Cycling and Walking to School
We encourage schools to develop their own travel plans and promote safe walking and cycling to school. We support
Walk To School Week and the Be Safe Be Seen campaign.
School Travel Plans
The School Travel Plan officer is responsible for encouraging schools to develop their own travel plans, in order to encourage more of their pupils to walk or cycle to school as an alternative to the car.
She is currently working with several schools in the Clapham area, assisted by the charity 'Sustrans' (who are creating Safer Routes to School.
High visibility jackets
Lambeth Road Safety supports the government’s Be Seen, Be Safe campaign. On 31 October 2005 nearly 3,000 high visibility jackets were given to all reception class children in the borough.
Dark winter evenings mean children walking home from school are particularly at risk and the reflective jackets will make thousands of children more visible when crossing the road.
The jackets were funded by Lambeth First through the Neighbourhood Renewal Fund. They were produced by Xinteractive Clothing and some schools are now looking into purchasing further jackets direct for children in other age groups.
Child pedestrian training
Having recently been successful in our bid for funds to the DTLR (Department of Transport, Local Government, and the Regions), we now have a Child Pedestrian Training co-ordinator in post.
Over the next 3 years she will be recruiting volunteer parents, at 11 schools, to teach Year 1 and 2 children how to cross the road.
The training is based on the 'Kerbcraft' manual, which was developed after a pilot project in Drumchapel, Scotland.
It is designed to teach these children how to chose a safe place to cross the road; how to cross between parked cars; and how to cross at junctions, and will give them a sound basis on which to build their road safety skills.
Walk To School Week
Walking has several benefits. As well as being a much healthier alternative to the car, it promotes interaction between the children on their way to school; it encourages them to become more independent, and teaches them how to assess risks and use roads sensibly.
Lambeth Road Safety education unit will be supporting these events, by offering resources to those schools wishing to take part, such as diaries; leaflets; stickers; posters; wall charts etc.
A survey will be carried out of those schools taking part to ascertain the number of children who took part, and to see how many have continued to walk to school instead of coming by car.