Your Swindon
Get involved: send your photos, videos, news & views by texting 'SWINDON NEWS' to 80360 or email »
|
|
|
|
|
|
Got a story? EMAIL US, call us on 01793 501806 or text us at 80360, starting your message
with 'SWINDON NEWS'
Feet first for pupils who walk to school
6:43pm Wednesday 21st May 2008
CHILDREN at Moredon Primary School asked their parents to leave the car at home so they could join thousands of other youngsters walking to school.
National Walk to School Week started on Monday with children up and down the country ditching bikes, buses and cars to get to school.
As part of this year's event pupils have been asked to become sound detectives and pay special attention to the different types of street noise they hear as they walk to school.
About 50 Swindon schools signed up to take part in the campaign, including youngsters at Moredon Primary School who wore odd shoes, trainers and slippers for the walk.
At the moment, about 60 per cent of children regularly walk to school in Swindon and it is hoped that many more youngsters will have joined them by the end of this week.
Deputy headteacher Jane Burcham said: "Walking is the most environmentally friendly form of transport, is a great way to keep fit and healthy and can offer children a certain degree of independence.
"I think walking to or from school is a great social activity and can be a really great start and end to the day.
"In the world we live in where childhood health is an increasingly concerning issue, it's good to make sure our children are getting the daily exercise they need."
Families have been joining school Park & Stride schemes across the town, where arrangements have been made for parents to park safely off-road in a local car park a short walk from the school gate.
Some schools have set up walking buses, picking up children from various points and accompanying them to school along a set route.
"This gives children the opportunity to enjoy all the benefits of walking - healthy exercise, fun and friendship whilst safely supervised by responsible adults," said Mrs Burcham.
"I think it's a great way to start the day and is something special a parent and child can do together."
For more information about Walk to School Week contact the school travel adviser at Swindon Council on 01793 466335 or see www.walktoschool.org.uk.
Your sayYourSwindon
Add your comment
Register for a FREE Swindon Advertiser account and you can have your say on today's news and sport by adding comments on articles we publish. The best comments may even get published in the paper.
Please register now or sign in below to continue.
Katie Gordon and Sian Dunmill check out Aiden Leighfield's different shoes
In this section
- Modfather is ready to visit
- 'You must pay for junkies' needles to be removed'
- Olympics’ minister declares pool open
- Honda says shutdown will not lead to redundancies
- Honda factory to close for two months
- Air ambulance visit for Camilla
- Inspired cubs raise cash for Nepalese
- Will it snow, will it snow, will it snow?
- Charles in dig at media while on Malmesbury visit
- Care home to create 80 jobs
Sponsored Links
Remember When...
Pictures of the past put on show
The month of Swindon’s wartime commemoration ends with the Rodbourne Community History Group’s exhibition, Rodbournites To Arms.
Loco lent itself to imaginative uses
Diesel shunters first appeared at Swindon works in the early 1930s.
Local Advertisers
Local Information
Enter your postcode, town or place name
Justin Tomlinson, Taw Hill, Swindon says...
11:29pm Wed 21 May 08