Young TransNet encourages children to get walking

The National Children's Bureau’s Young TransNet project supported summer Walk To School Week (24-28 May) - and the longer term campaign to persuade pupils and parents to walk to school - with a number of initiatives.

To encourage local authorities to provide better data about pupils walking to school, Young TransNet has developed a Hands Up survey tool, which will be tested in two local authority areas – Essex and Oxfordshire – during the summer term. It is planned to make the tool more widely available for the Autumn Walk to School campaign, 4 – 8 October 2004.

Young Transnet also runs the Healthy Transport Channel, an Internet based project funded by the Department of Health, which provides teachers with an array of ideas on motivating pupils to walk to school.

These include a travel log for students to enter the amount of time they spend each day travelling by healthy means. To encourage regular use of the Channel, healthy travel time is converted into points that can be used to feed and look after a virtual pet. The campaign slogan is Every step feeds a pet, and the Healthy Transport Channel is available free for schools to use.

"Walking is a great way for children and parents to spend time together and get to know their neighbourhood," said Andrew Stuck, Young TransNet co-ordinator. "We need to find ways of encouraging it so that walking to school becomes the norm rather than the exception."

To find out more visit the Healthy Transport Channel
http://www.youngtransnet.org.uk/healthchannel/index.html or contact Andrew Stuck, 020 7843 6325, astuck@ncb.org.uk.