immediately had all kinds of solutions in mind to tackle dangerous spots and to convince people to cycle and walk more often."
Basisschool De Springplank — Heusden-Zolder
5 reasons to choose Schools Count!
1. Recognising pupils as experts
School on the Counter aims to bring the child perspective into the mobility debate. After all, pupils are all experts when it comes to their own travel behaviour. Thanks to School on the Counter, they grow into real traffic specialists and motivated citizen scientists.
2. Pupils co-create solutions
In a workshop, pupils and teachers work on the ideal school environment. Together, they devise solutions: from infrastructural adaptations to campaigns to convince people to come to school more actively or differently.
3. Total package that fits into the attainment targets of primary education
School on the Counter is a ready-to-use package for the 4th, 5th and 6th year, linked to the attainment targets in WO, Dutch, Maths, Musical Education, etc. The package includes teaching files, presentations, worksheets and scripts.
4. Pupils collect and analyse data themselves
During the lessons, pupils work with traffic data from Telraam. This is an automatic sensor that counts the number of pedestrians, cyclists, cars and heavy vehicles in a street. Students analyse this Telraam data and make the link between figures, graphs and the traffic situation in practice.
5. Pupils present solutions to city council
School on the Counter also steps outside the classroom. Pupils get the chance to present their proposals and designs to the municipal administration. Policy-makers and local residents also participate and think along.
Did you know...
School op de Teller in 2024 steun kreeg van het Europese IMPETUS-programma en nu uitgerold wordt in twee Genkse scholen? En ook in de rest van België gingen scholen al met het pakket aan de slag.
Contents of the Schools Count! package
- An introductory lesson on Telraam, traffic data, mobility and climate, own travel behaviour, ...
- Consultation moment with Mobiel 21 for start-up, lesson package and evaluation
- 6 Telraam sensors, and support for their roll-out
- Ready-to-use lesson sheets, manuals and workshops on traffic topics
- Manual for the design workshop with pupils, parents and local residents
- Data analyses by Mobiel 21, at the request of the Telraam network in the neighbourhood
- Q&A for the school (questions about data analyses, lesson plan or manuals)
- Help and advice on contacting the municipal administration
Questions about what School Count! can look like in your school?
Our citizen science expert, Elke Franchois, is here to help.
Safe school environments and routes
Children deserve a safe journey to school. We work with schools, parents, local authorities and pupils to create safer routes, reduce traffic pressure and promote active travel in the school environment. Autonomous mobility should be the norm. Everywhere!