South Lanarkshire pupils urged to ‘WoW’

Pupils across South Lanarkshire are being encouraged to walk to school by taking part in the Walk once a Week (WoW) campaign.

Alternatively called ‘Walk on Wednesday’, WoW encourages children and adults to walk a safe route to school. The scheme claims to be the largest national walk to school programme, and an independent evaluation found that schools taking part enjoy walking rates 9% higher than the national average.

Organised by the charity Living Streets, the WoW scheme has been running since 2005. Today, it helps more than 300,000 children to get walking to school across the UK.

The aims of the scheme are to help reduce the number of children consistently driven to school and to increase levels of physical activity.

One of the latest schools to sign up to WoW is High Mill Primary School in Carluke.

Councillor Graham Simpson, chair of South Lanarkshire Council’s Road Safety Forum, said: “This scheme really helps encourage children to walk to school.

“As well as the health benefits from walking, it also reduces congestion at the school gates, making it a safer area for everyone.

“We would hope that children would walk to school more than once a week but as a starting point WoW gives them the knowledge, skills and experience they need.

“Congratulations to High Mill Primary School for taking part in the WoW Scheme.”

Pupils taking part in the scheme are given a WoW booklet which includes a calendar where they can tick off the days they walk to school, along with road safety information, fun games and competitions.

For more information contact James Davitt on 01698 453 857.