Etz Chaim Jewish Primary School

Walk Once a Week

Walk once a Week" scheme, WOW. We aim for every child in the school to walk to school at least once each week.  In School we use the Travel Tracker which is a web-based tool that uses the class whiteboard to make the WoW experience big, bold and interactive. Each week the class that walks the most wins the WOW trophy in assembly and looks after it for a week! The children are very motivated by this and keen to win the class trophy.

Here are some different ways you can make this work for you and your family:

  • For those of you who live too far away to make this possible, there are alternatives such as Park and Stride where you would park a five to ten minute walk away from school and walk the remainder of the journey, or simply getting off the bus one or two stops early and walking the remainder. If you don’t have time to walk due to work commitments, you can buddy up with another parent en route to share the walking.
  • Walking to school has many benefits, not only is it good for your health and the environment, but it’s also fun and a great opportunity to socialise with your child, so why not try and include a ten minute walk in your journey to school.

Some reasons to walk to school:

Walking saves money - walking to school instead of driving saves, on average, £400 per year.

Walking develops your children’s independence, road safety and social skills - Walking can help develop independence. Children will learn road safety skills which will help them with the journey to secondary school later in life. Children who walk to school have better knowledge of their local area.

Walking is healthy - Children need at least 60 minutes (1 hour) of physical activity every day. The journey to and from school is an ideal time for children and other family members to be active. According to the NHS, 9 out of 10 children could grow up with life threatening diseases such as cancer, Type 2 Diabetes and heart disease partly because they aren’t getting enough exercise. Children who generally travel to and from school by car, bus or other vehicle are more likely to be overweight at age five than those who walk or cycle.

Walking is better for the environment - People in cars regularly suffer three times as much pollution as pedestrians because they are sitting in the line of the exhaust fumes from the car in front. One person switching five journeys of fewer than 2 km a week from the car to walking would reduce their carbon footprint by 86 kg a year.

 

Junior Travel Ambassadors 

Please click here to view our Junior Travel Ambassadors.

 

For further information, please visit www.livingstreets.org.uk/walktoschool