Secondary School Rail Safety Awards

Are you interested in rail safety?​

Are you keen to raise awareness and promote safe behaviours around the rail corridor with younger students, your peers, or your wider community?​

Are you a secondary school student?

Apply for the new Community Rail Safety Award!​

The awards are for a period of one year.

The prizes consist of fully funded registration for the SADD Conference (valued at $185) and a $300 Prezzy card 

SADD conferences are held over three days during the Term 1-Term 2 school holidays in two-three cities around the country. The conferences are an opportunity for like-minded students to connect and take part in team activities, challenges, games, and learning opportunities, and hear from guest speakers. The conferences’ registration costs include all accommodation, food, and activities.

  • For year 13 students: The awards of $500 are offered each year to a maximum of two recipients.​
  • For years 9-12 students: The awards are offered each year to a maximum of three recipients. The prizes consist of fully funded registration for the SADD Conference in the following year and a $300 Prezzy card.​

Selection criteria

Applicants will be selected based on the degree to which they have demonstrated commitment to rail safety education in New Zealand.

This could include the education of peers, younger students, and/or the wider community.

Examples could include: an awareness campaign, presentation to classmates or younger students, organisation of a relevant fi eld trip, or engagement with an annual event such as International Level Crossing Awareness Day in June, or Rail Safety Week in August.

Judging process

Entries will be judged jointly by the Kaitiaki o Ara/SADD Aotearoa General Manager, the KiwiRail Community Engagement Manager, and the TrackSAFE Foundation Manager.

Entry process

Applications open 15 August and close 30 September. The winners will be notified by 1 November.

Click on this link to fill out our application form.

You will be asked to provide a descriptive summary of your activities (up to 400 words). The summary should include the key factors that have contributed towards demonstrating how your entry meets the judging criteria. 

You will be asked to provide your full name, school name, and school year in your submission. You will also need to provide contact details of an appropriate reference such as a teacher or one of the SADD Project Delivery Team.

Terms and conditions

The entrant accepts and agrees to the following terms and conditions:

  1. The entrant has obtained the permission of all relevant parties to proceed with the entry.
  2. The entrant accepts that the judges’ decision is final, and no correspondence will be entered into.
  3. The judges undertake to observe the confidentiality of entries and to declare or avoid any possible conflict of interest.
  4. The judges reserve the right not to make an award where, in the judges’ opinion, no entry of adequate standard has been received