Encourage More Children to Walk to School

Pedestrians

This section has quizzes, puzzles and information to help you achieve all of the aims below:

· Encourage more children to walk to school.

· Promote how to walk to school safely.

· Persuade more adults to walk to school.

· Involve the school, parents, governors, children and drivers in issues relating to walking to school.

· Help your school to create and maintain a School Travel Plan which will help promote walking to school.

Walking to school

Walking to school is not only good for you but also good for the environment! Walking to school helps to keep you fit and healthy. Here are some other good reasons to walk to school:

· Walking to school gives you extra time to talk with friends.

· It wakes you up in the morning and gets you ready to learn at school!

· It gives you the opportunity of taking a good look at your local area on the way to school.

· It’s fun!

· It’s a good way of spending time with your parents or carers and having a chat as you walk.

· More people walking means fewer cars on the street and around the school.

· Fewer cars on the street means safer roads and cleaner air.

· The more practice you get walking in your area and dealing with different situations the safer you become – practice makes perfect!

Using a travel survey

If you want to encourage more children to walk to school you need to find out how many children are walking to school at the moment. The travel survey form will help you collect this information. It will also tell you what might be putting some children off walking to school. This is useful to know if you wish to increase walking activities at your school.

The information collected from your survey could be displayed on the JRSO notice board. Pie charts and bar charts look good when you want to display results. You will find it interesting comparing results after you have run some activities or a campaign to see if people’s attitudes have changed or not.

It may also be a good idea to display some positive quotes from children/ teachers/ parents that say what they most enjoy about walking to school.

You could do a people count, before school starts, in the morning to see how many people are walking and from which direction. If your school does not yet have a walking bus perhaps you could campaign to get one started. The Road Safety Unit and Travel Awareness Team would be able to guide you in successfully starting a walking bus.

There are many ways to collect information, so use your imagination and think of how you can make a difference in your school.

Good Luck!

Travel survey form

1. How do you travel to school most days?

¨Walk ¨Cycle ¨Car ¨Bus

¨Other …………………………………………………..

2. Why do you travel to school this way?

¨It’s easy ¨I live near by ¨I live too far away

¨It’s cheap ¨I travel with others

¨Other …………………………………………………..

3. How would you prefer to travel to school?

¨Walk ¨Cycle ¨Car ¨Bus

¨Other …………………………………………………..

4. What puts you off walking to school?

……………………………………………………………………………………

5. If you walk to school what do you enjoy about it?

……………………………………………………………………………………

Road safety quiz

6. Name four safer crossing places?

……………………………………… ………………………………………

7. Why should you walk straight across the road when crossing?

…………………………………………………………………………………...

8. To make sure that other road users can see you what type of material should you wear or carry in daylight?

…………………………………………………………………………………………...

9. What should you remember when walking dogs near traffic?

…………………………………………………………………………………………...

10. When there is no pavement or footpath, where should you walk?

………………………………………………………………………………….……...

11. When should you use the ‘Green Cross Code’?

…………………………………………………………………………………………...

12. To make sure that other road users can see you what type of material should you wear or carry at night?

…………………………………………………………………………………………...

13. Where and how should you cross when traffic is controlled by a school crossing patrol or police officer?

…………………………………………………………………………………………...

14. If you have to cross the road between parked cars, what should you do?

…………………………………………………………………………………………...

…………………………………………………………………………………......

15. What is the safest way of getting in or out of cars?

…………………………………………………………………………………………...

…………………………………………………………………………………..………

…………………………………………………………………………………………...

…………………………………………………………………………………......

Road safety quiz answers

16. Name four safer crossing places?

Any of the following: Zebra Crossing, Pelican Crossing, Subway, Footbridge, Puffin Crossing, Toucan Crossing, Traffic Lights, Lollypop Person, Police Officer.

17. Why should you walk straight across the road when crossing?

Because this is the shortest distance to cross and you will spend less time on the road.

18. To make sure that other road users can see you what type of material should you wear in daylight and at dusk?

Fluorescent.

19. What should you remember when walking dogs near traffic?

Dogs should be properly trained, keep them on a short lead; keep yourself between the dog and the traffic.

20. When there is no pavement or footpath, where should you walk?

You should walk on the right hand side of the road facing the traffic, one person behind the other.

21. When should you use the ‘Green Cross Code’?

Every time you have to cross the road.

22. To make sure that other road users can see you what type of material should you wear or carry at night?

Reflective.

23. Where and how should you cross when traffic is controlled by a school crossing patrol or police officer?

Wait until they signal to you cross, and then walk in front of them looking and listening as you cross.

24. If you have to cross the road between parked cars, what should you do?

Choose the largest available gap between two cars; make sure that there are no parked cars opposite blocking your exit onto the pavement. Make sure that neither car is about to move off (by checking to see if there is a driver in any of the cars, if car lights are on, if you can hear engine noise or see fumes coming out of the exhaust). Step into the road between the parked cars and move forward to the edge of the left hand car and stop. You should now be able to LOOK and LISTEN and then cross when it is safe to do so.

25. What is the safest way of getting in or out of cars?

Use the door nearest the footpath. Get in/ out of the car when told to do so making sure it is safe.

Pedestrian poets

Test your poetry skills and write an acrostic poem about walking to School. The first word in each line should begin with the letter given.

W……………………………………………………………..

