Supporting Surrey schools to enhance road safety, sustainable travel and air quality in their local community
We want to support and encourage Surrey families to make more physically active, safe, and environmentally friendly travel to and from school their default option.
As school teachers you have important roles to play in educating, inspiring and supporting positive life skills and behaviour for your pupils and their families.
Our aim is to support your school to devise an effective school travel plan and help with the delivery of key initiatives so that you can inform your children's learning and understanding of the benefits and practical aspects of travelling to school healthily, safely and sustainably.
7 key reasons and benefits
- By building children's confidence in their ability to travel to school actively, safely, and eventually independently - as well as providing them with the knowledge needed to make sustainable choices – they can be empowered to develop life-long, safe and sustainable habits which benefit the whole community.
- Daily physical activity such as walking or cycling to school have enormous health and wellbeing benefits. It's a great way for children to start the day, and research has shown a link to improved behaviour and concentration. Active journeys to school also contribute to the recommended 60 minutes of physical activity a day for those aged 5-18 years, helping develop positive habits and maintain health and fitness from an early age.
- Road and pedestrian safety is important to us all – we all care about reducing the number and devastating impact of fatalities and serious injuries from road accidents, and children and young people can be particularly more vulnerable to these risks due to their lack of experience and the influence of peer pressure at this age.
- Fewer cars outside your school gates means less congestion, obstructive parking and anti-social driving issues, as well as local resident complaints.
- Improved air quality from reduced nearby vehicle idling and exhaust pollution at drop off or pick up supports better local health outcomes.
- Developing a school travel plan and successfully undertaking key initiatives can contribute towards your school strategy targets and annual improvement objectives, which also support your school's progress towards outstanding Ofsted assessments.
- Many of the initiatives can support your school's progress towards national accreditation with Modeshift STARS, Healthy Schools and Eco-Schools, they can also be used as part of your PE and Sports Premium plans.
How we can help
We provide a range of services. Our Safer Travel Team works with schools to reduce nearby road congestion and create a safer and healthier environment. We do this by working with schools to ideally develop your school travel plan and then offering practical training, advice, tools and support to increase levels of cycling, walking and scooting to school.