At Purbrook Junior School, we recognise the importance of WALKING TO SCHOOL. Not only does it support our vision of a ‘greener’ environment by reducing our carbon footprint* but it is proven to benefit children in a number of ways.
Children who walk to school have been found to:
- Have higher academic performance in terms of attention/alertness, verbal, numeric and reasoning abilities;
- Have a higher degree of pleasantness and lower levels of stress during the school day; and
- Have higher levels of happiness, excitement and relaxation on the journey to school.
At Purbrook, we follow the Living Streets Walk to School Programme. The programme (also identified as WOW) is a pupil-led concept where the children self-report how they get to school; this is done once a week. This is recorded using the interactive WOW Travel Tracker. If they travel sustainably (walk, cycle or scoot) once a week for a month, they get rewarded with a badge.
Find out more about the programme by clicking here.
In addition to this, we award a ‘Most Travel Sustainable Class’ trophy each week in our Dream Big Friday assembly to the class who has consistently shown that they are using ‘greener’ methods to travel to and from school. Since implementing the programme into the school in October 2020, we have noticed an increase in the number of children taking ‘greener’ approaches in how they travel to school. Great job!
As a school, we believe in promoting positive, enjoyable, safe and ‘green’ ways of travelling to and from school. We recognise the positive effects that it can have on a child’s mental health and wellbeing as well as on parents and the local environment too.
Come on Purbrook – let’s walk to school!
*A carbon footprint is the total amount of greenhouse gases (including carbon dioxide and methane) that are generated by our actions.
Park and Stride Information:
