As parents, be their biggest supporter this Keeping Your Child Safe in Sport week! The club alongside the NSPCC are continuing to highlight and support the role parents and carers play in keeping their children safe while taking part in sports and activities.

The campaign runs year-round with a focus awareness week taking place in the first week of October. They bring together parents, sports clubs, activity providers and NSPCC supporters to help parents and carers to keep children safe in sport.

This year, The Keeping Your Child Safe in Sport campaign will focus on the following 3 areas:

Getting involved
Parents and carers play an important role in influencing their child's enjoyment and experience of sport through their feedback, actions and support. Not all children need the same involvement from their parents or carers. What involvement would they like you to have and how can you get involved in their sporting journey?

Being supportive
Sport can be an emotional experience for children, their adults, and coaches. Feedback from parents and carers greatly influences how a child perceives their ability, enjoys their sport, and feels motivated to continue participating.

Keeping children safe
It's important that parents and carers feel confident to raise any worries or concerns they may have at their child's sports club or activity. Asking questions about safeguarding policies and procedures should also be commonplace. We have these areas covered within our Handbook and website policies and information along with a dedicated Welfare officer to help you all when you need.

To further help the NSPCC & CPSU have resources online https://thecpsu.org.uk/parents/

Following on from overall safety we want to also focus on “Keeping Children Safe in the Dark”

As the clocks go back and the nights draw in, it is an overnight adjustment for all of us keeping children safe in the dark. The darker evenings can have a big impact. However, our routines of taking & picking up children from football training and other activities continue. Coming to training in winter can very different experiences in the dark. But equally issues can happen at anytime, so also a gentle reminder to everyone to stay safe at all time.

The following paragraphs are a gentle reminder that we want our members to stay safe when they train and play with us and whilst this focuses on the darker winter nights that will soon be upon us, the same practices will also cover all other times. You as adults may know all this but ensure your children are reminded please.

We have had a couple of incidents of late where our players have been injured on the way to training, thankfully not serious, so please ensure you and your children understand how to stay safe whilst coming to our training, matches and events.

We encourage all parents to accompany their children to all our training sessions and matches and we will always ensure that no child is left alone at any sessions. With this its imperative that you use our Club App and messaging to ensure you know when training is when its finishing and if its cancelled as we don’t want a child to be turning up when something is no longer on. If you use the app you have all the information and links you need for every football session at Burnbridge.

Keeping Children Safe in the Dark
Visibility is key here. Children need to be seen, not just by other motorists and cyclists, but by other pedestrians. It is vital to teach your children good road safety basics from an early age. Explain to children why they should not run across the road, show them how to identify safe places to cross and reinforce the importance of road safety. It is unsafe for young children to run ahead from their accompanying adult, or to whizz past on their scooters. Drivers may not spot a child on their own.
Encourage your teenagers to retain a sense of awareness. They should be discouraged from having headphones in their ears and should not be concentrating on their phones. Being pre-occupied and distracted will make them more vulnerable, both to being robbed or hit by a car.

Visibility on dark nights
Think about what your child is wearing. Our training kits or other things your child wears are or could be dark. They are safer if they are visible, and you can easily add high-visibility reflective strips on their clothing, bags or bike helmets. Additionally, they could carry a torch.

Scooter safety on dark nights
Micro scooters are hugely popular, both as a means of play and method of commuting for both children and adults. There are no official UK statistics for accidents involving non-motorised scooters. However, in New Zealand, the figures supplied by the Accident Compensation Corporation show the number of child scooter-related injury claims rose from 697 in 2008 to 6,474 in 2012. Of these, 80% were caused by loss of balance or control and 10% by collisions. Once you factor in the increasing darkness and children being harder to spot, the potential for a scooter accidents rises.

Scooter solution
Insist children on scooters stay close to their accompanying adult and learn to stop at junctions and driveways. Make sure the children and their scooters are clearly visible to other road users and pedestrians. You can buy luminous accessories for the scooter.

Keeping Children Safe in the Dark – What about Teens?
As children grow up and become more independent they become more at risk when they start walking themselves to football and are far more likely to become a casualty of a road accident. In fact, in 2017, 5,838 children aged under 15 were injured in road accidents. Furthermore, the peak times for the number of child pedestrians who died or were seriously injured are the ‘school-run’ periods between 8-9am and 3-4pm.

Be aware
As any parent knows it can be very difficult to get a teenager to part from their mobile phone. Whether they are talking to friends or listening to music on their mobile, they can be distracted. As a result, they are less aware of dangers in their surroundings such as other people or traffic. Furthermore, the dark conditions increase the risk of danger. If your teenager insists on wearing their headphones, encourage them to opt for the ear bud types and ideally only use one side. Often teenagers walk in packs and are chatting and showing off and simply not paying attention. Sadly it is often on these occasions that accidents can occur.

Dark nights and stranger danger
If your child travels on their own, encourage them to take the safest and best-lit routes and to avoid dark shortcuts. Encourage them to walk confidently, even if they don’t feel it, especially in the dark. Help them work out strategies for dealing with difficult situations in the dark so that they know what to do in an emergency. For example, shouting for help if someone approaches them in an aggressive manner. Ensure they know to immediately give up any valuables if someone tries to mug them. Possessions can be replaced, but lives are lost too swiftly.

General road sense
Children and teenagers should be aware of basic road sense such as ensuring they walk on the road facing the oncoming traffic. The Highway Code states that “If there is no pavement, keep to the right-hand side of the road so that you can see oncoming traffic. Electric cars are quiet, so you may not hear them coming.

Cyclists and the dark
It is obviously essential for cyclists to stay visible while cycling at night. Therefore, it is vital bikes are prepared for night use.

Legal lights
If you are on the roads when it’s dark, then your bicycle is legally required to have both lights and reflectors fitted. Your front light must be white and offer 110-degree visibility. This requirement is designed specifically to make the cyclist more visible from different angles.

Rear is red
Your rear light must be red. Both front and back lights are permitted to flash. In addition, each pedal must also have a red rear reflector and BS6102/2 amber reflectors on the front and rear. To give further visibility from the side, you should also consider spoke reflectors.

Check your batteries
Remember that in winter, the light can fade quickly. As a result, a journey that starts in daylight can finish in the dark. Get in the habit of checking your light batteries on a regular basis and replace those that are low.

Keep seen and safe
Once again, high visibility clothing is an effective way to stay visible to other road users. Wearing reflective clothing on the body – in particular on the body parts which move such as gloves or shoes, can help you keep seen and safe. Furthermore, adding a reflective strip on a backpack or jacket increases your visibility too. An extra suggestion is for cyclists to wear a rear light on their backpack or on their helmet. This has the benefit of being at eye level for drivers approaching them on the road behind.

We hope this is a good focus and timely reminder for all, and we hope you continue to enjoy our football in the ongoing season.