This year the Active School Travel day will take place on Thursday the 18th of May. In essence, Active School Travel aims to encourage children and families to walk safely to school. Aside from the obvious physical and mental health benefits of walking, the initiative aims to reduce car traffic in the immediate school area. Benefits of active school travel include:
• Helping students be healthier, happier and more alert at school
• Increasing road safety awareness
• Building stronger school communities
• Making streets around schools safer
• Reducing traffic congestion.
This initiative is coordinated with the City of Ipswich, who have identified seven starting or congregation points. This means students can walk safely with other children and adults, and also means that cars can park or drop off at venues a short walking distance from the school. Dispersing cars to alternate drop off and collection points alleviates traffic and parking issues in the highly congested areas.
To ensure the safety of students on this day – Thursday 18th of May – we will have staff volunteering to walk with the students to school. We are also anticipating support from the Ipswich City Council, local police and other organisations associated with the school. These additional supervisors will not be permanent supervisors, and we will be encouraging community engagement to support the program. Here is a map of the various routes.
Further details and updates will be ongoing as we get closer to the day!
Sincerely and thankfully yours,
Evan Willis
Principal