THE children of Steam Mills School, Cinderford, will be getting to their lessons a lot more safely from now on – aboard a bus with legs!

Their "walking bus" is an idea that has been catching on up and down the country as a means of making the school trip safer and avoiding queues of cars at the school gate dropping or picking up pupils.

And they are being kitted out with reflective waistcoats for the trip by 3M Nexcare and 3M Scotchlight, who are behind the Dark Nights Campaign to target schools most in need of road safety equipment and training.

The 'bus' travels with adults at the front and back while the pupils link hands to walk between their escorts to school of back home, picking up or dropping off pupils at their gates along the way.

Steam Mills Primary School was selected by Gloucestershire's road safety officer Orlagh Stoner as being in particular need of help.

"The two-mile journey each way for some to school through forest and roads is the longest in Gloucestershire, perhaps the country," she said.

Besides the waistcoats there are reflective stickers for school bags, and interactive road safety CDs.

"We expect the reflectors will play a key role in reducing the number of children injured on the roads this winter," said 3M Scotchlight executive Alex Davies.

"With more than 43,000 children injured on UK roads in 1998, any steps we can take to improve the safety of our children are very important."