Walk or ride to school

VicHealth's Walk to School month encourages primary school children to walk, ride or scoot to and from school throughout October 2018, to help them get the 60 minutes of physical activity they need each day.

Information for Merri-bek schools

Local schools can contact Council to find out more about local activities or visit the Walk to School website for more information.

Benefits of walking, riding or scooting to school

Council encourages parents and children to walk, ride or scoot to school. Choosing the physically active way of getting to school provides benefits to students, parents, schools and the broader community

Benefits for students

Walking, riding and scooting to school is fun. There's lots to see and experience as part of the journey  and its much more interesting than the inside of a car. Walking to school helps you stay healthy, explore your world and is a time to socialise with your family and friends.

Benefits for parents

Walking, riding or scooting with your children to school is a great opportunity to spend time with your them - they learn how to cross the road safely and how to safe around traffic. You can watch them develop the confidence and skills to get around without direct supervision.  

Benefits for schools

Schools who promote walking, cycling and scooting to school:

• Achieve improved learning outcomes (exercise stimulates brain activity so students who walk to school arrive at class ready to learn)
• Help teach physical activity lifestyle habits - habits that help students stay healthy throughout their life, and
• Keep roads around schools safe - families who walk and ride to school don't bring their car to the school gate.

Benefits for the community

Having local streets with parents and kids walking and riding to school makes our suburbs safer and more interesting places to live.

Using the physically active option to get places provides opportunities for exercise as well as casual social interaction. Meeting, talking and getting to know the people who live nearby as a part of walking your local suburb helps build a strong community.   

How Council supports schools and families to walk, ride or scoot to school

Council works with schools and health promotion and cycling advocacy organisations to encourage more people to use the physically active way of getting to and from school.

Event days to walk, ride or scoot to school

Every day is a good day to walk, ride or scoot to school, but there are some event days when Merri-bek Council would like you to make a special effort

• National Ride to School Day
• Walk Safely to School Day 
• Your school's monthly 'Hands Up!' active travel day - pick a day that works for your school and publicise it your school newsletter
• Ride to Work Day - teachers  show your support for your school's physical activity promotion efforts
• Walk to School - every day in October

Ride2School

Ride2School is a program to make it easier for students to walk and ride a bike to school. It is organised by VicHealth and run by Bicycle Network Victoria. Council supports the program by offering incentive prizes to participating schools.

The key event in the Ride2School program is Ride2School Day. 

Other events include monthly HandsUp! days where schools host a monthly walk or ride to school day and compete with other schools to win prizes such as school library books or swim passes for the local pool. For more informationon see Ride2School.

The following schools are active in the Ride2School program and regularly host HandsUp! travel days:

• Brunswick East Primary School
• Brunswick North West Primary School
• Brunswick South West Primary School
• Coburg North Primary School
• Moreland Primary School
• Pascoe Vale North Primary School
• St Oliver Plunkett's Primary School in Pascoe Vale, and
• St Fidelis Catholic Primary School in Coburg.

Schools involved in the Ride2School program in Merri-bek typically get over 55 per cent of their students regularly walking or riding to school and on special event days, such as Ride2School day, it is not unusual to get over 85 per cent of students walking or riding.

Contact Council if your school is doing something great to promote walking and riding to school.

Bike Ed

Bike Ed is a program is run by VicRoads aimed to help primary school students (aged 9 to 13 years old) to develop the skills they need to ride safely and independently on paths and roads.

The program involves a mix of practical activities conducted off-road (in the school grounds) and on-road (on local roads) together with classroom activities.

Bike Ed is delivered in schools and community settings, usually by teachers. People delivering the program need to have the Bicycle Safety Education Instructor Training, which is delivered at local venues throughout Victoria by the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development preferred provider.

Teaching materials, including an instructor's manual, information for parents, certificates and a DVD are available from VicRoads.

A class set of bicycles, helmets and other materials needed to run the outdoor components of the Bike Ed Course are available from various locations, including Lygon Cycles and Fitzroy Police Station.