Active Travel to School

What a fantastic a fantastic Scooter Challenge Week and Clean Air Day

Well done everybody who made a small change this week and actively travelled on their scooter. It has been a great success! Thank you to the JTAs who organised a Scooter Breakfast. This was well attended and a huge success. The JTAs suggested that next time we should have some picnic benches and music, a fabulous idea! 

Teachers handed out an activity sheets for the morning activity and there were some incredible poems, pictures and posters produced in a very short time! We have so many talented and creative people at Sholing Juniors.

Keep up the active travel everyone and lets all work together to repair the air.

Clean Air Day Thursday 16th June

We all want our air to be cleaner and healthier for us to breath so we all need to work together to reduce the air pollution, let's all make one small step to repair the air.

In the UK, the transport sector is the biggest source of greenhouse gases that are contributing to the global climate emergency. The good news is that if we all work together and commit to small steps, our collective action can create big change! So let's make one small change a week to reduce the air pollution, swap one car journey for an active journey(walk, scoot, cycle or take the bus). Maybe swap a car journey into Southampton city centre with a bus ride into the city centre. If you need to use your car for the school run because of distance or your going onto work then try a Park and Stride - that's parking 10 minutes away(eg the Veracity) and walking/scooting the rest of the way. You will save money on petrol, get extra exercise and reduce pollution, perfect!

Small Steps = Big Change

Watch this space for great competitions to win some fabulous prizes.

Scooter Challenge 13th -17th June

We’re pleased to announce the Clean Air Scooter Challenge is back for 2022. The challenge provides schools with an opportunity to encourage their pupils to scoot to school and the chance to win some great prizes.

This year's challenge will take place from 13th to 17th June 2022. Actively travel to school, with a scooter if you have one and record how you travel to school on Travel Tracker as usual. At the end of the week, the schools with the highest average number of children scooting to school will win some amazing active travel prizes including: 

• Scooter School Programme delivered by Professional scooter rider Terry Price
• Scooter Pods
• Adult Scooters

Scooting is a fun and active way for children to get to and from school. Plus, for those who live too far to scoot all the way to school, scooters are compact enough to fit in the car. This allows parents to park 5-10 minutes away from the school site so children can scoot from the boot.

Relaunch of Park and Stride after Half Term

                                     As you are aware, the Junior Travel Ambassadors encourage and promote everyone to actively travel to school – walk, scoot and cycle.

They work tirelessly to reduce the congestion at the school gates, making it a safer place for both children and adults to walk to school.

We understand that not all children are able to walk the whole way to school, due to distance, parental work commitments or a variety  of other reasons. One way in which we hope to help you is by encouraging Park and Stride. It’s a simple initiative, where parents/Carers are encouraged to park their car a 10 minute walk from school and walk the rest of the way with their children.

We are therefore asking parents/carers to park over by the veracity and walk the rest of the way. If you park on the far side of the veracity it is only a 9 minute walk in the open air with a safe Zebra crossing to cross the road.

By parking away from the school gates you are making it a safer place for our children, reducing pollution levels next to the gates and get more exercise.

Thank you for your continuing support.

Fusion Extreme

Well done Sholing Juniors with the Big Walk and Wheel. We completed 2733 journeys over the 2 weeks. As a thank you, Bike It Ray and Rachel Oliver from Southampton City Council awarded us a certificate and arranged for Fusion Extreme to come into school and give everybody an incredible stunt show on their bikes. A huge thank you to the Stunt team and Southampton City Council for an amazing morning.

How we spent our £50 voucher?

Back in October the JTAs sent postcards to Boris Johnson and the Local Council about their hopes for the our environmental future. As a school we started recycling pens and other plastics to reduce landfill. Southampton City Council gave us a £50 voucher for our ideas and work we do. We decided to spend it on encouraging more birds into our garden and we researched what we needed.

We bought 2 bird feeding stations and bird food. During JTAs we put them together and then put them in the garden. They have shown to be very popular with the birds!!! We will need to go out once a week to make sure the feeding stations are topped up with food.

