WOW- schools doing their bit to ease congestion
Eight schools across Warwickshire have been selected to take part in a new initiative to help cut congestion outside the gates.
Warwickshire County Council’s WOW scheme – Walk on Wednesday or Walk Once a Week, encourages parents and pupils to walk to school at least once a week.
The WOW scheme follows on from the success of Walk to School Week by encouraging more children to walk to school on a regular basis. Each school taking part agrees to help promote walking to and from school on a regular basis.
Each school is provided with record cards for every pupil to record when they have walked and badges that are awarded to the children at the end of every month if they have walk at least once a week.
Hannah Collett, Sustainable Travel Officer with Warwickshire County Council, said: “The great thing about WOW is that it is so flexible. Schools can choose how they want to run the scheme that works best for the school. At the end of every month, the pupils who have walked to school at least once a week receive a colourful badge for their efforts.”
Barford St Peter’s Primary School, Sydenham Primary School, Loxley Primary, Bishopton Primary, Stratford upon Avon County Primary, Austrey Primary, High Meadow Infant School and Galley Common Infant School have all been giving it a go and seen some impressive results.
At Bishopton Primary in Stratford 60% of pupils are currently taking part, and at Loxley Primary 86% of children are all doing their bit to get walking. The children are really loving the scheme at Stratford upon Avon County Primary School, especially the badges, typically having 89% of the children taking part.
High Meadow Infant School, Coleshill have seen some positive results, 85% of children are taking part to get their badges. Almost 80% of the children are joining in at Austrey Primary School with the school providing extra incentives to the class that have highest percentage of walkers. Class 2 have been the star pupils for the last four months achieving 100% walking, successfully winning themselves £5 each time to put towards games for the class. Galley Common Infant School has also seen a good response. The children have really taken to the badges are always keen to see the design on the new badges.
At Sydenham Primary School in Leamington, the scheme has been a huge hit with the children, with at least 80% taking part to get their badge at the end of each month. Barford St Peter’s Primary School are thrilled with how the scheme has taken off. Even the local pub and the village shop are getting involved by letting those parents and children who live too far to walk the whole distance to park up, so they can walk the rest of the journey to school helping to ease congestion. The children are also becoming quite competitive about the scheme, all trying to get as many badges as they can.
Ends
For more information
CONTACT: Hannah Collett
Sustainable Travel Officer
Tel: 01926 412252
Email: hannahcollett@warwickshire.gov.uk
Notes to editors:
TravelWise is a national campaign to reduce the amount of traffic congestion in local areas. Warwickshire County Council has been participating in the National TravelWise campaign since 1999. For more information visit http://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/roadsafety,
http://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/travelwise, http://www.travelwise.org.uk or call the WCC’s TravelWise officer on 01926 41 2252. For information about cycle training courses in Warwickshire please call 01926 41 2776.