We’ve had a great Term 2 working with our three new Ride & Stride schools – St Oliver Plunkett Primary, Moreland Primary and Brunswick North West Primary.
We’ve been getting to know how families currently travel and ways we could make walking and bike riding a more appealing and accessible option for the school run.
What do parents and students want?
To understand the school communities more, we surveyed parents and students to ask how they currently travel, how they’d like to travel and what they’d like to see to improve walking and riding the school run.
Across our three schools, parents reported the following key areas they’d like to see improved to make walking or riding easier:
- Knowledge that my child has arrived safely if travelling independently/with friends
- Less car traffic around the school gates
- Programs to teach my child about road safety & independent travel
- Safe cycling education for children
- Knowledge of safe walking/riding routes to school
Kids want to ride and stride
We also heard unanimously that the main way children want to travel at every school is by riding or walking.
On average, over half of all students across these three schools are driven every day. When we asked the students how they wanted to travel however, most want to ride, then walk and only a small number want to travel by car.
The range of initiatives delivered through the Ride & Stride program over the next few terms will aim to address each of the key areas addressed by families, to get more children travelling to school the way they’d like to – healthily, happily and actively.
Tag On letting parents know children arriving safely
The first program that has recently launched at all schools is Tag On. Kids ’tag on’ at kiosks each morning by selecting how they travelled to school that day, earning points for their house and points for travelling actively, and importantly allowing parents to receive an instant email notification that their child has arrived safely.
The schools have loved launching Tag On and seeing the children excited to tag on when walking or riding each day, addressing one of the key safety concerns parents stated in allowing their child to travel actively.
More to come
We have lots of exciting initiatives planned for Term 3, including free e-cargo bike trials, cycle training for students, road safety incursions and more.
We look forward to seeing more families at each school riding and striding over the coming months!
Click on each to find out more about our Ride & Stride schools
