8 December
A Mapperley primary school has become the first in the city to gain national accreditation for promoting road safety and active travel.
Nottingham City Council’s Road Safety team has supported St Augustine’s Roman Catholic Primary and Nursery School, in Park Avenue, to achieve Bronze accreditation in the Modeshift STARS scheme. The scheme recognises schools and other organisations that have shown excellence in supporting walking, cycling and other forms of sustainable travel.
The school, which has one of the city’s car-free School Streets, is one of several who have worked with the council and taken advantage of Active Travel Funding, working with walking and cycling charity Sustrans on a series of initiatives.
Councillor Rosemary Healy, Portfolio Holder for Transport at the council, said: “It’s been brilliant to work with the staff and pupils at St Augustine’s, and support them in their enthusiasm and commitment to increasing road safety skills and promoting more sustainable ways to travel.
“It’s so important to learn how to stay safe on the roads from a young age, and now more than ever to think about our travel habits as we work together to reduce the harmful impacts carbon emissions have on the planet.
“This is well deserved recognition and we’re really pleased to see their hard work pay off.”
Pupils at St Augustine’s have taken part in scooter training, cycle skills, and school assemblies, delivered by Sustrans. They’re also regular participants in the annual Road Safety Quiz organised by the City Council.
To support the School Street initiative, which aims to create safer and less polluted spaces outside school gates, the school has carried out activities focused on air quality and encouraged children to walk to school. With the support of the council’s Road Safety team, the school created walking maps to encourage parents to park further away and take a route they might not have known about.
Headteacher Frances Moore said: “We’re absolutely thrilled at St Augustine’s that the commitment of our children to walk or cycle to school has been recognised especially as we’re the first school in Nottingham to achieve this accreditation.
“Our children deserve the Bronze level and we’re all very proud of them. A huge thank you too, to Mrs Wadsley who started this initiative with the children in the Summer Term. I know that she is very proud too.
“We’re now focused on the Silver level!”
The council is continuing to work with schools across the city to implement School Streets and support them to promote road safety and active travel. For more information visit www.transportnottingham.com/saferschooltravel
For more information on Modeshift STARS visit https://www.modeshiftstars.org/
