Havering School Travel Plan Review Guide

TOWERS JUNIOR SCHOOL

SCHOOL TRAVEL PLAN SUMMARY

June 2010 About our School Travel Plan Through our School Travel Plan we have consulted with the whole school community. Parents, pupils and staff have completed surveys that inform us how pupils and staff travel to school and how they would like to travel. The surveys also inform us of any problems faced on journeys to and from school and gives the whole school community an opportunity to suggest new ideas to help solve these problems.

Our original target was to reduce the number of car journeys to school and increase other methods of sustainable travel, e.g. walking, cycling, public transport and car sharing.

Consultation is an ongoing part of the School Travel Plan process and each year the information provided will update our targets and objectives.

Below is a pie chart showing the progress that has been made since our first School Travel Plan

A Pie Chart representing numbers as a percentage in 2007

Car Car Share Bus Cycle Walk Park and Walk Other

Mode Percentage Number of Pupils Car 42.8% 87 Car Share 2.5% 5 Bus 2.5% 5 Cycle 1.5% 3 Walk 40.8% 83 Park and Walk 9.4% 19 Other 0.5% 1

Totals 100% 203

A Pie Chart representing numbers as a percentage in 2010

Car Car Share Bus Cycle Walk Park and Walk Other

Mode Percentage Number of Pupils Car 12.3% 28 Car Share 1.8% 4 Bus 1.3% 3 Cycle 1.3% 3 Walk 66.1% 150 Park and Walk 17.2% 39 Other 0.0% 0

Totals 100% 227 What the school is already doing

 We participate in every Walk to School Week Event and joined in the Olympic Walk and we were host school for Walking with Dinosaurs. The pupils thoroughly enjoyed both events but acting as host school meant that all our pupils had a chance to get involved.

 We participate in the WoW Scheme and all our pupils are involved. This has made a big difference in encouraging the children to walk to school. They all want to collect the badges and get involved.

 We used our School Travel Grant to purchase a cycle shelter with 20 places. It is used very well and we have a rota in the spring and summer months when it becomes full. We have Bikeability Cycle Training for our Y5 and Y6 pupils and this has proved very successful. LBH Road Safety Department visit our school to promote all aspects of road safety.

 Our Educational Visits Policy encourages walking and the use of public transport whenever possible.

 We provide information for visitors regarding public transport routes to the school.

 We have a walking bus. We have three volunteers and up to 14 children who walk to school in this way.

 In school we teach road safety and environmental education. Our Junior Road Safety Officers also promote road safety with the pupils and our School Council Eco Team promote environmental issues with the pupils. We have theatre groups in promoting road safety and Transport for London come in and talk to our Y6 pupils regarding road safety, the use of public transport and getting ready for secondary transfer.

 The school sends out regular letters regarding safety of our pupils and safe parking. We monitor the parking and move people off the yellow zig zag lines. We do not allow parents to drive onto school premises and have time restrictions on when any vehicle (including staff) may access or leave the school site. We involve the Community Police, and the LBH Road Safety Department

We organize a sponsored walk each year for our pupils. This takes place on the school field and all our pupils take part. We use this to promote walking and hold assemblies before the sponsored walk regarding our school travel plan and the importance of walking. We also use this event for charity fund raising and the staff and pupils have raised in excess of £3,000 for Cancer Research (with Towers Infant School) and this year £1,309 for St Joseph’s Hospice. One of our Support Staff ran the Virgin London Marathon for this cause and the children joined her by doing this sponsored walk on the field. We had three whole school assemblies about this event and guests from our chosen charity visited the school.

We organise competitions for our pupils e.g. posters and quizzes relating to walking and cycling issues.

During Health Week a big emphasis is placed on the School Travel Plan and road safety issues. Our Aims

Our aims are to have less congestion outside the school gate, increased awareness of sustainable transport, healthier, fitter children, more journeys by bicycle, walking and public transport, reduced pollution from the home to school journey, less road accidents now and for our children in the future, and our Year 6 Leavers prepared for their journeys to secondary school.

Our Achievements

At present we have the Higher Standards Level in Sustainable Travel awarded by Transport for London. We became the first school in the London Borough of Havering to achieve this accreditation in 2008.