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Travelling actively and safely around schools

What we're doing with schools to encourage road safety

There is lots we're doing to promote active travel and road safety to school children and their families, in a bid to help the next generation understand the importance of it. From road safety training and infrastructure to working with schools on creating travel plans to reduce car journeys to school, we're making it one of our priorities to drive change.

Here's some of the work we're doing with schools, so you can check if your school is involved already and if not, why not get in touch with them to ask what they have planned?

Feet First: Walking Training

This initiative launched last year and has been popular with 100 primary schools and trained nearly 5,000 pupils the importance of road safety. The course is available for children aged 7 – 8 (Year 3) and teaches them everything they need to know to enable them to walk to school safely either now, or when they travel independently.

Children learn how to implement the Green Cross Code properly when crossing; selecting safe and understanding where unsafe places to cross are; how to use different types of pedestrian crossings; dealing with distractions; knowing how to interpret vehicles lights and sounds. It's taught interactively in class, on the road with a trained walking instructor and has an element of at home learning. Find out more on our Feet First: Walking Training web page or speak to your school to see if they're taking part.

Road safety outside school

We know that many parents have concerns about road safety outside schools, with congestion, road danger and difficulty crossing the road being frequent worries, but it's something we take seriously and are investing in.

Last year, we invested £3million to deliver infrastructural improvements outside schools, that would ultimately make walking, wheeling and cycling to school easier and safer for children and families. Over the last year, six schools have benefited from measures such as Zebra Crossings; Pelican Crossings and 20mph speed limits – all of which have been greatly received by schools and families.

During the next two years, over 40 schools will benefit from infrastructure improvements designed to reduce road casualties, tackle speeding, and make sustainable travel a safer and more attractive choice for families and children during their school journey. Visit our road safety outside schools web page to find out more.

Travel plans

We are doing lots of work behind the scenes with schools, to promote sustainable travel. The schools we are working with produce plans to showcase how pupils and staff currently travel into school, the issues which prevent them from traveling in actively, or sustainably and the initiatives the school is putting into place to improve this. We currently have 68 schools with accredited plans in Surrey, showing their dedication to reduce the number of cars in and around the school.

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