Managing a safe return presents a number of challenges for schools and head teachers, and one of these is how pupils get to school. Congested roads and busy buses make social distancing difficult. Supporting active travel will be key to creating a safe space at arrival and departure times, and it will also reduce the burden on public transport, leaving it safer for the people who have no other alternative.
Here are some options to make active travel easier:
• Encourage parents to choose active travel modes for their children, sending a letter explaining the importance of avoiding public transport where possible, and the safety issues created by congestion around schools. We’ve created a leaflet for parents and pupils which you are welcome to distribute around your school.
• Allow bike and scooter parking on school walls/fences to increase capacity and prevent grouping at pods/shelters.
• Identify an off-road park-and-stride location 5-10 minutes’ walk away from the school. This could be a supermarket or a council car park. If there is a charge, discuss with the landowner an amnesty during drop-off and pick-up times given the circumstances. Let parents know about it.
• Parked cars and traffic make it difficult to safely maintain distance; instead the physical space around the school site can be changed to create wider footpaths or scoot/cycle lanes. Talk to The Hub or Stockton Borough Council about the possibility of suspending parking bays, removing traffic lanes, discouraging through-traffic or temporarily closing streets to traffic to allow for the widening of footways, pop-up cycle lanes and the development of a safe active travel network to the school.
• Stay in touch with us. Share your ideas and concerns. We can work with the local authority and the wider school network.
• For secondary schools and colleges: Use our route maps to help pupils find their best route to school.
Click here for the Secondary School flyer!
Click here for the Primary School flyer!