The Truckitts are a family of trucks that appear in a series of children's books written by Bob Russett, Kate Gibbs and Angela Mitchell. Thanks to support from manufacturers, the cartoon trucks all have real-life counterparts, so it was Grafta (an Isuzu NKR-S 3.5 tonne dropside) and, making his first ever Truckitts appearance, his much larger brother Tex (a DAF X95F) that certainly caused a stir when they arrived in the car park of Broadfield Junior School in Hemel Hempstead last week.

The aim of a Truckitts visit is to make the learning fun and, judging by the looks on the children's faces as each class came out to meet Tex and Grafta, they were definitely excited by the prospect.

Bob Russett who was teaching the children said "The key role of the Truckitts is to make children aware of just how important trucks are to everyday life. But it's also important that they learn how to be safe."

The first part of the lesson involved Bob introducing the children to Grafta and Tex and explaining the different jobs that the two trucks are used for. He then asked the kids to think of anything in their houses that wasn't carried by a truck.

Whilst most of things that the children suggested were moved by lorry, a few of the answers such as gas obviously weren't. However, as Bob pointed out, whilst the gas itself wasn't delivered by truck, the pipelines that carry it had been.

Having done this, the class moved on to the interactive part of the lesson with Bob explaining to the children that, despite their size, the Truckitts were more scared of children and what they might do, than they were of them.

At 30mph an articulated lorry needs 23m to come to a halt, so it is vital that children don't cross the road in front of a truck without giving the truck enough time to stop if necessary. Obviously most children don't know how far 23m is so the whole class stood up against Tex's front bumper and Bob then asked them to walk until they thought they were far enough away to be safe. Apart from one or two, none of the kids walked far enough (in many cases they only were about 12m away) and Bob then invited them to join him at the correct point

With a vehicle so big and different from the cars that they are used to, all of the children wanted to sit in Tex's high and spacious cab. Bob and Tex were only too happy to oblige with this as it allowed them to demonstrate just how hard it is for an HGV driver to see anyone who is stood at certain points around a truck.

Once eight of the class were sat in the cab, the remaining children stood, single file, in a line stretching back from Tex's grille. When they were lined up, the 'drivers' were asked which of their friends was the first that they could see. Every time the first six, and sometimes more, children were invisible to those in the cab. Moving the line to the centre rear of Tex, the drivers were unable to see any of their friends until they moved into view of the side mirrors.

By getting the children to take part in these fun, yet simple, exercises, Bob and Tex had demonstrated the potential dangers of being round trucks and had, of course, explained how to avoid these.

With young children being so aware of the environment, before they had to return to their normal school day, the classes learnt a little about the 'greener' aspects of modern lorries such as the fact that twenty of today's trucks produce the same emissions as one truck did twenty years ago.

With four classes to see over the whole day, Tex and his friends had a busy time at Broadfield and there was no let up during the lunch break when several of the teachers came out to see and sit in Tex.

During our time at the school, I spoke to several of the children and all of them had enjoyed their time with the Truckitts. More importantly, they all remembered the important lessons that they'd learnt.

The following morning I had a conversation with Matthew Heasman, Broadfield's Headmaster about how the day had gone. Matthew said, "The children were really buzzing when they came back into school from meeting the Truckitts."

"Not only did they learn important road safety messages but they thoroughly enjoyed themselves in the process.

"We were very fortunate to have Tex and Grafta come to visit; I know that their visit will be the highlight of the year for many of the children!"

TNN had a really good time at Broadfield School and we'd like to thank everyone involved for making it such a great day. If you're interested in having the Truckitts come to your children's school then you can find out more from their website: www.truckitts.com