Choose How You Move are here to help with the back to school run in September and beyond, with ideas to make your daily journeys safe and fun. We’re encouraging parents to get involved and choose alternative ways to travel to school.
Ready, set, school!
Sign up to our Active Travel Schools programme so Choose How You Move can support your school all year round.
Did you know that under half of all children in the UK walk to school? We’re on a mission to get that number higher, with your help.
Read our tips and conversation starters to help you along the journey.
Knowing your walking route can give you confidence in your time, and make sure you’re safe – especially important when going back to school!
For kids walking on their own, it also provides a layer of reassurance for parents to know which routes they can take.
You can use our Walking Maps to plan your journey in advance – you can select which form of sustainable travel you plan to use.
There are 5 steps to look after our wellbeing:
Walking to and from school, especially with others, can give kids the chance to practice these 5 ways to wellbeing.
How many of these can you incorporate into walking with your children?
Cycling offers a way to travel to school that is faster than walking and scooting, and offers the same mental and physical benefits. It also teaches your children even more about road safety and independence. Incorporating cycling into your routine can also encourage cycling as a pastime outside of school hours.
We’ve got our top tips on hand to make cycling a safe and spectacular mode of transport for going back to school.
Get involved and have some fun! This year, Cycle to School Week will land on 5 October – 9 October, when schoolkids across the nation will be using pedal power to get going!
Bikeability – the course for training schoolchildren how to ride safely – have provided a bumper pack of resources so you family or school can get stuck in.
We’re big fans of biking – and love to celebrate our county. We’ve combined the two for our local Cycling maps, which show cycling routes where you live.
Cycling maps can help improve your children’s knowledge of your area and improve awareness of public rights of way. Use them for family cycling trips, or school routes, or both – the county is your oyster!
Safety is a vital part of getting kids active for the journey to school – and education is the key to good cycling.
We’ve covered the ABCs of basic cycle maintenance to make bike safety quick and easy to learn – and always accessible for you and your family. Watch below to get learning!
A little more whizz than walking, bringing a scooter to the school run makes the journey even more fun! It brings all the same benefits of being active and sociable when going back to school too.
If you’re car conscious, or unsure how to start taking more active journeys, you could switch to scooters on the school run around this time to give yourself a goal. Speedier than simply walking, those little wheels will get you whizzing to the school gates in no time.
Bringing wheels into the equation doesn’t need to be a worry. As with other forms of active travel, scooting allows schoolkids to learn from an early age about road safety and how to navigate pavements with other people.
Personal safety is a big part of keeping kids safe out in the world. CBeebies have compiled their 7 top safety tips for scooting so children can wheel alongside you, happy and safe.
We want to encourage as many people as possible to choose travel options that are more active and better for them. But it’s also true that parents don’t always have a choice whether to take the car or not – either living too far away, and/or with time constraints.
There are still ways to make driving to and from school a healthier, more active journey – and to make the school gates a calmer place for everyone.
Does your schoolchild have friends who live nearby? Share the journey and keep the school run sociable – go together! Car sharing between more than one household can suit your busy schedule, and it means one less car to compete with when finding a place to park.
If you’re dropping off older schoolchildren who you can trust to get to and from school safely, you could consider doing a halfway journey. A shorter journey for you, and that all-important independence for them, you can tackle the toughest part of the journey and still have space for them to make their own way.
For younger children going back to school, Park and Strides are a great way for parents and kids to get to school in a healthy, active way, even if you still need to drive to school. Parents can drive to a local public area, like pubs, leisure centres or parks, to then walk with their children for the rest of the journey to school. It’s an opportunity for families to enjoy walking or scootering together, and to have a sociable start to the day!
We’re always looking to help with more Park and Strides – if you’d like to see a Park and Stride happen at your school, please get in touch at choosehowyoumove@leics.org.uk.
Get your school moving with BetterPoints
Looking for a fun, free way to encourage active travel, improve wellbeing, and engage your whole school community? The BetterPoints app could be the perfect addition to your Healthy Schools programme.
BetterPoints rewards people for making healthier, more sustainable travel choices. Whether pupils (over the age of 14), parents or staff choose to walk, wheel, cycle or use public transport, they can earn points for their journeys. Those points can then be exchanged for rewards or used to support good causes.
