Children at 11 schools across the Isle of Wight are being encouraged to walk, wheel, cycle and scoot to school as part of a campaign to promote active and sustainable travel.
The schools are taking part in WOW – the walk to school challenge, a national initiative run by charity Living Streets and supported by Active Travel England.
The programme encourages pupils and their families to make an active journey to school at least once a week. Pupils record how they travel using the WOW Travel Tracker, with classes able to compete on leaderboards, based on their active journeys.
Pupils who take part regularly receive a monthly badge, while families are also encouraged to use ‘park and stride’ locations at least five minutes’ walk from the school to reduce congestion around school gates.
The latest Isle of Wight campaign was launched with school assemblies and visits from Strider, the WOW mascot, who greeted pupils at school gates. The first launch event took place on 22 September to coincide with International Car Free Day.
According to Living Streets, WOW is now active in more than 2,000 schools across the UK. The charity says the initiative has been shown to reduce car journeys to school gates by 59% while increasing walking and wheeling by 18%.
The programme also forms part of the Isle of Wight Council’s approach to encouraging active and sustainable travel through its Island Transport Plan.
Junior Travel Ambassadors (JTAs) are playing a key role in the campaign, helping to record travel data, distribute monthly badges and encourage their classmates to take part.
At Nine Acres Primary School, JTAs also carried out a School Route Audit, walking the roads around the school and identifying potential hazards for pupils and families travelling on foot. The findings will feed into the school’s Travel Plan and help identify ways of overcoming barriers to walking and wheeling.
Lewis Campbell, Isle of Wight Council’s road safety officer, said the council was “thrilled” to be supporting WOW again.
“Our Junior Travel Ambassadors are helping us to encourage families to consider active travel to school at least once a week,” he said.
“The WOW campaign is a great way for children to start walking to school and to help improve road safety around schools as a whole, encouraging a safer, healthier school run for the whole community.”
Lewis Campbell added that the Isle of Wight’s first year of engagement had been successful, with participating schools achieving what the council described as the largest modal shift towards active modes of travel in the south of England.
Juliette Cross, project coordinator at Living Streets, said walking and wheeling to school could help children develop “everyday, healthy habits”, while also building independence and improving road awareness.
The Isle of Wight Council’s Junior Travel Ambassador programme is available to all schools on the island, providing road safety resources and supporting peer-to-peer education, School Travel Plans and work towards Modeshift STARS accreditation.
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