In September 2017 our school was chosen to be part of the Sustrans Active School Travel Programme. We have teamed up with the country’s leading sustainable transport charity, Sustrans, to encourage more journeys to school by foot or wheels. Active travel, such as cycling, walking and scooting to and from school, has a range of benefits including:

• improving health through physical activity
• promoting independence
• improving safety awareness
• benefiting the environment
• reducing the number of cars around the school gates, making our school safer for everyone

We worked closely with Johnny McCrystal, our Sustrans Active Travel Officer, during 2017-18 to launch the programme and we had a hugely successful year. Activities held included:

“Ditch the dark Day”, “Ditch the Stabilisers”, cycle skills training for staff, National Standards Cycle Training for P6 and 7, “Feet First Families” and “The Big Pedal”. As a result of all the wonderful effort on “The Big Pedal” we place third in the UK and received a wonderful plaque.

We will continue our involvement in this programme throughout 2018-19 and look forward to many more exciting events. We understand cycling or walking to school is not easy for every family, and there will be opportunities for all children to participate in some activities/the programme.

Safety is very important to our school. Parents can help by accompanying their children to and from school and ensuring children are wearing helmets and bright clothes to help them be seen by other road users. The decision as to whether a child is competent to cycle, scoot or walk to and from school rests with the parents/carers.

If you are interested in helping out or have any questions about the project, please get in touch with our Active School Travel Champion; Mrs Horan. You can also support this initiative by watching out for cyclists and pedestrians on your journey to school.

We look forward to seeing more children and parents/carers cycling, walking and scooting to school this year!