Safer routes to school
Latest news
Win a Cycle Shelter worth £7,000 for your school!
One lucky Liverpool school will win a brand new bike shelter for their pupils to use when cycling to school. This brilliant prize comes courtesy of Urban Engineering who specialise in the design and installation of cycle shelters throughout the UK. This brilliant competition is open to all Liverpool schools, and every school should have received further information about how to enter, however if you require more information please email transport.policy@liverpool.gov.uk as the closing date is Friday 11th July 2008.
36 new adopted School Travel Plans for 2008!
Massive congratulations to the 36 Liverpool schools who adopted their School Travel Plans in March 2008. We now have adopted plans at 65% of Liverpool schools, if your school is one of the remaining schools without a plan then get in touch with us as soon as possible.
New Safer Routes to School schemes completed
Rudston Infant School are now benefiting from their new puffin crossing on Childwall Valley Road, allowing pupils and parents to walk to school, and traffic speeds around Florence Melly Primary School, and St Francis de Sales Infants and Junior schools should be reduced thanks to the new traffic calming and 20mph zones. We develop schemes like these every financial year for schools with adopted School Travel Plans where the consultation with pupils,parents and staff has identified the need for highways measures.
Have you seen the Schoolzone?
Parents, pupils and staff now have their own dedicated webpages especially for Merseyside School Travel Plan Schools. Fun games, great ideas, and the latest news can all be found at www.letstravelwise.org/schoolzone/
Liverpool school wins Merseyside Best School Travel Plan 2007
St Christopher's Catholic Primary School in Speke were given the accolade of Best School Travel plan at the first annual Merseyside Transport conference and Awards 2007 were held on the 17th October 2007; Lawrence Community Primary and Palmerston School were also highly commended.
Liverpool's Sustainable School Travel Strategy is published
The Education and Inspections Act 2006 put a general duty on Local Authorities to promote the use of sustainable travel and transport for the journey to and from school. Read more about how Liverpool intends to do this on the admissions pages at http://www.liverpool.gov.uk/Education_and_learning/Schools_and_colleges/School_Admissions/index.asp
We have also published a factsheet for every Liverpool school which gives general details on how children are currently travelling to that school and what travel and transport activities each school is involved in. These factsheets can be found on the new Schoolzone pages of the TravelWise website.
Liverpool Schools receive over £247,000
The 41 schools who adopted their School Travel Plans in March 2007 have collectively received almost a quarter of a million pounds in grant funding to put towards cycle storage, parents waiting shelters and other items which will help them to encourage walking and cycling to school. The grants are worth roughly £5,000 for primary schools and £10,000 for secondary schools. We look forward to seeing schools' new purchases in the near future.
Walk to School Week May 2007
21st - 25th May was Walk to School Week across the country.This year 89 Liverpool schools took part - the best year yet! We hope everyone who took part enjoyed the week and found the free resources useful, and please take some time to fill in the evaluation form which Travelwise will be sending shortly.
41 New School Travel Plans
This year an overwhelming number of Liverpool schools have been working hard on their School Travel Plans resulting in 41 schools submitting a travel plan at the end of March 2007. This record submission is more than double the number received last year, and brings the total number of schools with an adopted plan to 91.
A big thanks to the following schools:
St Mary's West Derby, St Gregory's, Matthew Arnold, Cross Farm, St Anthony of Padua, Holy Trinity, Roscoe Infants, Our Lady's Bishop Eaton, Belle Vale CP, St Cecilia's Infants, Rudston Infants, St Charles', St Margaret's High, St Oswald's Infants, Garston CE, West Derby High, Walton St Mary, St Oswald's Juniors, Banks Road, St Matthew's, Calderstones Comprehensive, Barlows, Holy Name, Notre Dame College, Norman Pannell, Hunts Cross, Wavertree, Northway, Hey Green, King David High, Palmerston, Monksdown, Kensington Infants, Lister Juniors, Lister Infants, Our Lady of Mount Carmel, The Alsop High, Croxteth Community Comprehensive, Blueberry Park, Croxteth Primary and Middlefield.
All these schools have committed to encouraging pupils, parents and staff to make healthy and environmentally friendly travel choices on the journey to and from school through all manner of exciting initiatives. If you would like to involve your school please contact transport.policy@liverpool.gov.uk
Liverpool Schools Walk It!
Congratulations to the 27 Liverpool Primary Schools who successfully applied for the Department for Transport Walking Bus Grant. We look forward to seeing your Walking Buses up and running. Please contact transport.policy@liverpool.gov.uk for assistance in setting up your Walking Bus.
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School Travel Poem
no one cycles to my school
we all walk from the car
which mum or dad has driven in
though home's not very far
I'd like to walk here with my mates
or skip, or jump or slide
but mum says it is dangerous
so in the car I ride
Mum says I could get knocked right down
but the way I figure
the chance of being in a crash
is probably much bigger
Dad gets cross with all the traffic
when he drives me to school
he says 'why can't these people walk!'
I say 'that would be cool'
It's boring coming in the car
I feel really lazy
sometimes I just go back to sleep
then lessons are all hazy
If everybody walked to school
or could come on their bike
or even come in on the bus
that's something I would like
SO.
If your kids want to walk to school
or if you are a teacher
or if you live near to a school
I'd really like to meet you
Reducing cars around school gates
is what I'm all about
and with a great School Travel Plan
I can really help you out
So get in touch
no don't delay
lets get rid of congestion, air pollution, childhood obesity, poor road safety skills, lack of independence, poor concentration levels and everything else....
Starting from today!
A poem by Alice Rickwood, School Travel Strategy Officer, Liverpool City Council.
What can be done?
Working in partnership with Travelwise Merseyside we aim to help all Liverpool schools to develop a School Travel Plan. The School Travel Plan is a written document developed by the school. The plan is developed by teachers, pupils, parents, local people and others. Each plan is relevant to the school's specific needs and the school will be supported by Travelwise and the School Travel Strategy Officer at all times.
The School Travel Plan will outline the transport problems which the school has, and develop practical solutions. These can include 'soft' measures such as cycle training, 'Walking Buses', promotional material, and joining initiatives such as 'walk to school week'. They may also include 'hard' physical measures such as dropped kerbs, new crossings, zig - zags at the school entrance, and traffic calming to slow drivers down around school. Funding is available to pay for these improvements.
School Travel Plans are not anti-car, we realise that for some people there is no other option than to drive. However the process aims to help people with the alternatives to taking the car to the school gates, be it walking, cycling, public transport, park away and walk or car share, every little effort helps.
Many Liverpool schools have had great success and great fun developing their School Travel Plans, and realising the benefits of working together to make their school a safer, healthier and less congested place.