A TEENAGER joined forces with road safety officers to teach children about staying safe on the streets.

Max Anderson-Hopkins, 17, from Blackburn, beat his drums to re-worded nursery rhymes such as Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star while the youngsters at St James Primary School, Lower Darwen, sang along.

Blackburn College student Max has been helping the group of year one pupils learn how to cross the road safely with adults since January.

He initially joined Blackburn with Darwen’s Casualty Reduction Team at Capita Symonds for a three month work placement but decided to stay on when it finished to help further.

The 12-week pedestrian training course ended this week with a grand finale assembly where the teenager pulled out his drum kit to sing along to the road safety songs before the children were presented with their certificates.

Drummer Max, who is considering auditioning for the next series of Britain’s Got Talent, said: “It has been really good helping out with this. I want to become a teacher and thought the experience would help.

“We teach them to cross roads look at parked cars and look at which way a car can go if you are about to cross the road.

Max came to the school every Friday with Amanda Blackburn,19, from Blackburn, who is carrying out some work experience before starting her social work degree.