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Schools Celebrate Walk to School Week

Thousands of schools this week did their bit to become more sustainable as part of the ‘Walk to School Week’ series of activities.

Walk to School week, which took place from 18 to 22nd May 2009 is a national project where schools actively promote walking to school and hold a variety of activities during the week.

It is run by the charity Living Streets with funding from the Department for Transport and the BIG Lottery fund and aims to encourage more children to walk to and from school as part of their daily routine.

Schools Minister Sarah McCarthy-Fry visited Newbridge Junior School in Portsmouth on Friday 22 May to celebrate the event and encourage school pupils to engage with the project.

“The children here are learning how walking is a sociable way to get to school,” she commented. “It keeps you fit, keeps the traffic off the roads and keeps everybody safer.

“I’ve been really interested in what the young people are saying. Many of them want to walk to school, but they’re worried that their parents aren’t happy about it. That’s what we’re trying to do in Walk to School Week: we’re trying to encourage schools to be sustainable and we’re trying to encourage pupils to walk to school and keep the cars off the roads.”

The Government would like all schools to be sustainable by 2020 and has outlined a series of targets that they would like them to achieve under separate doorway headings.

Doorway 3 of the sustainable schools consultation is Travel and Traffic, and the document outlines that by 2020 the DCSF would like “…all schools to be models of sustainable travel where vehicles are only used where absolutely necessary and facilities for healthier, less polluting or less dangerous modes of transport are exemplary.”

Encouraging pupils to walk to school is one simple way in which schools can comply with these recommendations and become more sustainable whilst achieving the ‘being healthy and ‘staying safe’ objectives of the Every Child Matters agenda.

Over two million children took part in the Walk to School week campaign this year, learning about the principles of sustainability, getting exercise and enjoying themselves in the process. The organisers have thanked everyone that got involved with the event and are looking forward to staging a successful Walk to School week next year.