In just six months the rail industry’s education website www.trackoff.org has attracted a staggering two million ‘hits’ from schools and local communities.
The site, facilitated on behalf of industry partners by the Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB), takes the number one slot out of two million references to railway crime on the Google search engine and is also number one on the MSN, Yahoo and Ask Jeeves search engines.
In addition, more than 100,000 downloads of materials have been made in the six months from August to the end of January – traditionally a period of lower activity, as more offences of railway crime involving young people tend to occur during the spring and summer months. In one month alone (November) the site received 391,446 hits and 20,083 downloads were made.
The Trackoff website has won National Grid for Learning (NGfL) accreditation operated through the Department for Education and Skills. The NGfL remit is to provide the gateway to quality assured internet-based educational resources with a network of selected links to websites offering high quality content and information. Sites with NGfL accreditation are constantly monitored to ensure content quality is maintained and messages are appropriate.
The content of the site aligns to national curriculum requirements with appropriate lesson plans available to meet classroom needs. Regular feedback from a wide range of schools and teachers ensures that content is kept in line with education policy and developments.
Such close liaison has led to the creation of materials specifically for use with IT-based interactive whiteboards in the classroom. The use of whiteboard technology has been made a national educational priority by the government, and the development of appropriate materials that can be downloaded from the Trackoff website closely aligns to this policy.
This self-help approach means that teachers can reinforce railway safety messages themselves but using industry-developed materials. With more than 20,000 schools in Britain located within a two-mile corridor of the railway the Trackoff website therefore provides a valuable teaching resource to any school that wants it, when they want it.
The Trackoff website also attracts international interest with recent requests received for materials from schools in the USA, Russia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Egypt, Australia and New Zealand.
Notes to Editors:
1. Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB) was established in April 2003 as an independent, not for profit organisation tasked with improving safety performance across the national rail network. The company is owned by the railway industry, is limited by guarantee and has a board and an advisory committee. It is independent of any single railway company and their commercial interests.
2. From August 1st 2005 to January 31st 2006 there were 2,051,657 hits on the Trackoff web site and 108,995 downloads of materials.
3. The Trackoff website complements a wide range of initiatives undertaken by industry partners to promote railway safety among young people and the communities where they live. These include the deployment of school and community presenters and the delivery of diversionary programmes designed to keep youngsters away from railways.
4. For further information about the Trackoff website and the industry’s education programme contact the RSSB press office on 020 7904 7525 or Sue Nelson on 01904 448439 or 07 876 246 125.
