St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School travel sustainably

St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School children will be self-reporting how they get to school for a month.

If they travel sustainably at least once a week for a month they will be rewarded with a badge.

Badges will be rewarded if children walk, wheel, cycle, scoot or Park and Stride.

But at the same time, they will also be learning about the benefits of walking to school.

This is part of WOW, the walk to school challenge, which is delivered by Living Streets which is a UK charity for everyday walking.

The initiative aims to get as many children walking to school as possible.

And if pupils cannot walk the whole way, the school is encouraging parents to park five or ten minutes away and walk from there.

This will also ease congestion around the school.

Michelle Riches, deputy headteacher and mental health and well-being lead said: “Obviously we are aware of the congestion so we are trying to encourage parents to park five to 10 minutes away from school and walk the rest of the way or use our park and stride system, as a result, this will not only improve safety for our children at the front of the school and will also promote a healthy lifestyle for our families.”

Living Streets say that one benefit of walking to school is that it helps children feel happier and healthier.

Another benefit is that fewer cars on the road means less congestion and pollution at the school gates.