Walking
The School Travel Planning Working Group comprising of pupils, parents, teachers, and police representatives at Ludworth Primary School decided to implement a campaign that focussed on two main issues. These were:
- To encourage more pupils, parents and carers to walk on the school journey.
- To alleviate parking congestion at the school gate.
To address these concerns, the Working Group came up with the idea of creating a banner to display on the school perimeter fencing to encourage parents and carers to park away from the school.
Pupils from each Key Stage created two collages bearing the slogans ‘Leave the car – it’s not far’ and ‘Keep Us Safe, Park with Care. Two giant banners, each measuring 8ft by 4ft, were then produced using the pupils’ vibrant artwork.
The banners formed part of a wider walking campaign that was devised by the school staff in conjunction with the School Travel Plan Advisor. Three strategies were employed which were tailored to the particular travel needs of the school population. For those parents who are required to drive their child or children on the school journey there was encouragement to park in the local community centre car park and walk the remaining distance. A second strategy involved encouraging parents to ‘Drop and Go’; parents were encouraged to drop their child or children off away from the school frontage and allow pupils to walk the remaining distance. Thirdly, the remaining pupils who lived within walking distance were encouraged to simply put their best foot forward and walk.
A special launch event took place during National Walk to School Week with Sam (Durham County Council’s ‘Safer, Greener, Fitter’ mascot) and County Councillor Ray Pye unfurling the banners to the delight of the waiting audience. Sam then hosted an assembly to remind the pupils of the important benefits of walking.
All of the pupils completed individual travel diaries and Key Stage 2 pupils created leaflets and posters as part of their ‘persuasive writing’ SAT using resources provided by the School Travel Planning team.
As a result of everyone’s efforts the pupils have seen a dramatic reduction in the number of parental vehicles parked outside of the school. A survey revealed that the number of vehicles had reduced from 20 to 2 with every pupil in the school walking for all or part of the school journey.
For more information on measures that have been implemented in school then visit case studies.
