Walk To Maidenhead School Week
Maidenhead Royal Borough schoolchildren will be waving the healthy flag and making their own banner headlines later this month as they once again put their best feet forward to mark Walk to School Week (May 22 – 26).
For the first time road safety officers will be providing several Maidenhead borough schools with large banners which they can display at the school gates, announcing their support for the annual event – as well as stickers, charts, posters, bookmarks and activities and ideas to help staff and pupils get into the "healthy" swing.
And it looks set to be another record-breaking year for walking to school activities as more Royal Borough schoolchildren than ever pledge their support for the ever-popular week and respond to the call to encourage walking.
Mums and dads who usually drive to school are being urged to join in by leaving the car in the garage and walking with their children – or even dropping them off a short distance from the school and walking the last part of the journey to ease parking congestion near the school gates.
Maidenhead Cllr Cynthia Pitteway, lead member for education, said: "Research shows that as many as one in five car trips during the morning rush hour involve the school run, with parents dropping their children at the school gates – leading to severe congestion outside school entrances.
"This naturally results in declining levels of child fitness and in many cases increasing levels of obesity. The fact that most families now own cars, alongside the concerns about road safety and pressures of time for working parents, mean that fewer and fewer children are walking to school these days.
"Walk to School Week is a wonderful opportunity for parents and children to leave the car at home and enjoy each other's company as they walk to school – and might even get them thinking about making permanent changes to their travelling habits. Have a great time everyone – and let's hope the sun shines all week!"
Cllr Antony Wood, lead member for Maidenhead traffic and transport: "I am delighted that our efforts in conjunction with schools, parents and teachers to encourage more children to walk (or cycle) to school are meeting with a great deal of success.
"Quite apart from the important health issues all of us have a job to do in the borough in terms of reducing traffic congestion which is at its worst between 7.30 and 830 every morning because of the school run."
Pupils are once again being encouraged to submit their entries for the popular Walk to School calendar competition which will feature Spike the Hedgehog demonstrating the benefits of walking to school. Spike will visit Boyn Hill Infant School in person on Friday May 19 at 9am to inspire budding young artists.
Other Walk to School Week activities include:
· St Mary's Primary School will hold an eco-week to promote the health and environmental benefits of walking to coincide with Walk to School Week - and on Monday May 22 more than 40 Year 6 pupils will don high-visibility tabards for a two-mile walk to Braywick Nature Centre.
· Alwyn Infant School, Homer First, St Luke's Primary, Ellington Primary and Furze Platt Infant schools have invited the road safety officer to hold pedestrian training workshops prior to or during Walk to School Week to enable pupils to practise their safe walking skills
· Holy Trinity School, Cookham, will run a Walking Bus during the week – a line of children walking in pairs along a set route with scheduled stops, with an adult "driver" at the front and a "conductor" at the back.*·
* Cookham Montessori Nursery School is to launch an innovative Park & Stride scheme – supported by road safety officers – on Tuesday May 23 in which parents will use the nearby church car park and then walk their children along the five-minute journey to the nursery school wearing high-visibility tabards supplied by road safety.
For more information about Walk to School Week contact Philippa Baxter, road safety officer, on 01628 796577.
Notes:
*There are three "full-time" walking buses in the Maidenhead Royal Borough – at Courthouse Junior School, Boyn Hill Infant School and St Edward's First School. For further information on setting up walking buses contact Philippa Baxter on 01628 796577.
Last year over 6,000 schools and more than 1.7million schoolchildren across the country took part in Walk to School Week.
The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead
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