A new scheme designed to raise the driving standards of parents and teachers who do the school run is to be piloted by the Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM).

One in five children injured on the road is hurt during the hours of the school run, which typically sees rush hour traffic swelling by almost 20 per cent.

Although more than a million children a day are driven to school in private cars, only a tiny fraction of the parents at the wheel have ever done anything to improve their driving skills. Instead they rely on their general driving experience - complete with bad habits - and good luck to avoid causing a rush- hour crash.

IAM chief examiner Bryan Lunn said: "Our view has always been that with heavy traffic comes heavy responsibility. Some of the school run drivers are a menace. They cause a danger not only to themselves, but to their children and everybody else on

the road."

Now IAM volunteer teams are working with head teachers in the Midlands on a new course, called "Kidsafe", which puts the emphasis on responsible parking, seat belt use, safe following distances and speed control.

The work follows initial development of a pilot at Bournebrook Primary School in Fillongley, near Coventry. Ten teachers and parents agreed to attend short "assessment drives" with members of the IAM Coventry Group, who then gave them a 25-minute demonstration drive.

Those parents and teachers each followed through with five supervised guidance runs, in their own vehicles, and finished with an end-of-course assessment. They each got one of three gradings, and some are expected to now go on and prepare for the IAM advanced driving test.