Over 1,200 school children in East and West Sussex and Kent are on their way to safe, independent train travel, after Go Learn sessions with Angie Lowen, SCRP’s Education Officer.

The flagship schools programme is part of Southern’s Go Learn programme, and consists of talks about travel planning and personal safety, visits to stations, and trips on trains. Southern’s Rail Enforcement Officers make day-long visits to school safety events to discuss rail safety. An education officer from SCRP then follows up by speaking to school children aged 10-11 about independent travel.

Finally, school children visit their local railway station to learn how to find service information, buy tickets and ride a train. This year Angie has run WW2 evacuation train trips to tie in to the school curriculum.

Angie Doll, GTR Passenger Services Director, said, “The railway is a great way to travel for youngsters and we’re modernising it with new services and better journeys for our passengers.

“We want to encourage children to use the train safely and responsibly which is why we’ve worked with Sussex Community Rail Partnership to develop our Go-Learn material.

“Since 2015, we’ve given these vital life lessons to over 17,000 youngsters and now volunteers at GTR are delivering an adapted version of the Go-Learn course to cub scouts from across Sussex and Surrey. In the past 12 months we took it to 1,500 more children than the year before.”

Angie Lowen, Education Officer at SCRP, said, “The workshops and station visits are very well received by teachers and pupils alike. “The children are fully engaged, and the train ride is always a big hit with them. Important life skills are taught, something which is very difficult to measure but which is so beneficial for young people.”

The Go Learn annual report for 2017-18 is now available.