{"id":17269,"date":"2025-03-25T18:11:45","date_gmt":"2025-03-25T18:11:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/education-today.co.uk\/?p=17269"},"modified":"2025-03-25T18:23:00","modified_gmt":"2025-03-25T18:23:00","slug":"uks-biggest-active-travel-school-challenge-returns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/education-today.co.uk\/uks-biggest-active-travel-school-challenge-returns\/","title":{"rendered":"UK\u2019s biggest active travel school challenge returns"},"content":{"rendered":"

Children are invited to take on the UK\u2019s biggest walking, wheeling, scooting and cycling challenge to help change the future of travel.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sustrans\u2019\u00a0<\/span>Big Walk and Wheel<\/span><\/a>, sponsored by\u00a0<\/span>Schwalbe Tyres UK\u00a0Limited<\/span><\/a>, takes place from 24th March to 4th April 2025 and inspires children across the country to make active journeys, boosting physical and mental health, improving air quality and discovering how individual actions make a difference.<\/span><\/p>\n

The challenge is open to all primary and secondary schools in the UK, including special educational needs, additional support needs and additional learning needs schools. It is free to take part and there are daily prizes to be won.<\/span><\/p>\n

New research\u00a0by Sustrans reveals that while, positively, 62% of children walk, wheel or scoot five or more days a week, more than half (54%) travel by car or van five or more days a week.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rachel Toms, Director of Urbanism and UK Programmes at Sustrans, says: <\/span>\u201cPeople want a choice in how they get around, and the popularity of Sustrans\u2019 Big Walk and Wheel is testament to the many benefits of travelling actively \u2013 from improved health and concentration in children to a reduction in congestion and air pollution.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOur latest research gives us a clear picture: children want to walk and cycle. Sustrans is committed to working with communities to overcome existing travel barriers and the Big Walk and Wheel is a catalyst for change.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s so inspiring to see the many thousands of children from schools across the country who participate, and we can\u2019t wait to see this year\u2019s Big Walk and Wheel transform the school run.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Sustrans\u2019 research also highlights a significant gender gap among children cycling, with only 17% of girls cycling five or more times a week compared to 28% of boys.<\/span><\/p>\n

The report shows children want to travel more actively and identifies huge potential to improve access to cycling, enabling more girls and boys to cycle at a young age and reap the long-term health, economic and social benefits.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Big Walk and Wheel supports children and their families to choose walking, wheeling, scooting or cycling for the journey to school and form habits that can last a lifetime.<\/span><\/p>\n

There are resources for schools and those taking part in the competition, as well as prizes on<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>offer for primary and secondary schools that log their pupils\u2019 active journeys to school.<\/span><\/p>\n

Tim Ward, UK Marketing Manager of Schwalbe Tyres, says: <\/span>\u201cNow in our fourth year of supporting Big Walk & Wheel, we are tremendously encouraged by how much this event has developed and progressed since we started our involvement with this valuable initiative.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe focus that Big Walk & Wheel brings to encouraging both school children and parents alike to actively consider and participate in sustainable transport efforts cannot be underestimated. Pollution aside, we are all aware of the amount of traffic congestion that can be associated with the school run, especially in dense urban areas.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEncouraging children to travel to school in a sustainable way, whether in organised groups such as the Bike Bus concept that we support with the \u2018FRideDays\u2019 bike bus initiative, or individually, can ultimately only benefit the health and wellbeing of everyone.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Sustrans\u2019 recent report shows there is still a heavy reliance on cars and vans for getting to school. It also reveals the majority of pupils (82% of primary-aged children and 79% of secondary) support more traffic-free paths for walking, wheeling and cycling.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Children are invited to take on the UK\u2019s biggest walking, wheeling, scooting and cycling challenge to help change the future of travel. Sustrans\u2019\u00a0Big Walk and Wheel, sponsored by\u00a0Schwalbe Tyres UK\u00a0Limited, takes place from 24th March to 4th April 2025 and inspires children across the country to make active journeys, boosting physical and mental health, improving …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,4,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","","category-health-hygiene-safety","category-news","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/education-today.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/education-today.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/education-today.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/education-today.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/education-today.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17269"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/education-today.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17269\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17270,"href":"https:\/\/education-today.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17269\/revisions\/17270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/education-today.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/education-today.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/education-today.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}