Walk to School Week 16th-20th May

We will be joining thousands of children across the UK to celebrate the
benefits of walking during Walk to School Week (16 - 20 May 2022).
Walk to School Week is organised by Living Streets, the UK charity for everyday walking as
part of their National Walking Month campaign each May.
Families are encouraged to walk, cycle, scoot or ‘Park and Stride’ for the whole week to see
the big differences that come from small steps, from healthier and happier children to fewer
cars outside the school gates. This year’s challenge, #PowerUp, will engage pupils through
video game-inspired design, encouraging them to travel sustainably to school every day of
the week.
So the weather looks perfect this week for actively travelling to school and leave those cars behind making outside our school gates a safer and healthier place for everyone.

The JTAs ran a competition to design a poster to promote active travel. They chose these two amazing posters because of the important messages they displayed. Well down to everyone who entered. The JTAs will be putting up copies of these posters all around the school this week so take a closer look.

Bikers Breakfast

Well done to the JTAs for arranging a Biker's Breakfast. Thank you to Rachel from Southampton City Council who came along to support and help us. It was a massive hit and lots of people turned up on their bikes to feast on the delicious breakfast delights on offer. Whilst there, the JTAs continued to discuss future ideas and plans to promote active travel!!!! A great idea was to have a scooter's breakfast during Scooter Challenge week (Monday 13th June - Friday 17th June). Great work JTAs and thank you to everyone who attended.

Results of the Big Walk and Wheel

Well done everyone who actively travelled during the Big Walk and Wheel. Once again there was a huge number of schools who registered -2440 schools entered, 795,501 pupils took part and 2,244,401 active journeys logged. 

So out of 2440 schools we came 63rd with 83.78% daily active journeys, fantastic. We came 12th in the South of England and 2nd in Southampton. Well done, a fabulous achievement. We have also won from Southampton City Council a show from Fusion Extreme MTB/BMX!!! We look forward to watching that!

Keep up the active travel! 

JTA Shop

Well done to the JTAs for organising their shop selling hi vis jackets, reflectors and slap bands in the South Playground at lunchtime, a fabulous idea.

Bikers Breakfast Thursday 31st March

Anyone cycling to school in the morning and arrives with an adult can pop along to the Bikers Breakfast in the Parent Shelter, next to the Sholing Shack( formally known as the Bike Shelter) and enjoy some breakfast snacks. Thank you to the JTAs for organising this. You do need to be with an adult when you come to chose your snack.

The Golden Lock

A huge thank you to all the JTAs who have been organising the Golden Lock during The Big Walk and Wheel and well done to everyone who won a prize. Hope you all enjoyed scooting and cycling to school. Keep it up!

Thursday 17th March

A huge thank you to the Bike Dr from The Hub Cycleworks Shirley https://hubcycleworks.co.uk/ and Bike It Ray from SUSTRANS who kindly checked over all the bikes left with them so they are all safe and ready to ride around our beautiful City.

For more information about cycling around our City have a look at the My Journey Southampton Website on the cycling page at  https://myjourneysouthampton.com/cycle/

Bling Your Bike/Scooter Competition

Well to everyone who entered into the Bling Your Bike/Scooter Competition today (Wednesday 23rd March). The JTAs found it really tough to decide on winners as the standard was really high. They finally decided and prizes were handed out. However, they feel all entries deserve a little prize and so they will be handed out in assembly on Friday. Well done everyone.

A huge thank you to Bike It Ray (on his electric cargo bike) for delivering and putting up some amazing new signage on our bike shelter. One of the JTAs came up with the name Sholing Shack. It's looking incredible.

What a fantastic start to the Big Walk and Wheel 2022! So many active travellers, keep up the great work! It's so much fun in the sun to walk, scoot or cycle to and from school.

