A PRIMARY school in Weston has won the ‘Good Travel Plan’ award as pupils worked on encouraging a reduction in cars journey to and from their site.

Windwhistle Primary School have received a very special visit from Labour Councillor for Weston-super-Mare South Ward James Clayton, and Active and Sustainable Travel Officer for Schools and Communities Abbie Edbrooke, who came to present students with the certificate for their National Modeshift STARS ‘Good Travel Plan’ award.

The children were very proud of their achievement and spoke enthusiastically about how walking, cycling, scooting (and even roller-skating!) helps to keep them active, and gets their hearts and brains healthy and ready for learning.

To achieve this fantastic award, the school has done lots of work to find out how its community are travelling.

They are working to encourage more walking wheeling scooting and cycling by completing challenges like the Living Streets ‘WOW Challenge’ where children self-report on how they get to school and win badges by walking to school at least once a week every week for a month.

Headteacher Heidi Hudd and Pastoral Lead Nicole Vinton explained how last academic year Windwhistle worked with the community and North Somerset Council to introduce the School Street scheme, a proactive solution for school communities to tackle air pollution, poor health and road safety outside schools.

A School Street is a road outside a school with a temporary restriction on motorised traffic at school drop-off and pick-up times.

The restriction applies to school traffic and through traffic.

The result is a safer, healthier and pleasant environment for everyone.

At Windwhistle, this is designated by eye-catching pencil bollards at each end of Kingsley Road that mark the School Street zone.

Traffic is reduced for an hour before and after school, preventing the danger and frustration that can accompany school pick-up and drop-off.

In addition, Windwhistle has introduced ‘Park and Stride scheme’, where cars are parked further away in the local area and children walk the remaining distance to school, diffusing the traffic outside of the school.

Windwhistle discussed their introduction of #WalkToSchoolWednesdays, which they hope to build into an even bigger initiative by using it to engage even more with the community in the future.

Abbie Edbrooke introduced the children to ‘Joan’, her bicycle, and talked about how proud she was of all the children, and how walking, wheeling, scooting and cycling to school each day can make a big difference to how we feel and help their minds and bodies just as much as it helps the environment.

Councillor James Clayton was very enthusiastic about how much the children had achieved, and mentioned how walking to school in their school uniforms helps children show how proud they are to be pupils at Windwhistle.

Councillor Clayton’s links to the local community run very deep, having seen his own children through the local school system and working with Windwhistle and Bournville primary schools for many years.

ELAN communications lead Laura Latham talked about how Windwhistle is making its mark in the community with local engagement such as these walk to school initiatives.

James emphasised this and described both Windwhistle and Bournville as ‘pinnacles of their community’, an ‘oasis’ in the area which needs these ‘vibrant schools’ to effectively tackle inequalities through education.

Teaching children independence and self-belief by encouraging walking to school is just one of the steps Windwhistle is taking in building their reputation for extraordinary provision for the whole community, with children’s wellbeing and safety always at the forefront.

Windwhistle is part of Extend Learning Academies Network (ELAN). ELAN is made up of nine primary schools: Banwell, Bournville, Locking, Oldmixon, Mead Vale, Mendip Green, Milton Park, Walliscote and Windwhistle across North Somerset.