Learning through travel
Increasingly schools are being asked to take on board and run more and more new policies and initiatives
School Travel Plans are not simply another government initiative (although we must admit there is a DfES target for every school to have one within the next few years. As School Travel Advisors (there is at least one of us in every council whose job it is to help you with this so you aren’t on your own - someone to help you at every step!) we pride ourselves on the flexibility and variety that the project offers. Below are just a few examples of how a School Travel Plan could help your school (to quote a cliché!) “Kill many birds with one stone.” Linking to ECM?
Be Healthy - the physical exercise and social aspect of active travel to school ensures kids are given opportunities to be both physically and mentally healthy Stay Safe - travel plans identify issues of road
and personal safety on the school journey and attract the funds and resources to address them Enjoy and Achieve - children who travel to school actively arrive more alert and are given the opportunities to work on projects that are real and meaningful to them. Work can be linked to the National Curriculum Make a positive contribution - pupils can be responsible for making improvements to their local area benefiting the whole school community Economic Wellbeing - the ability to travel independently and safely can open a wealth of opportunities to young people Linking to Healthy Schools?
PSHCE - sustainable travel can provide pupils with:
Healthy Eating - encourage healthy breakfasts as part of the start to an active school day and encourage pupils to consider where their food comes from and how it travels - it might be healthy for us but how healthy is it for the planet?
Physical Activity - walking and cycling to school can build physical activity into everyday lives of pupils Emotional Health and Well Being - children who walk to school arrive more alert and ready to learn and have the opportunity to make friends Delivering the National Curriculum Issues linked to sustainable transport and travel can be linked to most (if not all!) national curriculum areas - if you think you know a subject we can’t help with or link to, feel free to put us to the test! Some of the more obvious area were highlighted before but your local school travel advisor or the TfL team will endeavour to help you and provide resources to link to whatever area you wish (as we said before we are here to help!) Teachers can use the science curriculum to encourage pupils to walk or cycle to school and encourage healthy lifestyles - providing an excellent way to make science real by linking it to activities that children can do in their everyday lives! Further links can be made to pollution and climate change. Mapping and surveys can be carried out through geography and numeracy/maths classes with pupils dealing with local issues that affect them and their communities - teaching them active citizenship lessons as they are able to make a positive impact on their local environment, developing their communication and literacy skills through debate and engagement with council officers and the wider community. Designing promotions for walking and cycling to school can provide a focus for art and design, while cyclist training provides excellent physical education and can be used to teach the benefits of exercise on the heart and other parts of the body - taking us back again to science! The links are only as limited as your imagination and we can help to inspire you and point you in the right direction through the development and implementation of a school travel plan!
More links of all the areas, policies and initiatives highlighted above with examples from other schools as to how they have used their STP to meet the demands of a wide variety of programmes can be found in the TfL guidance booklets which are FREE to London schools.
For further information and copies of the FREE guidance on any of the issues above, resources about school travel plans or how to link sustainable transport into your curriculum please contact the School Travel Plan team at Transport for London Transport Email: sta@tfl.gov.uk or Telephone: 0207 027 2938 and quote IQAutumn/STP