Best foot forward wins schools national acclaim

Seventy one schools in Buckinghamshire havewon national acclaimfor their work in getting pupils back on their feet.

They have achieved accreditation under the Modeshift STARS scheme, sponsored by the Department for Transport,for encouraging children and young people to walk, pedal and scoot to school.

On Friday (November 18) Buckinghamshire County Council Transport Cabinet Member Mark Shaw will present plaques and certificates to the schools’ representatives at the council’s one-day School Travel Conference in County Hall, Aylesbury.

For four schools – Haddenham Junior, Farnham Common Infant, Longwick CofE Combined, and Wendover Junior – there were prestigious regional awards, which meant a trip to join other winners at an activity workshop in London.

School of the South East award went to Wendover Junior which promoted safer walking to school by organising a campaign, getting funding and managing a project to install a car park barrier to improve safety around the school.

Eight schools achieved accreditation for the first time, bringing to71 the number of Buckinghamshire schools involved in the three-levelschemeto promote active, safe and sustainable travel by families making the school journey.

Fourteen schools won promotion to the next level, by increasing their levels of activity, while 49 maintained their level for another year.

Mark Shaw praised the schools’ effort and commitment: ‘These awards really do count for a great deal in helping children to understand the value of walking or cycling to and from school.’

He also paid tribute to County Council’s Transport Strategy Officer Nicky Batkin, who was honoured last week with the first ever Modeshift award for her single-handed work as a local authority champion in co-ordinating and developing the STARS scheme.

Mark said: ‘We are very fortunate to have such an excellent person driving school travel planning for us. This award is well deserved.’

Regional Award details

Award for effective partnerships- Haddenham Junior School

The school identified and engaged with the community to raise awareness of their work and encourage active, safe and sustainable travel for the school journey. By doing this they secured funding for a much-needed zebra crossing for their community, which will encourage more children to walk, scoot and cycle to school.

Award for reducing car use – Farnham Common Infant School

The school’s large on-site car park makes it easy for families to drop children at school and poster campaigns have promoted safety. Since 2012 the school has been encouraging families to leave their cars at home for the school journey, andhas succeeded in reducing car use for the whole school journey from almost 68% in 2012 to over 36% in 2016.

Award for promoting road safety – Longwick CofE Combined School

A campaign to improve road safety near the school gate and reduce parking in the neighbourhood involved a successful Perfect Parking Campaign to encourage drivers to park further away. Drivers who use alternative parking locations, and walk their childrenthe final 10 minutes to school, increased from47% in February 2016 to 54% in May 2016.

Award for promoting walking – Wendover Junior School

The school organised a campaign, got funding and managed a project to install a car park barrier to improve safety around the school. This helped increase the number of children walking all or part of the way to school from 56.2% in 2012/13 to 81.4% in 2015/16.