Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
Kids strolling to big success
Two primaries get badges of honour
Two Monklands primaries demonstrated their shoes were made for walking after coming out on top in a national travel competition.
Airdrie’s Victoria Primary School kids strolled into second place in the Living Streets Walk of Fame contest, while Sikeside Primary, Coatbridge, finished third.
The youngsters used a Walk Once A Week ( WoW) travel tracker to record their journeys to and from school to encourage them to choose active, sustainable and healthy travel options.
And every pupil who travelled to school actively at least once a week during the competition was rewarded with a collectable badge.
Schools across Scotland registered their activity, and a top 10 of the best schools was calculated, based on the number of pupils taking part in active journeys over a 10-day period.
Audrey Houston, Victoria Primary head teacher, said: “The JRSO pupil voice group, led by Mrs McPherson, have worked together to ensure every child is recording their journey to school using the Living Streets travel tracker.
“We visit every class daily to remind children to complete the travel tracker. We encourage children to walk to school.
“However, if they are not able to walk we ask them to park and stride. All the children love collecting the badges.”
North Lanarkshire Council secured funding for the scheme through the Scottish Government’s Smarter Choices, Smarter Places funding to enable them to offer it to all primary schools in the local area.
Sikeside Primary head teacher Mrs Ann Campbell enthused: “Sikeside children enjoy walking to school in all weathers, out in the great outdoors. Socialising whilst improving their health and wellbeing is a great bonus too.”
Meanwhile, Lewis McWhinnie, Sikeside’s junior road safety officer, added: “We feel proud that we record all our pupils’ journeys to school each day and like having the responsibilty of this task.
“We’ve helped encourage pupils to take a more active route to school and they love to receive monthly WOW badges as a reward.”