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 The Walking Bug is named
Walk to School Monitors
This term's challenge winners named
Information packs
Contact Jackie Chambers to sign up for Green Footsteps
Walk to school events
About the scheme
The Walking Bug is an exciting Walk to School activity produced in partnership by Kent County Council, Medway Council and the Kent and Medway Walking Bus Group (affiliated with the Kent Messenger Newspaper Group).
The scheme complements the hugely successful Walking Bus initiative and also provides an attractive alternative to those schools where, for whatever reason, a walking bus is not feasible or an existing bus needs revitalising!
Kent is an exciting and vibrant place to live with a unique blend of cultural heritage and cutting edge developments and enterprise. This creates a diverse learning environment where pupils have an opportunity to understand the role of Kent throughout history and as the gateway to Europe in the 21st century.
Pupils will be able to join the Walking Bug and take part in an exciting and informative journey around their county learning more about local history and landmarks and the role of some of the major players in the regional economy.
Each participating class will be provided with a colourful wall-chart, beautifully illustrated with Kentish landmarks and the cuddly Walking Bug and his pals. Together you can walk your way around the County over the course of a term, enjoying the fun classroom activities as you go.
What each pupil will receive
- 1 x individual tally card
- 1 x bronze, silver and gold stickers
- 1 x certificate for the class/teacher in charge
- 1 x wall-chart
- 1 x class tally sheet
- 1 x rubber stamp
- 1 x CD ROM
- 1 x sheet of green flag stickers
- 1 x results table
How to operate the Walking Bug scheme
The challenge is designed to run over the course of a term* and the tally cards and wall-chart have been designed with this in mind. It's estimated that an average class of 30 pupils with 60-70% of them walking enough footprints on the wall-chart to reach a landmark once a week.
This should help to sustain interest and enthusiasm over the course of the term with regular incentives for participating pupils.
*This scheme estimates a term as being 12-13 weeks, which may equate to two terms for Medway schools.
Each pupil will need their own tally card, they'll keep these for the duration of the term (maybe in their trays rather than at home!) and will need to get it stamped for each time they walk either to or from school. Each tally card has space for 100 footprints but additional tally cards maybe printed from the CD ROM for any real enthusiasts who achieve more than 100 walks to and from school during the project!
Bronze, silver and gold stickers will be presented to pupils achieving 10, 50 and 100 walks to or from school over the course of the term and everyone gets a certificate that could be awarded in an assembly or at another suitable event.
It's suggested that the school could come up with some additional incentives for each of these achievements e.g. an extended break time, special commendation, house/team points etc.
For every 20 individual walks accumulated as a class, one footprint may be coloured in on the wall-chart. This way the class will make it's way around the map of Kent, reaching key landmarks as they go, usually one per week.
On reaching the landmarks there is an option to learn more about them by using one or more of the suggested classroom activities, included within the teacher's pack and CD-ROM.
Alternatively, you can just record that the landmark has been reached by sticking the flag sticker to the top of the flag pole and set off on the next stage of your journey around Kent.
Monitoring the impact of the scheme
In order for us to monitor the success of the scheme, it is important that we keep a record of the proportion of children walking to school throughout the project.
Therefore each week we need classes to conduct a hands-up survey and record this information using our easy to use password accessed website database. When you join Walking Bug your school will be given a password and briefed how to use this simple data recording system.
To involve the children in their progress, every time a landmark is reached on the class wallchart please write in the percentage of children who walked to school on that week on the Wednesday.
This percentage should be recorded on the flag sticker in the box provided before you stick it to the wall-chart and will enable your class to monitor their progress as they travel around Kent.
The KM Green Footsteps Challenge Day
One day in each term will be officially designated as KM Green Footsteps Challenge Day, this will be on the Wednesday during Walk to School week in May and October and the Wednesday before the February holiday.
On this day, pupils will be able to put all of their new-found walking skills to the test and clock up as many individual walks to school as possible. The number of children walking to school should be recorded for each class using the web-based database, just as it is for every week the scheme is operating. Staff at the charity will calculate which class in each council area in Kent has the highest number of walkers on the challenge day, compared to the number of the class roll.
A winner will be declared for each KM distribution area and a trophy awarded, together with the opportunity for you to feature as a school in your local newspaper!
Ideas for other incentives
This pack contains an array of incentives including stickers and certificates and a chance to win more exciting prizes as part of the KM Green Footsteps Challenge day.
As a school, however, you may have lots of ideas about what motivates your pupils. If you have a house/team system up and running why not link the milestones to this and offer points for walks to school?
You might also have a tuck-shop with the possibility of special vouchers or even the chance of an extended lunch break? Maybe regular walkers could even get to leave 10 minutes early on a Friday afternoon? The possibilities are endless for this sort of 'high value' and 'low cost' incentive, which could really help to motivate your pupils to catch the walking bug!
Kent and Medway Walking Bus Group
c/o Kent Highway Services, 2 Beer Cart Lane, Canterbury, Kent CT1 2NN
Tel: 01227 825383
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