PUPILS at Barshare Primary in Cumnock have launched a campaign about road safety issues in and around the school.

A group of Junior Road Safety Officers (JRSO) was formed to study the various problems and identified three different areas — the turning circle, school car park and immediately outside the school entrance.

To get the Turning Circle Safety campaign going they started with the school turning point, which is a roundabout-style facility adjacent to the car park to enable vehicles to easily go back along Dalgleish Avenue, which has a dead end.

The JRSO team completed a presentation at assembly to let the rest of the school know about the issues with the turning circle and asked all children to come up with a slogan to raise awareness of how to use it correctly.

Maeve Hill from primary four was the winner of the competition with her slogan ‘Turn ‘til its your turn’.

Former deputy leader of East Ayrshire Council, Tom Cook, praised the pupils at a JRSO seminar at Yipworld in Cumnock earlier in the term, hosted by Ayrshire Roads Alliance.

The team has recruited 31 schools to take part in this year’s JRSO programme which encourages young people to highlight road safety issues within their school and wider community.

He said: “The JRSOs have a key role to play within their schools.

“These workshops gave the young people lots of ideas but also the opportunity to meet and share ideas with JRSOs from other schools.

“Each JRSO was presented with an organiser, pen and badge along with a bag of prizes for competitions which they can run within their school.

“They have also been asked to keep a record of their work which will be used to judge the JRSO School of the Year in June.”