Where to go after Walk to School Week?

October was the first ever International Walk to School month. Schools across the UK joined almost 40 countries worldwide to promote the virtues of walking to school.

The decision to move to a month of activities (rather than a week in 2005), was to create pupils who saw walking to school as “something they do regularly” rather than as “something special they do during Walk to School week”. We wanted to turn it into a habit. It is too early to tell if the extended campaign has increased the number of pupils walking regularly but, increasingly, schools are contacting the campaign looking for ways to continue the momentum generated by the activities in October and May (Walk to School week).

This is perhaps not surprising when you think of the congestion that the school run brings to the gates. Almost half of primary school pupils travel to school by car, and one in five cars at 8.50 am is taking a child to school.

If you want to encourage walking to school, you should start by contacting your Local Authority for help developing a school travel plan. This is a document setting out what the school will do to encourage sustainable travel. It is surprising how many schools don’t realise that there are grants available for capital works to support a travel plan. Most local authorities have employed school travel advisors to meet the government target of every school having a plan by 2010.

One of the advantages a school travel plan can bring, as well as the grant, is the increased sense of community involvement. The most successful plans bring together the ideas of students, their parents and even the local community. They all want to reduce the congestion and often it is the smallest things that make a difference.

One school found that parents were driving to pick up their children in the height of summer, so they could get some shade in their cars while they waited for 3.30 pm. By installing a waiting shelter for the parents, the school reduced the number of cars at the gate. An unexpected side effect was increased participation in the PTA fundraising activities. The parents had started to socialise under the canopy, and were then more likely to go to the bingo or the Christmas fair to meet their new friends.

Another small thing, which makes a big difference, is the WoW scheme. WoW rewards children who “Walk once a Week” for a month with a collectable metal badge. There are 11 to collect over the academic year. The scheme has been hugely successful within London since its launch three years ago. It has been credited by Transport for London with increasing the number of children walking to school by 30%. WoW is a very successful way of turning walking to school into a habit.

The Walk to School campaign can provide all the resources and advice you need to set up WoW. There are postcards to tick off each child’s progress, calendars and banners to advertise the schools involvement to the world, and of course the badges. The badges are designed by the winners of a national competition held every year amongst participating schools. This year’s theme is animals, so the badges feature elephants, tortoises, parrots, leopards and clownfish.

Often the badges can play a part in lesson ideas - a school in Bromley (with help from the local authority) closed a road and decorated it as a rainforest for a day. They used the event as an opportunity to launch the scheme as well as teaching pupils about environmental issues.

One of the secrets to the WoW scheme is its flexibility. Some schools make it harder - pupils need to walk two or three times a week to collect their badge. Others include cycling or public transport as qualifying activities, or run it over a term rather than a month.

There are always going to be pupils who can’t walk all the way to school for whatever reason. This is where schemes such as “Park and Stride” can play a part. The school agrees with a pub or supermarket to allow parents to park in their car park, a little way from the school. The children then have a short walk - drastically reducing the school gate congestion.

This article can only touch on some of the popular ways of encouraging walking to school. Your local authority school travel advisor or the Walk to School website (www.walktoschool. org.uk) will provide you with many more ideas. What about walking buses (children walking together following the bus route accompanied by an adult driver and a conductor), walking challenges (which class can walk the equivalent distance to America first?) or events (a regular car free day)? And of course, don’t forget to take part in the National Walk to School events (21 to 25 May 2007) as well! Keep walking!