A ‘GAME-changing’ road safety programme for children has been launched in Bournemouth.
Centre VR showcased its latest educational project Safer Kids at a launch event on Monday, January 30.
Teachers and elected leaders attended the Centre VR building in Richmond Gardens Shopping Centre to trial the new programme, which uses virtual reality (VR) to educate children on road safety.
Centre VR hope Safer Kids will improve road safety behaviours in young people and therefore reduce road related accidents, injuries, and deaths.
The company’s marketing director, Rachel Berenson-Perkins, said: “It’s road safety training for children in a way that’s experiential.
“We’ve proven that doing things in VR can really embed what you learn.”
Pupils taking part in the Safer Kids programme are given their own VR headset and controllers, before being encouraged to travel through a virtual route from their home to school.
On the way, they are educated on a number of crossings and hazards and given the opportunity to take part in fun activities like popping into the corner shop or visiting the park.
The experience lasts for a duration of approximately 40 minutes, and pupils will have the help of SKIE - the Safer Kids Interactive Expert.
The facilities at the centre also allow for multiple people to take part in the programme at the same time, with 30 new headsets installed at the end of last year.
Rachel said: “It’s so hard to keep 30 kids engaged equally, but bringing them to an environment like ours, 30 people can have the same experience at once, but they’re all getting it in a different way.”
Safer Kids is being recommended to schools across the conurbation, and Centre VR says it is their ‘goal for every primary aged child across Dorset, and then wider, to have this learning experience over the next few years’.
At the launch on Monday, the VR centre also revealed it plans to expand the technology for other educational purposes such as fire safety.
Speaking at the event, programme developer Sam Walsh said: “There is so much you can do in this VR world.”
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