Winners again of Local Authority Primary School of the Year and STARS Primary School of the Region, South East

   Yesterday we were invited to the Modeshift STARS Regional Awards event. We are so proud to announce we won two awards for the second year running for all that we do at Sholing Junior School to promote active travel:

-Local Authority For Primary School Of The Year, Southampton City Council, 2021-2022

-STARS Primary School Of The Region, South East, 2021- 2022

This is in recognition of all the initiatives implemented and carried out at Sholing Juniors to encourage and promote active travel. So, a massive thank you to everyone for actively travelling; walking, scooting and cycling, staying healthy and improving our air quality.

There are over 1200 schools signed up with Modeshift STARS in the South East of England, 75 were nominated by their local authority for the award and we won!

Finally, I would like to say a huge thank you and well done to all the Junior Travel Ambassadors who meet every week, plan and organise events in school to promote active travel, from the weekly Babs Bags to The Big Walk and Wheel next week. You are truly a dedicated and inspirational group of young people and I am immensely proud of everything you do.

So we are off the  Nationals in London!

The Big Walk and Wheel Monday 21st March- Friday 1st April 2022

Have a look at The Big Walk and Wheel Website :

https://bigwalkandwheel.org.uk/

Sustrans Big Walk and Wheel is a national event and  inspires pupils to be amazing and take active journeys to school.

On each day of the challenge, schools compete to see who can get the highest percentage of their pupils walking, using a wheelchair, scooting or cycling to school. 

The JTAs are working really hard to organise lots events over the 2 weeks of the Big Walk and Wheel. Here are some of the things they are organising:

The Golden Lock - each day the JTAs will pop the Golden Lock onto either a scooter or a bike. If you are the lucky person, go to find Miss Rickards at the end of the day and she will unlock it and you can choose a prize from the prize box.

Bling Your Bike or Scooter competition

Wednesday 23rd March - How fancy can you make your bike or scooter? Decorate it safely and the JTAs will decide on a winner. There are some lovely prizes.

The Bike Doctor

On Thursday 24th March bring in your Bikes and leave them with the Bike Dr who will check them over for free to make sure they are all ok and safe.

Councillor Baillie will be visiting the school on Thursday 24th March to talk to the JTAs and The School Council about what Southampton City Council do to help our environment. Also, it will be a great opportunity for the JTAs to share what they do to promote active travel.

Poster Competition 
The JTA's will be running a poster competition and would like all entries returned by this date. Again there are some great prizes to be won.

Bikers Breakfast

Thursday 31st March there will be a table set up next to the bike shelter and anyone arriving with their bike and an adult can have some of the tasty breakfast snacks on offer.

So there are lots of things going on around school, let's all enjoy being a bit more active on the school journey.

How about catching a bus into the City Centre?

Travel on the Bluestar bus or City Red for just £1 after 6pm, available on all routes and all zones. For more information check out Southampton City Council’s website:

https://www.southampton.gov.uk/news/article/southamptons-1-evening-bus-fare/

For bus routes go to:

Firstbus

https://www.firstbus.co.uk/southampton

Bluestar

https://www.bluestarbus.co.uk/services

Air Quality Sensor

 We have been lucky enough to have received an Airly air quality sensor from Southampton City Council to monitor the air quality in our area.

Download the Airly App and you can track the air quality at any time of the day in Sholing, Southampton, the UK or anywhere in the world that has an Airly  sensor.

Our air quality is so important as it affects our health and our environment so we all need to do our little bit to reduce the pollution levels. Let’s all repair the air together.

Walktober 2021

Walktober is all about pupils, staff and their families finding opportunities to walk and be outside as often as possible: whether it’s to and from school or work; finding other opportunities to enjoy spending time outside with household members or others; or encouraging and inspiring others to do the same.

Even though the weather is not the best at the moment, let's not be put off walking, scooting and riding our bikes. Just wrap up warm and let's get actively travelling to help reduce pollution, get active and save money. 

