Saxophone, sousaphone, drum and trombone highlight school commute

Over 10,000 miles were covered by foot, cycle or scooter by pupils across Kent in a scheme to get children more active on their commute to school.

Operation Motion: Giant Steps is a Kent County Council scheme aimed at challenging the way parents do the school run.

It involved 10 classes; one class each from 10 schools across the county, recording their progress daily and feeding the data into the online live leaderboard.

For Whitstable Junior School, the winners of this year’s challenge, they were awarded with a Brass Band Walk To School event. They, along with the top three schools, also received LED lights that they can attach to their bike or scooter.

Herne Church of England Junior School came second and will be receiving a be bright be seen safety package with Walking Bus waistcoats and bike/scooter lights.

In third position was St Mark’s Church of England who received a new scooter pod – parking for their scooters.

KCC Transport Planner, Iona Rogulski, said: “The scheme is run throughout May and we want to try and encourage parents and pupils to think about their school run and travel more sustainably.

“If journeys are too far to travel actively all of the way to school, we challenge parents to change their routine and try to “park and stride” to school, car share or consider public transport if appropriate.”

Taking part in the challenge were: Whitstable Junior School, Herne Church of England Junior School, St Mark’s Church of England, River primary, Southborough primary,  High Halden C of E Primary School, Skinners Kent Primary School, Westmeads Community Infant, Drapers Mill, and Aldington Primary School.

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