A CAMPAIGN to reduce casualties among school children in Hartlepool is being taken into the classroom.

A timetable of special lessons has been put together for pupils as part of the Dyke House Comprehensive School casualty reduction initiative.

Each week, the youngsters will explore a range of road safety scenarios, work on designing a road safety floor game for use in other schools, and receive first aid training.

Hartlepool Borough Council and the school have joined forces with health officials, the police, Cleveland Justice Support and the Red Cross to organise lessons.

Paul Watson, the council's road safety officer, said: "We have put together a comprehensive project timetable, which, hopefully, should really make the youngsters think.

"These special lessons will involve pupils investigating crashes through role play, and trying to understand why an accident might have occurred.

"We will also be encouraging pupils to investigate their own safety concerns about their journeys to and from school, and consider what engineering and traffic calming measures could help to improve safety."

The initiative was launched early last year in the light of statistics which showed that the area was the worst in the town for accidents involving children under the age of 16.

In the past two years there have been 47 accidents in the school's catchment zone.

Last December, a logo for the campaign was designed by pupils at the school.

The main part of the logo design came from Laurie Reed, who won a mountain bike supplied by Jim Facchini, and there were also contributions from Simon McEvoy and Laura Allen