Cycling and walking to school
Walking to school
Over the last 20 years the number of children walking to school has fallen dramatically, while the number of car journeys to school has increased.
This has led to increased traffic congestion and pollution around schools. As more children are being driven, they are less likely to learn valuable road safety skills, and are more likely to have less active and healthy lifestyles.
Schools are encouraged to develop a School Travel Plan. This is a document which outlines a package of measures aiming to improve children’s health and safety when travelling to and from school and promotes sustainable forms of transport such as walking and cycling.
Walking Bus
A Walking Bus is any scheme in which adults accompany a group of children on their journey to/from school. Safety is the main concern in any scheme, parents/carers must be confident that their child will be safe during the journey to school.
Informal walking buses – groups of parents/carers and children getting together and walking to school, morning and evening.
Formal walking buses – trained volunteer parents/carers walking along a risk assessed route, with children in high visibility waistcoats.
Park and Stride
A Park and Stride scheme is where the parents/carers who normally drive their child/ren to school are asked to park in locations away from the school and walk the last 5 minutes or so to get to the school.
Walk on Wednesdays
A Walk on Wednesdays scheme promotes all pupils, parents/carers and staff to walk all or part of the way to school on one day a week.
Benefits
Walking all or part of the way to school allows children to:
- learn the necessary road safety and awareness skills to help them develop into safer road users
- gain various health benefits associated with physical exercise, such as walking
- interact with friends, parents/carers on the school journey and also become more aware of their own local environment and the changing seasons.
Barnet Safe Cycling Schemes
We offer cycle training courses designed to help children develop a good attitude towards using the roads and reduce accidents.
