What is Walk to School Week and Month?
The National Walk to School campaigns are organised by Living Streets, the UK charity for everyday walking. The campaign aims to encourage all parents, children and young people to make walking to school part of their daily routine. Their vision is that every child who can walk to school does so.
Over the past two decades, the number of children who walk to school nationally has dropped significantly with less than half of us walking and an enormous 43% being driven to school in cars – despite the fact that the majority of primary school pupils live within a 20 minute walk of their school.
When is it?
Walk to School Week is organised by Living Streets. It is held in May and Walk to School Month is in October. Schools across the country are encouraged to participate to raise awareness of walking to school and engage with families to join the campaign.
Schools can organise regular campaigns to encourage families to walk to school as often as they can.
Ways to join the Walk to School campaign:
- If the national dates are not suitable for your school, why not set your own week
- If you’d like to encourage more walking to school, why not organise a focus week every half term
- If you don’t think families can walk to school for a whole week or month, why not try WOW (Walk Once a Week)
- If you don’t run Go for Gold, or need to give it a boost, why not launch the initiative with a Walk to School Week
- Footsteps Training supports walking to school by developing awareness of roads and traffic and increasing children’s understanding of road safety.
- Schools can borrow our Walk to School banners to display on their gates and fences. These help to raise the profile of walking to school to the local community.