A ……………………………………………………………..

L ……………………………………………………………..

K ……………………………………………………………..

T ……………………………………………………………..

O ……………………………………………………………..

S ……………………………………………………………..

C ……………………………………………………………..

H ……………………………………………………………..

O ……………………………………………………………..

L ……………………………………………………………..

Road safety quiz

26. Name four safer crossing places?

……………………………………… ………………………………………

27. Why should you walk straight across the road when crossing?

…………………………………………………………………………………...

28. To make sure that other road users can see you what type of material should you wear or carry in daylight?

…………………………………………………………………………………………...

29. What should you remember when walking dogs near traffic?

…………………………………………………………………………………………...

30. When there is no pavement or footpath, where should you walk?

………………………………………………………………………………….……...

31. When should you use the ‘Green Cross Code’?

…………………………………………………………………………………………...

32. To make sure that other road users can see you what type of material should you wear or carry at night?

…………………………………………………………………………………………...

33. Where and how should you cross when traffic is controlled by a school crossing patrol or police officer?

…………………………………………………………………………………………...

34. If you have to cross the road between parked cars, what should you do?

…………………………………………………………………………………………...

…………………………………………………………………………………......

35. What is the safest way of getting in or out of cars?

…………………………………………………………………………………………...

…………………………………………………………………………………..………

…………………………………………………………………………………………...

…………………………………………………………………………………......

Road safety quiz answers

36. Name four safer crossing places?

Any of the following: Zebra Crossing, Pelican Crossing, Subway, Footbridge, Puffin Crossing, Toucan Crossing, Traffic Lights, Lollypop Person, Police Officer.

37. Why should you walk straight across the road when crossing?

Because this is the shortest distance to cross and you will spend less time on the road.

38. To make sure that other road users can see you what type of material should you wear in daylight and at dusk?

Fluorescent.

39. What should you remember when walking dogs near traffic?

Dogs should be properly trained, keep them on a short lead; keep yourself between the dog and the traffic.

40. When there is no pavement or footpath, where should you walk?

You should walk on the right hand side of the road facing the traffic, one person behind the other.

41. When should you use the ‘Green Cross Code’?

Every time you have to cross the road.

42. To make sure that other road users can see you what type of material should you wear or carry at night?

Reflective.

43. Where and how should you cross when traffic is controlled by a school crossing patrol or police officer?

Wait until they signal to you cross, and then walk in front of them looking and listening as you cross.

44. If you have to cross the road between parked cars, what should you do?

45. What is the safest way of getting in or out of cars?

Use the door nearest the footpath. Get in/ out of the car when told to do so making sure it is safe.

Who can we write to?

If you want to make a difference and encourage more children to walk to school you may need to start a campaign. This section gives lots of ideas about who to write to make sure your message is heard!

Getting people to know the benefits of walking for themselves, your school and the environment can be difficult. You may need to contact lots of different people to tell them about these benefits and how you intend to achieve them.

For example; if your travel survey results show that lots of people are put off walking because of bad weather, or are put off cycling to school because there is no cycle storage at your school you will need to tell people who might be able to help. You might want to set up a Walking Bus (a group of walkers who travel to school safely by foot each day with the help of adult volunteers) or you may have other ideas to get more people walking!

· It’s always a good idea to write to your Head Teacher and let them know what you are doing and the reason why. They will then be able to offer you advice and tell other people.

· The Governors at your school make decisions about how the school is run and what gets done. Let them know what’s going on and what you would like to do.

· Cornwall Council’s School Travel Plan Team offer advice about how to set up Walking Buses, Cycle Training, Cycle Storage and Shelters for parents to wait for their children in during wet weather at the end of the school day.

School Travel Plan Team

A3.09

Carrick House

Pydar Street

Truro

TR1 1EB

· Cornwall Council Road Safety offer advice about how to travel to school safely. They will be able to help you with questions about safety when walking (Child Pedestrian Training Support), travelling in the car and other road safety issues.

Road Safety

CTO Building

Radnor Road

Scorrier

Redruth

TR16 5AZ

· Sustrans is a national charity which is dedicated to encouraging more people to cycle. They offer advice on getting more people cycling and your local cycle routes.

· Healthy Schools is a scheme your school might already be involved with. The Healthy School Team offer advice about improving your health through regular exercise, good diet and safety issues.

http://www.cornwallhealthyschools.org/contact/

Good publicity

To encourage more children to walk to school they need to know how good walking can be! Below are some ideas of how you can promote the benefits in your school. I’m sure you will have lots more!

· Why not make some persuasive posters to put around school

· You could arrange to do an assembly with some friends about the benefits of walking to school, and road safety?

· How about distributing leaflets to parents to help raise awareness of walking, or encourage them to ‘Park and Stride’?

· Could you run a competition in school to help promote more walking?

· How about writing to your local newspaper and let them know what you’re doing – you might even get your photo in print!

For advice and support contact the JRSO Project Co-ordinator:

Walking to school diary

Sometimes it is not possible to walk to school and home again every day, but you may be able to walk to school at least one day a week.

This will not only help to keep you fit, it also stops some of the pollution that travelling to school by car produces.

You could choose to walk to school every Wednesday and adopt the WOW initiative (Walk on Wednesday). This will improve your health and the environment

Whichever day or days you choose to walk to or from school don’t forget to fill in your WOW diary.