Walk to School Week starts
More than 100 schools in Warwickshire will this week be joining schools across the West Midlands in ‘Walking Together’ for the first regional Walk to School Week.
Walk to School Week is underway and as part of it the Walking Together campaign has been organised by School Travel Plan teams and Road Safety from all 14 councils across the West Midlands.
It aims to make walking to school a sociable event for children and their families and around 1,700 schools with 432,000 pupils will be involved.
As part of the campaign, schools can also opt to sponsor a guide dog puppy in training, and more than 90 lucky schools will be host to a guide dog or puppy visit during the week. There will also be a ‘name a guide dog puppy’ competition with a trip to a guide dog’s puppy centre in Leamington Spa for the whole family.
In total 134 Warwickshire primary schools are taking part and have ordered various resources from the Warwickshire School Travel team.
Each of these schools has received activity booklets and stickers for children, so children learn how guide dogs and their owners operate and what difficulties they overcome when ‘walking together’.
Activities within the booklet allow pupils to learn and experience what the guide dogs and their owners feel and how children too can be safe and confident.
The regional effort is being supported by Paralympic blind footballer and guide dog owner Lee Greatbatch.
He lost his sight when he was 10 years old and says: “Walking to school is a safe way of getting fit. My guide dog is trained to stop at kerbs, so I’m confident children can be taught to stop, look and listen.”
Jas Jawanda, School Travel Adviser at Warwickshire County Council, said: “I hope children from Warwickshire and across the region will follow Lee’s example and follow in his footsteps, getting exercise, becoming fit and improving their lives.”
Seven Warwickshire schools will have the privilege of having a guide dog with a speaker to their school during the walk to school week, which is now underway.