Pupils at Old Town Infant School and Nursery in Poole are celebrating reaching the top 10 leaderboard of schools walking or wheeling to school.
WOW – the walk to school challenge from charity Living Streets sees pupils record how they get to school, with those who walk, wheel, cycle, scoot or ‘Park and Stride’ to school being awarded a monthly badge.
WOW schools typically see an increase of 43 per cent in active journeys (where pupils, walk, wheel, cycle, scoot or ‘Park and Stride’) and a 59 per cent fewer car journeys to the school gates.
The autumn WOW Top Ten asked them to walk to school as many times as possible during International Walk to School Month in October. Pupils who live too far away or are not able to walk the whole way to school were encouraged to Park and Stride by asking their parents or carers to park at least ten minutes away from the school and walk or wheel the rest of the way.
In England, 41 per cent of 5–10-year-olds are normally driven to school1. However, just 8 per cent of journeys recorded on the interactive WOW Travel Tracker by pupils at Old Town Infant School and Nursery during October were car trips all the way to the school gates.
Douglas Gubbins, Headteacher at Old Town Infant School and Nursery, said: “Our children have become much more aware of the importance of looking after the climate as well as the impact that walking can have on their individual health.
It has also been lovely to see the children walking around the school and taking great pride in wearing their badges at the end of each month.”
Old Town Infant School and Nursery beat off competition from over 850 eligible schools taking part in WOW across England to secure their place on the national leaderboard of most active schools.