Walk to school monitors support schemes

Pupils at primary schools can be enlisted to assist walk to school schemes in Kent and Medway.

 

The youngsters, usually school council members or Year 6 pupils, will be given the post of Walk to School Monitor and will conduct a simple hands up survey each week to determine the numbers walking to school in each class involved with the Walk on Wednesday scheme.

 

Schools will appoint a pupil to take on the role for each class for a set period of time, usually a month. With younger year groups older pupils will come into class at registration to conduct the survey.

 

The hands up survey will help the partnership of KM Charity Team, Kent County Council and Medway Council to determine the number of school run journeys taken off Kent's streets and is seen as vital information for the project.

 

Below are the pupil and teacher briefings that will be issued to participating schools. For information on the Walk to School Monitor scheme contact the walk to school team on  0844 264 0292.

We need your help to tell us how many of your friends are walking to school each week!

 

As one of our Walk to School monitors, we'd like you to let us know how well your class is doing by asking your friends to do a simple hands-up survey and sending the results to us.

 

This is an important job and to help you do it properly you'll get:

 

(Please return your badge to the teacher at the end of the month so the next monitor can use it)

 

One morning a week you should go to the class you are acting as Walk to School Monitor for. This will usually be a Wednesday, but your school will tell you the correct day.

 

When the teacher says you can start you need to ask your friends to put up their hands if they walked to school that morning (you should include anyone who came by bike or a push-along scooter)

 

Count the number of children who put up their hands and write this neatly on the Return Slip on the back of this sheet, together with the date and the name of your class. (You'll need to ask your teacher to photocopy some more when you run out).

 

Take the completed Return Slip to your school office.

 

Thank you for your help!

 

 

Kent County Council and Medway Council are required to closely monitor the number of children walking and cycling to school as part of their Local Transport Plan and Sustainable Travel to School Strategy.

 

Some of this is done via the PLASC returns but it's important for us to measure the relative success of walk to school initiatives such as WOW and the Walking Bug.

 

That way, we can build on successes and target our resources where they are most effective for increasing physical activity, reducing congestion and improving safety.

 

We'd really value your help in monitoring this walk to school initiative at your school. To this end we, are asking all participating classes to nominate a pupil monitor to undertake a simple hands-up survey each week. As well as engaging pupils in the project and helping to build confidence, we hope this will relieve at least some of the burden of carrying out the surveys for your teachers.

 

Each week the monitor will be asked to collect the information (name of class, date and number of children walking to school) and return this to a nominated admin person in the school office.

 

That person should then enter the data using our simple online data entry system at www.kmwalktoschool.co.uk  Your school will receive a password to enable you to use this system.

 

Your Walk to School Monitor should be rewarded at the end of the month with a Merit Mark or similar. You may also like to present a certificate which can be downloaded from www.kmwalktoschool.co.uk 

 

Your walk to school Project Officer from the charity may also have vouchers to leisure attractions available that you can present. Call 0844 264 0292 for more information.