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WOW - the walk to school challenge

WOW is here for 2023/24

Resources are available on our shop now!

WOW is a pupil-led initiative where children self-report how they get to school every day using the interactive WOW Travel Tracker. If they travel sustainably (walk/wheel, cycle or scoot) once a week for a month, they get rewarded with a badge. It's that easy!

It's simple to run and children love taking part. Each year, the collectable WOW badges are designed by pupils in our annual badge design competition. On average, WOW schools see a 30% reduction in car journeys taken to the school gate and a 23% increase in walking ratesWOW is also available in Welsh

Is your school already taking part in WOW?

WOW Badge comeptition graphic

ARE YOU READY TO GET CREATIVE?

Join one of the UK's biggest design competition for children, for a chance to win FREE walk to school resources for an entire year!  

Encourage your pupils to think big and see where in time it takes them. We’ll turn 11 winning entries into more than 300,000 badges to be awarded to WOW pupils who walk, wheel, scoot, cycle or Park and Stride to school across the UK next academic year.

This year's theme is Walk with Imagination - we want pupils to imagine a different walk to school and draw where their imagination takes them! 

OUR 2023/24 THEME IS: THE BRITISH NATURE WALK

wow

Every year, WOW and its badges follow a different, fun and educational theme. Next year’s theme, ‘THE BRITISH NATURE WALK’ aims to bring pupils closer to the nature found across Britain! As pupils walk to school through the year they will learn and collect badges depicting urban and rural British landscape and animals.

Join us on this exciting journey!

three simple steps to WOW

BUY WOW

Join the over 2000 UK schools already on board!

Head to our shop or find out ways to fund WOW at your school?

Badge collage

ALL ABOUT OUR WOW BADGES

Find out all you need to know about the WOW badges, where they come from and how to recycle them.

THE WOW TRAVEL TRACKER

Our award-winning Travel Tracker allows pupils to log how they get to school everyday.

RUN WOW FOR FREE

Depending on area and availability, your school may be eligible for free WOW.

BENEFITS OF WOW

Reduces congestion

1 in 4 cars on the road each morning are on the school run - but WOW can turn that around!

 

Increases walking rates

Walking rates at participating schools increase by 23% in the first five weeks. WOW Travel Tracker helps you keep track of your schools modes of travel.

Accreditation

Helps you achieve your outstanding OFSTED schools rating and Modeshift STARS and Healthy Schools status.

Little classroom time

Less than 10 minutes of a teacher’s day! The most important part of WOW happens before the school day even starts.

 

Low cost

WOW is around £2 per pupil; just a fraction of your PE and Sport Premium per child.

Instils healthy habits

Promotes healthy mental wellbeing by improving behaviour and concentration levels in class.

Adaptable

We understand that walking to school isn’t an option for everyone and so aim to adapt WOW – our walk to school challenge – in these situations, so that all pupils have a chance to be awarded a WOW badge. 

Our schools team can work with school staff, including SENCO, to establish a bespoke approach to WOW that works for them and their school community’s needs. Here are some examples of ways we’ve done this in the past. 

If you have any questions on the adaptability of WOW in SEND schools or have suggestions of how we can improve, please email walktoschool@livingstreets.org.uk