Dear Sholing Juniors,

                                    Next week is Bike To School Week! So get your bike out if you want to:

BE Active and feel more energised

Help the environment by replacing a car journey

Improve local air quality and reduce congestion

The Golden Lock

The Golden lock will take place on Tuesday Wednesday and Thursday. If you bring in your bike, one will be chosen at random and have the Golden Lock placed on it. If you find the Golden Lock on your Bike at the end of the day, then find Miss Rickards and she will unlock it for you and you can choose a prize.

Wednesday 29^th September – The Bike Dr

If you would like your bike checked over, free of charge, then bring in your bike and leave it in the South playground for the Bike Dr from Monty’s Hub will see to it. A massive thank you to Monty’s.

Safety

Remember to ride safely, wear a helmet and lick up your bike. Check out our website to give your bike a safety M check:

https://www.sholing-jun.co.uk/active-travel-to-school/

Let’s all get active, reduce pollution and help improve our environment.

Scooter Challenge Monday 14th June - Friday 18th June

We have signed up for Scooter Challenge again this year.

Scooter Doctor

On Wednesday16th June we will have Bike Rachel in school who will check over your scooters to make sure they are ok. Just leave them in the South playground in the morning, in the designated area, and she will check them over for you. This is a free service.

The Challenge

To get as many children as possible scooting to school every day from 14–18 June 2021. The schools   the highest average number of children scooting will win a Scooterpod.

Scoot From The Boot

Throw the scooters in the back of your car if you live too far away to scoot all the way to school. Then park sensibly 5-10 minutes away from the school site so that you don’t cause unnecessary congestion and danger to children around the school gates. Scooters are fairly compact so don’t take up much space at home or in the car. Even younger children can go a reasonable distance at a good pace. They are a great option if you are short of time on the school run.

Top Tips For Scooting

If your child has a scooter and you wish them to participate, please keep them safe scooting to
school by ensuring they understand our tips for a safer scooting experience:

1. Pedestrians have priority on the pavement.
2. Stay close to your parent/carer.
3. Be aware of other people using the pavement and be polite and considerate to them.
4. Take extra care when crossing vehicle entrance/exit points e.g. driveways, and remember that the person there first (car driver, cyclist, pedestrian etc) has priority.
5. Look all around before you start moving, stop moving or change direction, and look where you are going.
6. Keep away from the kerb.
7. Wear a helmet and bright, fluorescent clothing to ensure you can be seen.
8. Walk with your scooter when crossing the road, in crowded areas or other busy areas e.g. the school playground.
9. Carry things in a rucksack, not balanced on the handlebars.
10. The Highway Code tells us that the speed limit on pavements is 4mph.

The Golden Lock

A massive thank you to the  Year 3 and 4 JTAs who ran the Golden Lock daily over the 2 weeks. There were 10 lucky winners of the Golden Lock, so well done to those people

Results Of The Big Pedal

Well done to everybody actively travelling during The Big Pedal: pupils, parents/carers, staff and the JTAs  who organised it. Here are some of the results:

2,254 Schools took part

759,893 pupils participated

We came 148th on the leader board with a score of 76.56%

There were 4,361 total journeys

We were 21st in the South East of England

We were 5th in Southampton

Let's keep up the great work and help reduce the pollution levels in Southampton.

The M Check For Your Bike

Click on the link below to show you how to check your bike is safe to ride using the M Check.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qtx60bcNk0

The L Check For Your Scooter

Click on the link below to show you how to check your scooter is safe to ride using the L Check.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwQL_iorrAg

The Big Pedal Family Competition from Bike It Jenny at SUSTRANS

The Big Pedal family competition gives parents and guardians the chance to win one of three amazing prize bundles for their family. All you need to do is take a photo or a short video of your child(ren) taking part in Big Pedal between 19-30 April. Post it to Instagram, Facebook or Twitter, tag @Sustrans and use #BigPedalWin. Families whose children are remote learning can still take part from home. Find out more information. (https://www.sustrans.org.uk/our-blog/projects/uk-wide/schools/sustrans-big-pedal-family-competition/)

JTA The Big Pedal Poster Competition

We ran a poster competition for the JTAs to design a poster to promote The Big Pedal in school. There were so many fantastic entries however I could only choose two winners and here they are below. Well done, a fantastic job.

