BackSecondary students get active
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Thousands of secondary school students asked to ‘free their feet’ in a scheme aimed at getting more teenagers to walk
Over 50 secondary schools and 43,000 students across the UK have been selected to take part in the ‘Free Your Feet’ walking challenge during Walk to School Week, with the aim of encouraging teenagers to walk more.
The challenge, run by national charity Living Streets through their Step Up campaign, funded by the Big Lottery Fund encourages students to record the amount of walking they do during Walk to School Week in May to be in with a chance of winning an iPod Nano.
The launch of the Step Up ‘Free Your Feet’ walking challenge ties in with the start of Walk to School Week this May (17-21). Whilst primary school pupils are already taking action to walk more, it can seem that the walking message is lost when students take the big step up to secondary school. Step Up changes all that, using knowledge and inspiration from the pupils themselves to create a fresh way of getting teenagers involved.
Being active in our daily lives is recognised as the most important way to combat the rising tide of obesity – on current trends, over 50% of the adult population will be clinically obese by 2050. To stop that becoming a reality, it’s the young people of today who need to rethink their habits and fit in more daily activity. Walking to school is an easy way to do that and yet at secondary school age only 43% take the trip on foot and trips by car are increasing. Finding out what is stopping students from walking more, and providing answers, is the key aim of Step Up. The ‘Free Your Feet’ challenge is a new approach to inspire teenagers to give walking a go.
Tony Armstrong, Chief Executive of Living Streets said:
“It’s fantastic to launch this project across the UK. At secondary school we truly start tasting independence, making the free choices and developing the habits that we will carry with us throughout our adult lives.
“One in five cars on the road at peak times is on the school run, and figures show the number of secondary school pupils being driven is still rising. Not only that, but a quarter of under 17s say they never walk for 20 minutes or more at a time, resulting in serious consequences for their health. We need to make regular walking an attractive option again, and this challenge is a brilliant way to start!”
ENDS
Notes to editors
For more information contact Anna Powell, Press Officer on 020 7377 4914 or email anna.powell@livingstreets.org.uk. For any out of hours press enquiries, please call 07545 209865.
Living Streets’ national Step Up campaign is part of a portfolio of projects being delivered by Travel Actively, a consortium of leading walking, cycling and health organisations committed to providing opportunities for 1.8 million people to become physically active through active travel by 2012.
The consortium is funded with more than £19.9m from the Big Lottery Fund's Well-being programme, which provides funding to support the development of healthier lifestyles and to improve well-being.
Consortium partners are British Cycling, CTC, Campaign for Better Transport, Cycling England, Living Streets, London Cycling Campaign, the National Heart Forum, the National Obesity Forum, the Ramblers, Sustrans and Walk England.
The Big Lottery Fund has been rolling out grants to health, education, environment and charitable causes across the UK since its inception in June 2004. It was established by Parliament on 1 December 2006. Full details of the work of the Big Lottery Fund, its programmes and awards are available on the website: www.biglotteryfund.org.uk
Living Streets is the national charity that stands up for pedestrians. With our supporters we work to create safe, attractive and enjoyable streets, where people want to walk.
We have been the national voice for pedestrians throughout our 80 year history. In the early years, our campaigning led to the introduction of the driving test, pedestrian crossings and 30mph speed limits. Since then our ambition has grown. Today we influence decision makers nationally and locally, run successful projects to encourage people to walk, and provide specialist consultancy services to help reduce congestion and carbon emissions, improve public health, and make sure every community can enjoy vibrant streets and public spaces.
Published on: 14/05/2010
