Travelling INTO School

Active & Sustainable School Travel

The benefits of walking, cycling and scooting the journey to school are well known. Teachers tell us that pupils who travel actively will arrive brighter and more alert, ready for learning as well as generally happier.  

Who we are and what we do.

Staffordshire County Council’s Active School Travel Team offers supports for the journey to and from school to all Staffordshire Schools. Over 100,000 children attend school in Staffordshire, around 6,000 are eligible for home to school transport.  School Travel Advisors provide resources, support and advice to help the school community, parents and pupils to make active and sustainable travel choices through:

• School Travel Plans
• Bikeability Training
• Walk to School campaigns
• Walking Bus
• Park & Stride

Why get involved?  

Our aim is to inspire parents, pupils and students to take action in increasing active, sustainable travel to and from school across Staffordshire. 

Contact us at  into@staffordshire.gov.uk

Why?

The benefits of walking, cycling and scooting the journey to school are well known. Teachers tell us that pupils who travel actively will arrive brighter and more alert, ready for learning as well as generally happier.  

Sharing important messages like this has changed from providing leaflets to being digital; sharing stories, providing live information and being more interactive. To help us to do this we have launched our social media platforms on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. 

Primary and Middle & Secondary School Year guide

The School Travel team work to bring schools a variety of campaigns, resources, training and support every year to benefit the school community. Bikeability, Scooter Training, School Travel Plans, Walking Buses and Air Aware are just a few areas of our work you may have heard of. Primary and Middle & Secondary School guides have an overview of the last year in review and outline the initiatives and campaigns schools/parents can be part of for the new school year ahead.

Watch these videos to explore how you can make your walk, cycle or scoot to school fun.

Walking cycling or scooting to school doesn’t just help the environment, it helps you to be fit and active and ready to learn:

How?

Tips for making active travel easier and the school gates clear of traffic and safe:

• Pushed for time? Walking, cycling or scooting can take less time than in the car, especially if you re-time your journey outside busy periods. If time still feels tight, commit to actively travelling to school for a couple of days a week and then step it up when you’ve cracked the morning routine.

• Too far to walk or heading to work? Park and stride it. Where can you leave your car and walk the last 10 minutes.

• Bad weather? Keep the all-weather wear to hand and make the journey to school fun.

• Map out and try out a new route now so that you and your children are more aware and confident.

• Make it fun - arrange to meet friends and walk together or turn the journey into a game. Are you on a nature trail or playing ‘I Spy?’

• Buddy up - could you take turns with other families to walk to school? It’s fun for your kids to walk with their friends and easier on you.

• Walk home and not both ways - is the walk to school too tricky? Can you do the walk home?

• Using childcare? Does your childcare provider build walking into their day?

Did you know that going to school in the car could mean you’re exposed to twice as much air pollution than walking, cycling or scooting the same route so why not walk, cycle or scoot? Here are some great tips to start the day the right way:

Game on! Games to make every school journey an adventure:

• iSpy - See if you spot an object that begins with each letter of the alphabet and then swap over!

• Scavenger hunt - Create a shortlist of things your children need to look for on their journey. The one that spots most wins!

• Nature sleuth - Nature is all around no matter where you live. So, how many cats did you see? Which bird is loudest?

• Categories - Think of a category, like flowers, colours, animals, vegetables, and take it in turns to name something in that category.
  
  
• The car game - Everyone picks a colour and every time you see a car of that color you score a point, whoever scores the most points is the winner!

Plan your journey to school

Use the bespoke travel planner that your school will send to you or use the online route planner.

Contact the Active School Travel Team: into@staffordshire.gov.uk

How to contact us?

If you would like to get involved with any of these initiatives for your school, or to simply find out more information about what is on offer to schools then please contact us at  into@staffordshire.gov.uk

We are already working with many schools around the county but would love to offer this support to any school who would like to access it.