The Big Pedal 19th -30th April

We have registered for the Big Pedal again this year. The challenge runs from Monday 19^th April to Friday 30^th April and we will try and get as many children, parents, carers and staff cycling, scooting and walking to school. This is a national competition so we are against schools across the UK.

The theme for Sustrans Big Pedal 2021 is Amazing Journeys. As well as getting active, children will be encouraged to see their local area from a new perspective, learn about the benefits of active travel and discover amazing journeys to school from around the world.

Events over the two weeks

The Golden Lock – Every day the JTAs will place the Golden Lock on a bike or scooter. If you are that lucky person to find it on your bike/scooter, find Miss Rickards at the end of the day and she will give you a prize.

The Bike Doctor –Wednesday 21^st April. Have your bike checked over by The Bike Doctor and they will make any small repairs needed FREE OF CHARGE. This is for both adults and children’s bikes. Leave your bike against the fence inside the South Playground in the morning and pick them up at the end of the day.

Poster Competition – Design a poster for bike or scooter safety to be used in school. Return it to school by Wednesday 28^th April and there will be a prize for the winning poster.

Bling Your Bike/Scooter/Helmet – On Wednesday 28^th April decorate your bike/scooter/helmet. The JTAs will decide a winner for each category and they will win a prize.

Have fun and let’s all get active and enjoy some amazing journeys.

Flying Fergus

If you enjoy bikes and cycling then click on the link below to go to the homepage of Flying Ferus and his friends. Check out his cycling  adventures through the activities and learn more from Sir Chris Hoy.

https://www.flyingfergus.co.uk/

Great books to read online

Click on the links below for some great books to read online. Click on the arrows to turn the pages.

http://www.hampshire-prepared.3dvp.co.uk/journey_to_school/page_1.html

http://hampshire-prepared.3dvp.co.uk/pandemic_safety/page_1.html

http://www.hampshire-prepared.3dvp.co.uk/travelling_back_in_time_to_school/page_1.html

Bike it Jenny's Adventure Challenge

Are you ready to get outside more this winter? Would you like to write a pledge to encourage you and your family to get outdoors more during the Christmas holidays? Click on the link below to see Bike It Jenny's Adventure Challenge. 

https://youtu.be/E2oiPyCrJvM

Road Safety Week 16^th -22^nd November

We all want to be able to walk safely on our streets. This year Road Safety Week is running from 16^th – 22^nd November and the road safety theme for this year  is No Need To Speed. It would be a good opportunity for everyone just to consider their speed when driving in their cars, especially in and around residential areas.For more information follow the link

http://www.roadsafetyweek.org.uk/

Babs Is Back!

The JTAs are going to be sending out the brand new Babs bags starting from Friday 13th November.

For those of you who haven’t met Babs yet, she is one of the My Journey characters for Southampton City Council. Once a week, the JTAs randomly choose someone from each year group to take home Babs for the weekend to go on an active journey eg a walk to the park, a scooter or bike ride somewhere or a bus journey. Then either write about the adventure or draw a picture and send Babs back into school on the Monday and we can add the adventure to Bab’s diary.

Due to the current situation we will be taking extra care of Babs:

Each week, after she has been returned to school she will go into the washing machine.

The bags will also be washed weekly.

We will be just providing paper in the bags.

Instructions sent out in the bag will be recycled and a new set sent out for the following week.

Babs bags have been very popular in the previous two years and she has been on so fantastic journeys. So fingers crossed that you will receive a visit from Babs soon.

Clean Air Day Thursday 8th October

This Thursday we have signed up to be part of Clean Air Day.  Please click on the link below for more information and why it is so important we all play our part in reducing pollution levels.

https://myjourneysouthampton.com/media/2791/primary-school-clean-air-day-pack.pdf

Walk To School Week 5th-9th October

This week is Walk To School Week, so let's all try and be that little more active and walk, scoot or cycle to school. Ditch the car and enjoy the fresh air.

