Education

Pupils encouraged to walk or cycle to school

By Laura Herbert
June 25, 2012

To celebrate the Olympics, children in Wokingham are being encouraged to walk or cycle to school.

Twelve schools across the borough are taking part in the Active First scheme, which aims to make people change their travel behaviour, especially for short journeys.

The initiative, organised by Wokingham Borough Council, is aimed at children in Years Four and Five and will run for five weeks.

Those taking part will be given a map and will receive a stamp on a collector’s card for each day they walk or cycle to school.

To tie in with the Olympic theme, each card has a picture and information about an Olympic athlete.

Children who collect all 25 cards will be put into a special prize draw, with prizes including a football party at Goals Soccer Centre, a family climbing session at Reading Climbing Centre, a free tennis coaching session, or a family deal at Wokingham Superbowl. There will be one winner for each school.

The council secured £2.75 million funding from the Local Sustainable Transport Fund programme to develop sustainable transport, and Active First is one of the first schemes to be funded from it.

Councillor Keith Baker, executive member for planning and highways, said: “It’s an excellent opportunity for children to get active and to learn about the Olympics.

“Some of the council’s key aims include encouraging sustainable travel and reducing congestion. I hope many children will take up the challenge.”

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Most recent user comments 4 of 4

Cllr Baker - However it is limited to pupils in years 4 and 5, why not open it up to all pupils at the school?

Currently my son walks to school and back with me or my wife every day come rain or shine and he is only in the reception class, not even year 1. The scary thing is that we get overtaken by people in cars who live even closer to the school and have children in the same year. The earlier you can get children into the habit of walking to school, the more likely they will want to keep doing it.

BTW, he would love to collect all the different cards and be able to study and compare them.

Fed up, Lower Earley
27/06/2012 at 14:16

Fed up. All primary schools were invited to participate and not every school wanted to.

Cllr Keith Baker
27/06/2012 at 10:11

Why not spend the cash on dedicated cycle lanes and paths rather than PR window dressing?

Bag Lady
25/06/2012 at 14:48

Why not for all primary school pupils? The extra expense will only be the cost of the cards and will encourage all pupils to take part and not those in 2 years as it will help to alleviate some of the chaos caused by cars which often reported on this site.