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The School Road Safety Banner Competition

As a Local Business, FASTSIGNS® Sheffield and Chesterfield Centre And Chesterfield Recognise the Importance of Supporting Our Local Communities.

Back in March of this year we launched a competition, aimed at schools from our region, to help combat an area of concern that we had become aware of.

We learned from conversations with schools we were already working with, that careless driving and inconsiderate parking in the vicinity of school premises, had become a real problem and staff were worried that it was jeopardising the safety of their students.

Naturally, we wanted to help and so came up with the idea of donating, free of charge, a 3m x 0.7m banner, which would promote safer driving and parking near schools, to three local educational organisations. We sent out a Fastmail, with the details of the competition and all the schools needed to do was reply via email or call us to be automatically entered into the draw.

After the closing date, we drew the three lucky winners out of a hat and those winners were Woodseats Primary in Sheffield, Abercrombie Primary in Chesterfield and Meadowhead School in Sheffield. We then contacted the winners to find out the specific messages they wanted their banners to convey.

Woodseats Primary took a very collaborative approach to the discussions, involving their School Parliament, which consisted of representatives from each year group, who put forward their ideas on the best ways to improve their road safety. Once they had decided on their imagery and slogan we came up with a proof that reflected this, plus promoted their school’s logo and colours.

The children and staff decided that the banner would be best placed on the fence which faced onto the road at the back of the school, as some drivers had been using this as a short cut to bypass the traffic at Woodseats. As you can see by their photo, they seemed very pleased with the end result.

Next we worked with Abercrombie School, whose main concern was the inconsiderate parking that was affecting their school. Abercrombie wanted a clear message to communicate the problem and to also represent their students by including a caricature of pupils in their school uniforms. Here you can see Lindsay Hannan, the Chair of the Friends of Abercrombie, being presented with their banner by our Sales and Marketing Manager, Jo Boyd. Their banner now takes pride of place on their school gates and we hope this has helped to resolve the problem.

Last but not least, our final winner, Meadowhead School, asked if we could donate the banner to one of their feeder schools, Bradway School in Sheffield, as they felt that their need was greater. How could we say no to such an act of generosity? As well as creating a strong message for their banner, we also wanted to highlight their striking logo. Banners are a great way to support a campaign but are also a good way to promote the profile of your school and its achievements.

We loved working with these schools and we hope that these School Road Safety Banners will help to make their surrounding areas, safer and more accessible for their students. Thanks for all your input, Woodseats, Abercrombie and Bradway, we hope that we can work with you again in the future.