Walktober, Walking For Wellbeing

This month we have signed up to join all the thousands of other pupils across the country for Walktober. Last week everyone was sent a Pupil Pack with lots of great ideas for walking. If you have mislaid yours please click on the icon above. In addition, have a look at the powerpoint that has lots of information and ideas for waking this month.

Bike To School Week 28th September -2nd October

Walk, cycle or scoot to school and discover a new way to travel. We have signed up for Bike To School Week. 

Challenge your friends and family to join you.

Enjoy exploring new routes to and from school.
Help the environment by replacing a car journey.
Improve air quality and reduce congestion.

The newly appointed JTAs will be running the Golden Lock  every day so there is a chance to win a prize. Each day they will place the Golden Lock on a bike or scooter. Whoever receives the Golden Lock will go and find Miss Rickards and she will unlock your bike/scooter and they can choose a prize.

REMEMBER:

CHECK YOUR BIKE/SCOOTER IS SAFE(LOOK AT THE CLIP BELOW)

WEAR A HELMET

BRING A BIKE LOCK TO KEEP YOUR BIKE/SCOOTER SAFE

The M Check

Watch the video for a bike safety check

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qtx60bcNk0&feature=youtu.be&utm_source=Sustrans&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=11821364_Bike%20to%20School%20Week_email%202_England&utm_content=M%20check%20video&dm_i=6EB,71DF8,V5J6J2,SE30V,1

Welcome back everyone. This week we are starting Travel Tracker again. Have a look at the link below:

https://vimeo.com/452193809

Let's all enjoy our active journeys to and from school.

The Kiddie Cones Have Arrived

The Junior Travel Ambassadors have been liaising with Hazel Agombar, the  School Travel Officer at Southampton City Council, to receive some Kiddie Cones to go outside our school to remind people not to park on the zigzags and to keep our children safe. They have arrived safe and sound, thank you Hazel. So many people have made positive comments about them and how eye catching they are, so fingers crossed they will help reduce the parking issues outside our school

Parking Advice Tickets

What a successful launch of the JTAs Parking Advice Tickets. They have handed out some Awesome Parking Tickets to lots of people who have parked thoughtfully away from the school gates. However, they have also had to hand out Parking Advice Tickets to people who are parked right outside the school gates, on the pavement or on the corner of Middle Road and Heath Road. As you are aware this is where there are two School Crossing Patrol Officers, who are there to make sure everyone crosses safely so it is really important  they can see the roads clearly and not have lots of parked cars near them. We all need to work together to make sure it is as safe as possible to walk to school and to be able to cross the road safely, Thank you to everyone that we spoke to when we handed out all the parking advice information, everyone was so polite. The Junior Travel Ambassadors are such a motivated team who are determined to make our pavements around are school as safe as possible. Well Done JTAs.

Here is a very interesting BBC clip explaining one of the reasons why it is better to walk or cycle to school rather than use the car.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-south-yorkshire-49960950/how-do-you-breathe-less-pollution-on-school-run

Walktober

For the month of October we are participating in Walktober.  The Walktober challenge is about walking to improve your wellbeing. We would encourage you to walk as much as possible during the month – to and from school and work, for example, but try to find other opportunities to walk too. Have a look at the Challenge cards that have been sent home.

Scooter Challenge - Monday 17th June to Friday 21st June

Yes it really is that time of year again! We have registered to participate in the Scooter Challenge again this year. So let's see if we can get as many children as possible scooting to and from school this week. Not only is it fun, great exercise but it all helps to reduce the pollution problem. Remember to scoot safely, always wear a helmet. The children were shown a scooter safety video last week but if you want to see it again just follow the link below:

https://www.sustrans.org.uk/what-you-can-do/children-and-families/learn-how-ride-scooter

Let's all Move in March

Let's all get a little more active this month. For events that are going on around the city and to be able to plan your journey, take a look at the My Journey website at:

https://myjourneysouthampton.com/