The March School Travel Plan
Approved by Governing Body March 2018
Travel Policy
Why do we have a School Travel Plan?
Our School Travel Plan is a policy which sets out how we will promote safer, active and sustainable travel to school, with the main emphasis being on reducing the number of children being driven to and from school in order to reduce the number of vehicles on the roads around the school during the school run period (8:45am and 3:05pm), improve safety on the journey to school and encourage more active and sustainable travel choices.
Our Objective
Reduce congestion and relieve parking issues around the school to make school drop off and collection easier and safer whilst encouraging active travel, where possible, to improve the health and well-being of our children.
The Benefits of our School Travel Plan
For the pupils:
- Improve health and fitness by walking, scooting and cycling to school
- Improve travel awareness and road safety skills
- Improve awareness of their surroundings
For the school:
- Improve safety around the school
- Reduce congestion around the school
- Establish safer walking and cycling routes around the school
For parents and carers:
- Reduce stress and time spent driving to school, especially when it is congested
- Enjoy active travel with the children and improve their own health and fitness
For the local community:
- Improve the local environment by reducing air and noise pollution
- Reduce congestion problems
- Respect our neighbours by reducing traffic flow and parking issues outside of their properties
What we are doing
- Encourage all members of our school community to walk, scoot or cycle to school where possible.
- Where a car journey is necessary, we encourage parents to drive part of the way and ‘park and stride’ the remaining distance.
- Utilise public transport for school trips where possible or travel on foot if the destination is within walking distance to reduce the number of car journeys.
- Carry out regular school travel surveys to understand how our pupils travel to school and how we can encourage more active travel.
- Utilise software to record how our pupils travel to school on a daily basis and award ‘Strider badges’ to those who consciously try to improve their active travel to school.
- Encourage lift shares amongst parents who live in the same areas.
- A school bus service is available to children who live in the furthest village in our catchment area to provide a safe and convenient travel option for those children whilst reducing traffic flow to the school.
- Participation in West Sussex Year 6 cycling proficiency course to improve the children’s road safety skills and awareness.
- Cycle routes to the three main residential areas surrounding the school which are available on our website.
- Provide in excess of thirty after school clubs and activities to stagger the school run and reduce congestion around the school.
- Bike it after school club is offered to KS2 children to improve their cycling skills and road awareness.
The school travel plan will be reviewed by a working group of parents, school staff and governors on a regular basis for the purpose of review and continuous improvement to achieve our objectives effectively.