‘The Conies’ is a registered charity and our Conies team is made up of a group of extra-ordinary ‘non-cone shaped’ individuals who have created and designed The Conies!
ABOUT US
OUR VISION
Our vision is to create a safer world where children can go to school and play outside safely. We live in an environment where daily dangers to children present us with challenges as to ensure they keep safe.
Visible dangers such as ever increasing traffic are in full evidence. Invisible dangers in the form of dangerous levels of toxic vehicle emissions are becoming important issues too, as it affects a young child’s health and physical safety also. We equally need to arm children with the skills on how to keep safe. To be aware of the world around them and KEEP SAFE in a positive and fun way.
OUR MISSION IS:
To help children and young people keep themselves safe by introducing them to the world of The Conies – heroes of children’s safety, who seek to inspire children with their messages of safety in all areas of their lives!
WHAT THE CONIES OFFER
We believe that, when a child identifies with an animated character, it is this affinity that will ensure easy engagement, action and remembering the safety messages we try to portray.
The Conies offers a positive, easy and fun way to learn so that children can start to develop safety skills in all areas of their life from an early age. Using road signs is a perfect way to keep the safety messages in their mind-set as they traverse streets, parks and busy roads to and from school, and during their play times.
Children naturally identify with objects or images – teddy bear or an animated character. It is this affinity that ensures an easy engagement and connection to safety actions, as well as remembering the portrayed safety messages. The Conies deliver this in a positive, easy and fun way to learn so that children can start to develop safety skills in all areas of their life from an early age.
We hope that by appealing to children in a way that they can enjoy and understand, The Conies will positively impact upon accident figures and keep more children safe. This has happened before with the Green Cross Code Man who influenced and educated a previous generation of children. The Conies can also help shape drivers of the future into being more considerate and attentive on roads so that we can improve the safety of future generations.
ABOUT THE CONIES
Generations of children and parents remember easy catchy slogans such as “Look right, look left and look right again”. The Green Cross Code man cut an iconic figure of a tall man dressed in a white and green superhero costume who imaginatively inspired his magic over child and parent alike. Unfortunately, such campaigns in this crucial area of safety education have been nationally curtailed.
The Conies are our ‘new’ heroes of road and personal safety in all areas. Our family of traffic cones have come to life with a father, mother and three young children – plus a guru cow! Their cone shaped world is inhabited by anthropomorphic road signs, each of which has a unique character and engage in humorous yet pertinent road safety scenarios. Their fun and entertaining interaction communicates positive messages of safety to help children to remember and act upon.
WHY DOES THE WORLD NEED THE CONIES?
We want to create a safer environment for children of all ages, abilities and cultural backgrounds. We believe that children need The Conies now more than ever as supported by DoT statistics:
- Child (aged 0-15) Killed or Seriously Injured (KSI) casualties had increased by 5 % to 2,050 in the year ending March 2016 and child pedestrian KSIs had increased by 3 %.
- Child casualties of all severities increased by 0.3 % compared with the previous year to 16,350.
- 2013 marked the reversal of a 20 year-on-year downward trend in child road casualties. Unfortunately, this upward trend has continued.
- This problem is European wide where road traffic injuries account for 1 in 5 childhood injury deaths.
PARTNERSHIPS
It is a privilege to be working with like-minded people and prestigious organisations such as the Birmingham Safety Community Partnership which comprises the WM Police, Fire Brigade and Birmingham City Council. Together we can make a difference. This strong partnership offers us a dedicated team of like-minded people who also seek to go beyond what is normally expected when creating new ideas that make an impact. With this in mind, we welcome forging new partnerships to take our Conies message to children across the region, nation and much further afield (Conies are everywhere!).
THE JOURNALS AND SUPPORT RESOURCES
THE CONIES RESOURCES
To underpin child engagement, The Conies are supported by a comprehensive portfolio of aids, lesson plans, activities & games and other teaching support material. These help to reinforce children’s understanding of road safety and personal safety concepts.
EARLY YEARS & PRIMARY
We offer an early learning programme about safety for children in Key Stage 1 (Year 1 and 2), including Reception Year (EYFS) children. Our unique learning pack is filled with pupil and teacher resources offering valuable support to the teachers’ PSHE toolkit.
We currently have in development a further series of Journals and resources covering all other areas of safety such as water, rail etc.
For further details go to JOURNAL RESOURCES