The active travel bug has bitten at Essex Heights Primary
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When it comes to active travel at Essex Heights Primary School the sky is the limit. Great initiatives and events as well as support from the schools parent community all create the perfect combination for more students walking and riding more often.
Last year the Parents and Friends Association funded the construction of a secure area for keeping bikes and scooters. This year the school hopes to put a roof on this compound. The installation of a secure bike parking instantly doubled the number of bikes and scooters used for transport to and from the school.
Essex Heights have been participating in the Hands Up! survey for over a year, and have now implemented their own Active Travel Trophy. The trophy is awarded to the class with the highest percentage of active travellers recorded on one day in the month when the Hands Up! surveys are taken.
In further attempts to promote active travel, the school runs ‘Active Travel Fortnights’ twice a year, during which children are encouraged to fill in a diary showing how they got to school each day. Prizes are given to the children from each year level that ride or walked to school each day in the fortnight.
On National Ride2School Day this year the schools Parents and Friends Association provided fruit bars and drinks to all children who rode (bikes or scooters) to school.
The school community continues to be motivated by the stories from parents about children wanting to continue walking or riding to school now that they have started.
Thank you to Morwenna Griffiths for emailing Ride2School with an update on all the great things happening at Essex Heights Primary School. Morwenna is a parent at the school.
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