School Travel Plans
What is a school travel plan (STP) ?
- a reference point for future change
- a way of demonstrating the school's commitment - to parents and to the local authority
- a basis for a funding
- an assurance of continuity if key individuals move on.
A school travel plan is a document produced by a school in conjunction with the Local Authority. Playforce works with schools and PTA’s to improve the safety of children on the journey to school, ensuring more children walk and cycle to school and parents have shelters to wait in the rain and boiling sun!
Why should a school have a STP?
Each school should have objectives which the STP sets out to achieve. Developing and writing the plan helps to; involve lots of people their ideas, can make links to classroom work and integrate work on school travel with the Healthy Schools and Eco Schools schemes.
How familiar are any of the below to you?
- Lack of waiting areas for parents
- Too many cars travelling to school
- Congested parking at the school gates
- Difficult junctions to cross on the journey to school
- Lack of cycle storage.
If any of these problems sound familiar then a STP could help you to improve the journey to school for your children and the whole community.
- Your STP can provide evidence to OFSTED that your school is delivering the objectives of Every Child Matters.
- Your STP can help you achieve Healthy School Status.
- Your STP can improve safety around your school.
- Your STP can provide excellent projects for pupils and school councils to engage in active citizenship.
- Your STP promotes sustainable, and safer transport for the whole of the school community
Who to involve
School travel plans are co-operative ventures, and their success depends on informing, consulting, and involving everyone with an interest in the project. This includes pupils, parents, teachers, governors, school premises manager, local residents, councillors, health promotion officers, and perhaps public transport operators. Most local authorities in England and Scotland now have a School Travel Adviser or Co-ordinator who will give support and guidance. Ask your council who to contact.
How to write a STP
A really useful start is to form an action group or committee. Perhaps give it your own local name. Yours could be a fairly formal group which meets at the school, though some people have found an informal group works just as well. Seek the support of your local authority school travel adviser / co-ordinator. Many local authorities now produce their own excellent guidelines to help schools prepare a STP, in print or on websites, and some supply a template to simplify the process.
The main elements will be common to all STPs (see 'What the STP should contain' below) but each plan is unique because it is produced and owned by a particular school, and addresses that school's needs.
Detailed guidance on how to produce a STP, what to include, and what it might look like can be found in 'How to develop a school travel plan', and in the DfT booklet 'Travelling to School - A good Practice Guide'.
How to put a STP into practice
The plan needs to be known. Give it suitable publicity. If it is a few pages long, it helps to have a leaflet or poster version highlighting the main targets and proposed actions, which can be displayed around the school and inserted into newsletters to parents.
Seek opportunities to reinforce the aspirations underpinning the plan; for instance videos could be shown at assemblies, 'new parents' induction meetings, or PTA meetings. Inviting media coverage of special events helps to spread the word, and can be a morale booster for those involved.
There should be reference to the STP in the school prospectus and on the school's website, and it could be part of a home school agreement. Ask the governing body / school board to approve the STP as part of the school's development plan - and to review it annually. The plan will need to be regularly modified to reflect the school's changing needs and circumstances.
What the STP should contain
The following list is a good basic guide to what a School Travel Plan should contain:
- a brief description of the location, size and type of school;
- a brief description of the travel/transport problems faced by the school/cluster of schools.
- (This should include all pupils' travel needs: journeys to and from school at normal start/finish times, waiting areas for parents, journeys to attend pre-and after-school events and journeys made during the school day to attend activities at other locations;)
- the results of a survey to identify
- how children currently travel to/from school and
- how they would like to travel to/from school.
- clearly defined targets and objectives;
- details of proposed measures;
- a detailed timetable for implementation;
- clearly defined responsibilities;
- evidence that all interested parties have been consulted; and
- proposals for monitoring and review.'
Essentially the plan is a statement of problems which need to be addressed and a strategy for overcoming or reducing them by a number of initiatives which will make journeys to and from school safer and healthier. The initiatives will often include promotional activities, training, better facilities, enhanced public transport services, and safety improvements to the physical environment.
Top Tip: Make sure that your targets are SMART and linked to targets. You should assign tasks to individuals and mark clearly a target date. Improved attendance and achievement
- Less cars and congestion around the school
- Healthier, more active pupils, families and staff
- A more accessible school site
