Active Travel to School

Active Cumbria's Active Travel to School team is committed to improving lives through physical activity and supports active and sustainable travel approaches for children, parents and carers across the county. Active travel involves travelling to school using physical activity such as walking, scooting or cycling. The county has several effective programmes in place to support schools to encourage modal shift towards regular active travel.

What is Active Travel?

Active Travel is a term that describes making every-day journeys in physically active ways, such as walking, using a wheelchair, cycling, or scootering. Active travel usually involves short distances and can have benefits for health and the environment, as well as helping to tackle loneliness and isolation.

What are the benefits of Active Travel?

  • An increase in daily physical activity to improve the health of children, families and carers
  • Active travel can improve the mood of children arriving to school refreshed, alert and ready to learn
  • Active travel can help children gain a better understanding of road safety and promote a feeling of independence
  • A reduction in traffic congestion and air pollution on the school journey and around the school gates.

Active Cumbria supports a range of initiatives to help children and schools incorporate active travel into their daily journeys, details of which can be found below:

Feet First is Active Cumbria's flagship termly 5-day Active Travel Challenge, encouraging school communities to get active on the school run during a specific week each term.

Our aim is to encourage walking or wheeling to school through a fun and achievable challenge, to lessen the reliance on cars for the school run, and to promote sustainable active travel approaches that reduce traffic congestion and support the environment, as well as the health of the whole school community.

All participating schools will receive support and free resources, including bookmarks and small individual prizes for all students, as well as the opportunity for schools to enter for additional regional prizes.

For information on how your school can take part and have fun supporting sustainable active travel in your school community, please contact activetravel@activecumbria.org 

bikeability logo

Bikeability

New figures from the Bikeability Trust show Cumbria ranked in the top ten of local authority areas for 2022–23 with training delivered to 78% of Year 6 pupils, ranking an incredible 5th nationally.

Bikeability is an accredited national training programme to provide the skills and confidence for pupils to navigate the roads safely via bicycle. The county runs a successful programme throughout the academic year, and all schools are offered Bikeability training which progresses from Level 1 to Level 3. For more information click here

Free Downloadable Resources

The Active Travel to School team have produced a suite of free downloadable resources to help support active travel on the school commute.

  • Active Travel to School Brochure - highlighting support, events and county offers for Active Travel to School in Cumbria.
  • Walk to Wellbeing Booklet - a fun resource designed around the Five Ways to Wellbeing with the aim to demonstrate the wider health & wellbeing impacts of walking for children and young people.
  • Active Travel Wall Chart - for logging all your weekly active travel journeys. This can be used to support engagement for Feet First 5-Day Challenges or other school active travel initiatives. Available in a fun colour wall chart or as an easy-print wall chart option.
  • Active Travel Champion Certificates - celebrate and reward students completing active travel journeys. Can be awarded to encourage long term behaviour change through weekly assemblies that celebrates peer ambassadors, or to support standalone initiatives, such as Feet First 5-Day Challenges. Available in two versions, Active Travel Certificate 1 and Active Travel Certificate 2.
  • Active Travel to School Poster - highlights the benefits of active travel for the whole school community, supporting community health and wellbeing and reducing carbon emissions on the school commute.
  • Safe Parking Pledges - helping to reduce school traffic congestion. Also available as postcards - please contact the Active Travel to School team.

Our Active Travel to School team also support and promote several other schemes including: