School Travel Plan 2022/2023 at OLOL

Aims

• To increase the numbers of children and families at OLOL who use public transport or walking/cycling/scooting to get to school
• To reduce inconsiderate parent parking on roads adjacent to the school
• To support work already taking place to improve air quality around OLOL

Objectives

• Promote the Modeshift Starts programme and our objectives (PR1, PR13 and PR16)
• Development of a School Travel Policy (PR6)
• Whole school assembly (PR9)
• Complete the Switch Off Streets Pledge regarding idling cars near school
• Lobby councillors for 20 mph limit on Trittiford Road (completed by school council and denied by BCC) (P5)
• Pupil and parent survey about how they currently come to school to baseline start point (followed by later surveys to monitor progress) (CU8)
• Introduce Bikeability and bike/scoot to school days (C21, 22 and 23 and C7)
• To hold an annual Bike and Scoot Week to celebrate activity and healthy school travel (C8)
• Refurb storage area for bikes and scooters (will look for funding streams for this) (C2 and W12)
• Promotion of Car Sharing on particular days to begin with to reduce need for parking spaces on adjacent roads (AQ1)
• Run a poster competition to develop parental awareness of safe and considerate parking (AQ7 & CU1)
• Road safety and benefits of active travel continues to be taught in PSHEE (CU2, CU3 and R5)

Importance of Road Safety to Safeguarding and Wellbeing

Our ability to manage living in harmony with vehicles is a very important aspect of wellbeing. It is part of PSHEE and Citizenship development to learn how to keep ourselves safe from a host of dangers, in this case road based vehicles. At OLOL, we teach road safety across a number of year groups and in a variety of practical applications so that by the time your child leaves in Year 6, they are able to use situational awareness and a clear understanding of the rules of the road to keep themselves and others safe. Every day 6 children in the UK are killed in road traffic collisions or related incidents...

Brake's top tips for keeping children safe near roads

When your child is old enough to start walking with you, talk to them about how they must always hold your hand. Make sure hand-holding is your number one rule. If your child is likely to pull away from you, use safety reins or a wrist strap. Keep children on the inside, away from traffic, in case they trip.

As you walk, teach young children the words and ideas they need to understand the dangers of traffic. Teach them that:

• traffic is hard and fast and can hurt and kill people, because people are much slower and soft
• it’s important to stay away from roads, hold hands with a grown up, and not to run near roads
• traffic is also smelly and can hurt your lungs – this is why it’s better to walk and not drive cars

• Children under 8 should always hold a grown up's hand when walking near roads
• Children under 8 should always cross roads with a grown up, at a safe crossing place
• Until they are 150cm tall, all children should sit in a correctly sized and fitted child seat when travelling by car
• Children under 10 should not cycle on roads, they should keep to cycle paths away from motorised traffic
• Children should always wear a helmet when cycling to protect their head if they fall off

Walk to School Initiatives

There are many great benefits to walking to and from school each day and the safeguarding aspect of road safety sits alongside this:

• Health and fitness - increase heart rate and burn calories
• Part of the recommended 60 minutes of activity each day
• Emotional wellbeing, mindfulness and reflection time
• Stress reduction
• Relationship building (time to talk)
• Experiencing nature and getting fresh air
• Developing self risk management and situational awareness
• Develop independence 
• Preparing for Year 7 (if you are in Year 6)
• Easy to do activity requiring no equipment and no costs
• Helps reduce emissions and help the environment
• Saves an average family £300 per year in petrol costs

Cycling Initiatives at OLOL

Bikeability is a cycle training programme for pupils at all levels of cycling ability who want to improve their riding skills, who want to ride more often (on and off road) and who want to develop confidence and safety awareness. These sessions are delivered by The Active Wellbeing Society on behalf of Birmingham schools, free of charge. 

Cleaner Air and Emissions Reduction 

To support pupil and staff health, we are anxious to maintain the cleanest air possible inside and outside our school. As part of our work with Modeshift STARS we will continue to monitor air quality using our air quality sensors in the playground and we will also promote this through our rounded safeguarding and wellbeing curriculum in school.