Children across the Isle of Wight have stepped into the new school year with a sustainable travel challenge.

At eleven schools, pupils are taking part in WOW – the walk to school challenge, which is a national initiative from the charity Living Streets that encourages active journeys to and from school.

WOW encourages pupils to walk, wheel, cycle and scoot to school, rewarding pupils who get involved at least once a week with a monthly badge. Families can also park and stride from a location which is at least a 5 minute walk away, to help reduce congestion in the immediate vicinity of the school.

Participating schools held assemblies to introduce the challenge, which encourages children and families to travel actively to school at least once a week. Pupils enter their method of travel to school on the “WOW Travel Tracker”, which sees classes ranked in leader boards to see which class can get to school in the most active ways.

The colourful WOW mascot Strider visited several schools in assemblies, also greeting pupils at the school gate to kick off the campaign and encourage them to get moving.

The first launch event on 22nd coincided with International Car Free Day.

Living Streets WOW co-ordinator Juliette Cross joined Strider’s visits, presenting to the whole school, giving out other badges and encouraging school classes to join in with the challenge.

The initiative is already active in more than 2,000 schools across the UK and has been shown to reduce car journeys to the school gates by 59 per cent, while increasing walking and wheeling by 18 per cent.

The schools which took part in the Strider launch events were:

• Lanesend Primary School

• Barton Primary School

• Wootton Primary School

• Greenmount Primary School

• Nine Acres Primary School

WOW also supports Policy BC1, behaviour change, of the Island Transport Plan, by continuing to ensure that all Council educational policies and objectives include supporting children and young adults going to school and college by active modes or public transport.

Junior Travel Ambassadors (JTAs) at participating schools are also playing a key role in the rollout, acting as WOW ambassadors.

These pupils will be responsible for tracking travel data using the Travel Tracker and distributing badges each month.

At Nine Acres Primary School, JTAs also conducted a School Route Audit. This involved walking around the roads surrounding the school site, and noting down anything that might be a hazard for pupils and families while they walk to school.

This approach bring together lived experience and professional expertise to look at ways of overcoming barriers to walking within the community. This will feed back into their School Travel Plan on Modeshift STARS.

Lewis Campbell, Isle of Wight Council’s road safety officer, said: “We’re thrilled to again welcome Strider to the Island and to be backing the WOW campaign once again this year.

“Our Junior Travel Ambassadors are helping us to encourage families to consider active travel to school at least once a week.

“The WOW campaign is a great way for children to start walking to school and to help improve road safety around schools as a whole, encouraging a safer, healthier school run for the whole community.

“Last year, the Isle of Wight’s first year of engagement was a success, where we say participating schools achieve the largest modal shift towards active modes of travel in the south of England. We’re looking forward to building upon that this year.”

The JTA scheme provides schools with road safety resources and supports peer-to-peer education, contributing to School Travel Plans and helping schools work towards Modeshift STARS accreditation.

The Isle of Wight Council offers the JTA programme for all schools, aiming to build healthier, safer and happier school communities. WOW is funded by the WOW outreach programme, which is supported by Active Travel England.

Juliette Cross, project coordinator at Living Streets, said: “It was a pleasure to return to the Isle of Wight to celebrate the steps pupils across the island are taking to make their journeys to school more active.

“We are delighted to see so many pupils enjoying WOW – the walk to school challenge from Living Streets.

“Walking or wheeling to school is an excellent way for children and their families to build everyday, healthy habits. It also helps build independence, improves road awareness and is a fantastic way to start the day feeling energised and ready to learn.”

Schools interested in getting involved with any of these initiatives can contact the council’s road safety team at roadsafety@iow.gov.uk

For more information on the WOW – the walk to school challenge, visit: https://livingstreets.org.uk/WOW