Road safety graffiti mural revealed at Kettering Fire Station

A graffiti mural with a road safety theme has been unveiled at Kettering Fire Station.

The mural was designed and created by students from Southfield School in Kettering as part of their RoadArt project, which aims to boost people’s awareness of road safety messages.

RoadArt was the winning idea in the grand final of Northamptonshire County Schools Challenge last year, when the competition theme was road safety.

Pupils from participating schools across the county were given the task of coming up with social enterprise ideas to help raise the profile and educate others about road safety.

After holding their own in-school competitions, 18 school teams went forward to present their ideas to a ‘dragons’ den’ style panel of judges at the semi-finals at Wootton Hall. From there, eight teams were then asked to present their ideas to a different panel as part of the Grand Final.

Southfield School won the event with the team’s idea to create road safety themed graffiti displays which potentially could be used in  areas often seen by the public.

Chief Fire Officer Darren Dovey was among the panel of judges at the grand final and was delighted to offer Kettering Fire Station as a location on which to display their graffiti project.

The work was painted onto boards which were mounted on the fire station and unveiled by CFO Dovey at a launch event yesterday.

CFO Dovey said: “I’m really impressed with the colourful and educational design the team members have come up with. I think the mural will be a great addition to Kettering Fire Station.

“As firefighters, we attend many road traffic collisions and see the terrible aftermath of really serious incidents. It is wonderful to know that this team at Southfield put so much energy and innovation into engaging with such an important subject and coming up with a way of drawing people’s attention to road safety.”

The team were supported in their idea by a workshop led by the company Graffiti Stars.

Mandy Buckley, deputy headteacher, said: “We feel working with the community is really important at school. It is one of our key characteristics. We feel the skills they developed during this challenge are fantastic.

“Southfield School has strong commitment to community engagement coupled with a sustained record of academic success. The school prides itself on providing a comprehensive curriculum and broad enrichment structure and it aims for all of its students to have a positive impact on local and global communities and believe in the possibilities the world provides.”