Primary schools across Scotland will be able to order a DVD promoting the development of a travel plan and alternatives to the school run, from mid-November.
The half-hour programme, produced by the sustainable transport charity Sustrans, is funded by the Scottish Government, and will be available free through school travel co-ordinators.
Narrated by television and radio presenter Grant Stott, Healthier Routes is divided into 11 sections covering walking, safety, cycling, health, social benefits, global and local issues surrounding unnecessary car trips and a teachers’ section.
“Each section ends in a discussion point for use in the classroom,” explains Lynn Marshall, project officer for school travel at Sustrans.
“For example, one section is looking at who can be involved in the development of a school travel plan: pupils, teachers, parents and parent councils, school travel co-ordinators, junior road safety officers.
“The aim is to help identify the whole process of what a school travel plan is and to encourage children that their participation can really make a difference, to benefit their health, community and environment.”
The DVD features examples of what other schools have achieved in urban and rural settings. It shows nine schools in four local authority areas: Highland, Glasgow, Perth and Kinross and East Lothian, exploring safe routes to schools initiatives, walking buses, cycling and “park and strides” - where parents park further from the school gates and walk their children the rest of the way.
A teachers’ section at the end highlights curricular links. “By developing a school travel plan you are ticking quite a lot of the boxes for A Curriculum for Excellence,” says Miss Marshall.
www.sustrans.org.uk
www.saferoutestoschools.org.uk.
