Half of Enfield primary schools and nurseries are engaged in the Travel for Life (formerly STARS) programme and are actively encouraging students, parents and staff to travel by walking, scooting, wheeling, skating and other forms of sustainable travel. Read about some of our STARS schools below and their experience of being involved in Travel for Life.
As a school we want to promote active travel to and from school as well as educate our children on the importance of road safety. Our Junior Travel Ambassador (JTA) Programme is well established and we work hard to engage and educate both our children and their parents throughout the year on their newest campaign.
At the beginning of every school year, the Junior Travel Ambassadors (JTAs) stand outside the school and carry out their early morning survey to see what are the areas of active travel and road safety that we need to focus on. This is a great way to start off the JTAs year and guide their planning. It has also allowed us to build greater links with our local Police Community Support Officer (PCSO) and police officers who often accompany us for the traffic survey.
Travel for Life (formerly STARS) has meant that we are able to discover new country wide campaigns and events to take part in as well as give us a range of ideas for activities we can carry out in the school. These ideas provide inspiration for our JTAs and allow them to adapt them and make them their own. This has made the JTAs enthusiastic about their next competition, assembly or other event as well as taking on more responsibility and ownership of leading their chosen activity.
We are extremely proud at Hazelbury Primary to have achieved Gold accreditation in the STARS programme. We work very hard all year round to encourage walking, cycling and scooting to school rather than using the car.
Our lead on the STARS programme looks through the yearly calendar for all the published events e.g. Walk to School week, the Big Wheel event etc, then activities are planned around these events to work within year groups across the school. We then are also able to upload these activities as ‘stories’ on the STARS website.
Across the rest of the school year, our lead looks at activities across the programme, using a mixture of subjects e.g. walking, scooting, consultation, safer travel etc and plans for activities we can complete across the school years from Nursery to Year 6. These are then planned and added to the school diary where we as a school work together on the activities.
We work closely with our parents and local community. Our lead also works with our Safety and Wellbeing Champions, who are also our Junior Travel Ambassadors to plan and create activities that support the STARS programme.
We hold ‘hands up’ surveys throughout the school year to see if travel has improved for our children. We are passionate about the reasons behind the STARS programme and work hard to promote this and make it fun for our children, as well as teaching them more about safety and healthier choices.
George Spicer Primary School is a two-site, 4 form entry Primary School located in close proximity to Enfield Town. It was originally a one-site 2 form school, but since 2013 expanded into 4 form.
As the school grew, the number of cars on the road in the vicinity of the school increased. At the beginning and end of the school day the roads in close proximity to the school were congested with many parents parking on yellow lines and the school entrance zigzags, as well as across resident driveways.
We have held STARS Gold Accreditation for over 7 years. We work closely with Enfield Council and regularly engage the school community in a range of activities that raise awareness and promote sustainable and active travel to school.
As a Rights Respecting School we believe that all children have the right to an opinion. We have active Junior Travel Ambassadors (JTAs) who are part of the school’s Community Council and represent their peers. Road safety and sustainable travel is always on the meeting agendas and the children are passionate about having their voices heard and making a difference.
Every year the school actively participates in Road Safety Week and Walk to School Week with activities led by the JTAs. Past activities have included:
As more children cycle and scooter to school, Enfield Council have helped us with acquiring a number of new storage racks which are consistently at capacity. We even won a new bike shed as part of a photo competition.
In recent years, our annual school travel surveys have shown a significant decline in the number of families using their car to travel to school, and an increase in sustainable travel methods including Park and Stride.
Since September 2020 we have worked alongside the Council to set up a School Street. This has minimised traffic at the school gates and been received positively by the school community.
More information on the Transport for London Travel for Life (formerly STARS) programme can be found here.
