The importance of active travel in the school community
Some of the key objectives of the Active Journeys programme include giving school communities the tools and skills to promote and support active travel within their school and wider community.
Through basic maintenance skills sessions, activities that encourage awareness of local environments, and classroom resources that engage pupils, the Active Journeys programme gives students across Wales a direct way of learning, developing, and engaging in healthier travel practices.
Many of these activities are also available for teachers and school champions from the wider school community, such as parents, carers and school governors.
Active Journeys officers look to connect school champions during networking and training events.
This creates the opportunity for a network of school clusters, i.e. primary schools that feed into local secondary schools, with the same focus on supporting pupils to travel actively.
This is especially important as pupils gain more independence, travelling to secondary school.
By engaging with this wider group, the Active Journeys programme creates a sustainable environment for schools to continue to encourage walking, wheeling, scooting and cycling into the future.
The Active Journeys programme is about teaching children, young people and their adults about sustainable ways to move around their community.
Another incentive to keep in mind is the aspiration of becoming an Active Travel School.
Active Journeys schools are automatically added to the Active Travel School Award competition.
This is a fun way to encourage schools to keep their communities moving.
Schools can complete a series of tasks to prove their Active Travel School credentials and be awarded with Bronze, Silver or Gold level awards.
Our Active Journeys officers support schools to achieve these goals.
Active Journeys officers also support school champions to write Active Travel School Plans.
These are plans to understand the schools’ infrastructure needs, as well as any behaviour change needs.
From these, local authorities and schools can work together to make the routes to schools safer for everyone.
These are an essential part of applying for Safe Routes in Communities (SRiC) funding. They are also useful data for informing Active Travel Fund bids.
The Active Journeys team at Sustrans Cymru has good relationships with local authority officers across Wales, often resulting in positive changes and innovations for schools.
For example, Active Journeys officers are supporting school street trials outside Active Journeys schools in Newport, Denbighshire and the Vale of Glamorgan, creating safe, fun spaces for children to walk, wheel, scoot and cycle to school.
For any schools that are interested in joining the Active Journeys programme, more information can be found on the project webpage.
Alternatively, our schools can be contacted for further information via e-mail, and our team will be happy to discuss how we can best support you.
