Puppy surprise in Walk to School Week
Youngsters were joined by a four-legged friend this morning as part of activities in Walk to School Week.
The pupils at St Anthony’s Catholic School in Leamington, met Chloe the Labrador, who is also studying hard to become a guide dog.
As part of Walk to School Week the pupils at St Anthony’s have been raising money for the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association through sponsorship by walking, rather than travelling in the car.
As well as the chance to welcome trainee Guide Dog Chloe, the pupils are also having a special assembly this week to hear about the Guide Dog association.
Joining St Anthony’s in welcoming a Guide Dog puppy this week were Michael Drayton in Hartshill; Croft Junior in Nuneaton; St Oswald’s in Rugby; and Cawston Grange in Rugby, to name a few.
All these schools joined more than 100 in Warwickshire this week ‘Walking Together’ for the first regional Walk to School Week.
This year is the first time Walk to School Week has been coordinated as a Walking Together campaign by School Travel Plan teams and Road Safety from all 14 councils in 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.
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.
Jas Jawanda, School Travel Adviser at Warwickshire County Council, said: “I hope children from Warwickshire have been enjoying Walk to School Week and discovering how much fun walking can be. Of course, meeting a guide dog puppy always helps as well.”