Sustrans’ Big Walk and Wheel - Walk to School Initiative

We are delighted to share that St. Patrick's Primary School will be participating in Sustrans’ Big Walk and Wheel Event, from Monday 11th March – Friday 22nd March (aside from school closure on Monday 18th March,) a fun walk-to-school initiative aimed at encouraging more sustainable methods of travel. Our Eco-Committee have already delivered two fantastic assemblies to pupils in the school about the benefits to both ourselves and the environment of participating in active travel.

We understand that we are very fortunate to have pupils travel to us from all across Armagh City, and beyond, and that walking to school isn’t a realistic prospect for many. To help facilitate the involvement of as many pupils as possible, school staff will be holding a meeting point where parents can drop their children off earlier, allowing them to walk to school with other pupils.

Across these two weeks, we are asking pupils who would like to walk to school to meet in
Home Bargains’ car park towards the Alexander Road entrance. This area allows a safe space for parents to drop their children off. We will then make our way along to school using the pedestrian crossing traffic lights and our school lollipop man, Seamus.

We will be leaving Home Bargains at 8.35am each morning. School staff will be present from 8.30am to greet pupils. Any parents who would like to accompany the group on this walk are very welcome to join us.

Each morning, members of our Eco-Committee will visit all classrooms to count how many people made an active journey to school that day.

For those children who live closer and normally walk to school each day, please continue to do so – your active journey to school will also be counted towards our final figures in Sustrans’ event.

This is a wonderful initiative that will contribute towards our own health, will energise us as we arrive at school and provide cleaner air in the mornings around our school grounds.

As a school, we really appreciate the continued support of our wider school community in all that we do. Each individual active journey will make a small change. Collectively, we can make a big change.