Secondary schools throughout Wiltshire can help to reduce carbon emissions for journeys to and from school with a new Active Travel Toolkit, a resource for teachers to support more students to walk and cycle.
The toolkit, which has been developed by Wiltshire Council and Sustrans, the walking and cycling charity, provides a series of workshops for students to develop ideas to encourage both fellow students and staff to adopt zero or low carbon school journeys, such as walking and cycling.
The workshops are based on a conference that was held at County Hall in Trowbridge in March and was led by Sustrans. Students from five schools from across Wiltshire attended the conference and developed activities to carry out in their school communities to encourage more walking and cycling.
Attending the conference were students from Clarendon Academy in Trowbridge, who went on to create a biker breakfast at their school, where 60 students were rewarded with a free breakfast for cycling to school. They are also planning student-led active travel assemblies.
Students from St Lawrence School in Bradford on Avon came away from the conference with an action plan to promote walking and cycling in their school. They plan to hold a whole school travel survey to see how students and staff are currently travelling to school and to test the appetite to change to more climate friendly travel behaviour. They are also looking to provide Bikeability cycle training and bike maintenance sessions that will develop skills and in turn encourage more sustainable travel.
Schools can download the toolkit from the council’s Right Choice Website, and also the accompanying YouTube video featuring students from Clarendon Academy.