Walk to School Month
October is International Walk to School Month. Each October, primary school children from across the UK join forces with over 40 countries worldwide to celebrate the benefits of walking to school.
Walk to School Month in the UK is run by Living Streets. In 2012, we’ll be celebrating with Strider’s International Walking Challenge. This month-long activity encourages pupils to walk at least once a week for the month. We provide classroom packs that include everything a school needs to run a month-long challenge, encouraging pupils to walk.
This Walk to School Month, Living Streets is delighted to be teaming up with children’s shoe manufacturer Start-rite to encourage more children to walk to school during International Walk to School Month. Start-rite are sponsoring 20 schools in the Greater Manchester area to take part in Living Streets’ WoW (Walk once a Week) scheme which awards badges as incentives for children to walk to school regularly. Melanie Tuckwell, Communications Manager at Start-rite says: ”We are extremely passionate about supporting Walk to School Month as a cause that can have such a positive impact on the health and wellbeing of children across the UK. We want to help encourage as many children as possible to get involved in this campaign, and educate them and their parents about the many positive benefits that can result by taking part in the scheme.”
If you’re a parent, October’s a great time to give walking a go. Many parents tell us that walking is actually quicker and less stressful than taking the car, and they value the opportunity to spend quality time with their children.
If you'd like to hold your own Walk to School Month event, take a look at our How to run an event guide? It includes advice on planning, ideas for themes, tips on logistics and marketing and more.
For any media enquiries, press releases, images or comments about Walk to School Month, please contact Rosanna Downes on 0207 377 4913 or email rosanna.downes@livingstreets.org.uk. For any out of hours press enquiries, please call 07545 209865.
