Guidance on how to fund within your school
Feet First is a road safety and active travel skills awareness course that will be aimed at children ages 7 to 8 years old (Year 3). It will provide pupils with road safety skills to better enable them to safely walk to and from school with their parents and carers and prepare them for independent travel.
Find out more about the new 'Feet First: Walking Training' programme.
- The training costs £6 per pupil.
- In academic year 2025 to 2026, anyone eligible for ‘Free School Meals’ can participate without being charged. Schools will receive a discount code to distribute to eligible families, which parents can use during the online registration process.
Parent contribution
Schools will send a registration link out to parents inviting them to book Feet First: Walking Training. If the school has opted for ‘parents pay’, parents will be charged £6 during the online registration process.
For academic year 2025 to 2026, anyone eligible for ‘Free School Meals’ can participate without being charged. Schools will receive a discount code to distribute to eligible families, which parents can use at the time of booking.
PE and sport premium
Schools can use their PE and sport premium fund to cover the cost of Feet First: Walking Training.
Feet First: Walking Training’ equips Year 3 pupils with essential road safety skills, helping them walk safely to and from school with their parents and preparing them for future independent travel. This covers one of the objectives of sports premium money, ‘Embed physical activity into the school day through encouraging active travel to and from school’.
Walking to school is not only a great way to encourage pupils to do regular exercise and meet the recommended daily amount of physical activity of 30 minutes of exercise per day, it is also a great way to prevent pollution around your school gates and protect the planet from carbon emissions.
Local member allocation fund
Did you know that your local member can use their Councillor Community Fund to cover the cost of Feet First: Walking Training at your school?
Each councillor has a small pot of funding they can use for local projects within their division. This can be applied for to pay for courses such as Feet First: Walking Training or other revenue-based activities. Find out further information on this process: Your Councillor Community Fund (YCCF).
To find out who your local councillor is and how to contact them, visit Find Your Local Councillors.
Fundraising event at school
Your school could arrange a local fundraiser for parents, carers, and the local community to raise funds to pay for your schools 'Feet First: Walking Training'. Whether that is in the form of a bake sale, raffle, fancy dress day where pupils donate a £1, or a sponsored walk to school. There are endless ideas of how your school can fundraise and have fun along the way.
Why not link your fundraising event with National Walking Month or Walk to School Week in May each year? You could also talk to your Parent–Teacher Association (PTA) and see if they could fund the training in full or part and maybe make it an annual commitment.
Local business sponsorship
Do you know a local business that may be looking for opportunities to make a positive impact in their local community? Then why not ask them to sponsor your school's 'Feet First: Walking Training' programme today.
Here are just some of the benefits local business sponsorship can provide:
- Businesses supporting their local schools are helping to ensure pupils are road aware and safe on their walk to school.
- With more families walking to and from school, businesses are helping to reduce the number of cars on the road, reducing congestion within the local area whilst helping to improve air quality and road safety.
- Businesses may see an increase in footfall around the local area, as more families are walking, which could lead to an increase in custom for those businesses.
- By supporting your school's 'Feet First: Walking Training' Programme businesses can meet their corporate social responsibility (CSR) aims in regard to health, wellbeing, active travel and their environmental impact.
Contact us
E-mail: WalkingTraining@surreycc.gov.uk