Parents of children across Cornwall are being urged to ditch the car and consider walking or cycling together to school for Walk to School Week 2022.
The national initiative which kicked off this week asks parents to try leaving the car at home and consider alternative modes of transport.
Cabinet Member for Children and Families, Barbara Ellenbroek, said:
“This is a great initiative and a brilliant opportunity to help our environment by taking cars off Cornwall’s roads, although we know it’s not always possible to leave the car behind in more rural areas.
“The alternative is to park a bit further away from school and walk the rest of the way. Those extra few steps can go a long way to increasing family fitness and is a great way to boost your mood for the day ahead.”
Walk to School Week builds on Cornwall Council’s commitment to encourage and promotes Active Travel. We work in partnership with Active Cornwall, Sustrans and Healthy Cornwall to support schools and families with ideas on increasing physical activity.
Tim Marrion from Active Cornwall said:
“We have ideas to suit all families including cycle maps and ideas for people to try, like Park and Stride.
“Being more physically active can help your children to grow stronger, become healthier and can help with things like your mental health and improving attainment at school. But it doesn’t mean you have to spend hours in the gym; just increasing your step count can help you to lead a happier and healthier lifestyle.”
Schools in Cornwall, through initiatives like ‘Walk to School Week’ can help to encourage behaviour change amongst their families and the wider school community by encouraging children and families to walk or cycle and scoot to and from school.
Alongside partners we are supporting schools to develop a sustainable Active Travel plan through the Modeshift Stars in Education Programme and schools can sign up on the Modeshift Stars website.
Guidance shows that adults should do at least 150 minutes of physical activity each week, through a variety of activities.
For Children that figure is 60 minutes each day of moderate intensity activity, so anything that gets the heart rate going!
This year’s theme for Walk to School Week is #Powerup, a video game-inspired set of tasks which children and young people can complete.
Active travel: walking and cycling
For more information on Walk to School week please visit the Living Streets website.Walk to School Week | Living Streets