Schools make the grade at Approved School Travel Plan Awards

All Souls

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A number of the borough’s primary, secondary and special schools received certificates at Rochdale Town Hall in recognition of the superb school travel plans they submitted to Rochdale Borough Council in an attempt to improve accessibility and safety.

Celebrating the first year of the School Travel Plan Awards, Rochdale Council’s sustainability team, alongside cabinet member for environment and sustainability, Councillor Wera Hobhouse, presented awards and certificates to representatives of the approved schools.

The first of two special awards presented was the Golden Boot Award. This was given to Healey Primary School, Rochdale, for achieving a 48 per cent increase in the number of pupils who walked to school during Walk to School Week - having managed to boost the number of walkers from 21 per cent to a massive 69 per cent.

Receiving the Outstanding Travel Plan of the Year award was Redwood Special Secondary School, Rochdale. Pupils Steven Walker (17) and Sarah Robertson (18) collected the award in recognition of their plan which has already achieved regional acclaim as an exemplar for other schools to follow.

Both Steven and Sarah have received independent travel training from the independent travel co-ordinators at the school, and Steven is now able to cycle from Heywood to his school in Rochdale. Sarah commented: “My life is much more interesting now I am allowed to go out on my own.”

The schools which have been presented with Approved School Travel Plan certificates include:

• All Souls Church of England Primary School
  All Souls will be setting up a Walk On Wednesdays (WOW) initiative from July 2008.
• Heybrook Primary School
  The pupils wrote to the parents who park outside school and petitioned to campaign for a school crossing patrol. They are still campaigning for this.
• Kentmere School
  Using creative thinking to beat congestion, Kentmere is proposing to change the layout of the school to alleviate congestion taking place down a one-way street.
• Norden Community School
  The school is now actively promoting cycling and held a Bike To School Week earlier in June to celebrate National Bike Week. School head teacher Mrs Cotton leads by example and regularly cycles to school.
• St Vincent’s Roman Catholic School
  St Vincent’s challenge is that a mixture of church personnel, teaching staff from both St Vincent’s and Caldershaw Primary, and their parents, merge around the same area to get in every morning. The school is currently in negotiation with the diocese, staff, parents and pupils.
  In addition, pupils have taken photographic evidence of the congestion so it can be monitored and proved that improvements have taken place as a result of their action.
• St Cuthbert’s Roman Catholic School
  St Cuthbert’s is putting in clear punishments for poor behaviour of students on the school bus as a result of its travel plan.
• Newlands Special School
  Newlands is the first special primary school to have an approved travel plan. The pupils will benefit from road safety awareness training, more visits around the local area and stimulating walks in the school grounds.
• St Mary’s Roman Catholic School, Littleborough
  St Mary’s set up a school travel group to take action on all their travel-related issues. They now encourage more walking and cycling activities.
• St Thomas’ Church of England School, Newhey
  St Thomas’ School will be putting up a shelter for parents so they can wait to collect their children without the need of a car to shelter from the rain.
• St Gabriel’s Church of England School, Heywood
  The school is looking to improve access to the front of the school with a ramp and raise the standard of the paths around the school.
• Holy Family Roman Catholic School, Heywood 
  Another example where a school travel plan is a helpful tool to formalise consultation and the necessary work needed to improve travel issues within the school. The school’s Eco Council produced some fine photos and much consultation with a neighbouring school is now taking place to produce effective joint plans in tackling congestion.
• Sunny Brow Nursery, Middleton
  The first nursery in the North West, Sunny Brow planned crocodile walks from one end of the road into the nursery and family cycling days as part of its travel plan.

Welcoming schools to the presentation ceremony, the council’s Chief Sustainability Officer, Howard Gott, commended the schools in their efforts to driving plans forward. He said: “School Travel Plans are simple in theory but not so straightforward in practice, because schools have to show evidence of consultation between parents, governors, pupils and so forth in order to satisfy DCSF (Department for Children, Schools and Families) requirements.

“To have 82 per cent of schools in our borough with travel plans in place is absolutely wonderful when considering the barriers they have to try and overcome to get them.”

Commenting on the benefits of cycling to school, Councillor Wera Hobhouse, commented: “I used to cycle to school in Germany, and it was a lot of fun to ride to school with my friends, so I’m thrilled to see so many children want to get involved with cycling.

“It’s great to see children and their teachers here today, as their work and determination is evidence that these plans do work and can make a difference.”

To find out more about getting a School Travel Plan initiated at your school, please contact Tom Ratcliffe.

Email: thomas.ratcliffe@rochdale.gov.uk

Tel: 01706 922081