Go Safe! Road Safety with Ziggy

Ziggy, which is primarily for 3-6 year olds, was launched on 5 October 2010 at the Glasgow Science Centre. A Gaelic language version was launched on 24 January 2011 at Our Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh. The English lanugauge website has also been translated into Gaelic and Scots and is scheduled go live very soon.

Big Book Sets of the six stories in the series are distributed to the pre-school sector, and early primary school sector for 5/6 year olds. To ensure that the link between nursery/school and home is maintained, small versions of the storybooks will also be distributed to the nursery/school for the children to take home.

Another strand of this early years’ approach is aimed at parents of babies, who receive a buggy book called ‘Out and About’ as part of the Bookbug Baby Bag, gifted to parents through the midwife service in Scotland. This distribution started in March 2011.

This is all part of the Scottih Government’s early intervention priority, to give Scotland’s children the best possible start in life.

The main aim of this resource is to engage and inspire young children and the adults around them with the ambition to develop interest in road safety.

Through a series of six books the children learn about Ziggy, a visitor from the planet Cosmos. When he comes to stay with a Scottish family the children are encouraged to teach Ziggy about basic road safety.

By taking children on a learning journey with Ziggy, real life road safety situations are brought to life in a memorable manner. The stories, clips and activities have been especially created to inspire a child’s interest in road safety learning. Sharing stories helps young children understand the world around them in a wonderful and natural way. Every time a child revisits the story they will gain more knowledge and understanding.

The resource recognises the importance of starting early with the education process, developing positive attitudes and behaviours for life. As each book is centred on a different season or event, pupils can engage with Ziggy throughout the year.