The Kent Walking Bus

There are a wide range of factors that prompt parents and teachers into getting a Walking Bus started. In this section of the Walking Bus site we give each of the schemes operating in Kent an opportunity to explain why they set up a 'bus' and what lessons they can pass on to those just starting.
They detail the routes of their 'bus' to help promote their scheme.

Briary School was the first school in the Canterbury District to launch a scheme back in March 2001 thanks to support from head teacher Martin Saffrey and the then co-ordinator Sandra McInnes. Let's take a look at some of the other participating school's profiles...

Our Walking Bus has only ever operated in the mornings and in the first months did not run on Mondays. The reasons for this are the number of after-school clubs at the school would make an afternoon run difficult to co-ordinate, plus we are also concerned at the prospect of having to look after children if parents do not turn up on time. It seemed easiest for both reasons to just operate in the mornings.

At the start there were 13 children using it and this has now increased to 19. Currently there are five adult helpers.

The school had tried to get a Walking Bus going in 2000 but had not managed it. I then heard about the scheme at Briary School, Herne Bay, and attended the Walking Bus conference held at Briary, organised by the East Kent Walking Bus Group. I found out all about how Walking Buses operate and was determined to try and get one started and make it a success at Reculver.

I had a number of reasons for wanting to get involved, the main one being the Reculver area suffers from serious traffic problems so it was important to find ways of cutting traffic.I didn't know many people in the area at the time but within two weeks I knew 28 extra adults and dozens of children - the whole thing was very sociable and my children, Richard, six, and Georgina, nine, have made lots of new friends as a result of the scheme.

Our group has regular social events and days out together. We had a trip to a wildlife park and organised an American supper. The other benefit is has provided us all with a pool of potential babysitters for outside of the Walking Bus. We have organised committee meetings and have a secretary and treasurer and everyone puts in 50p a week to cover any expenses of the scheme. All funds not used go towards social events.

Over the first year of operation at its peak we had 35 children involved on the bus but currently it is 25. We have 20 adults of the rota and have a rule that all adults must help at least twice a week. That means we have about four or five adult volunteers on duty on any day. We did relax the rule about having children as passengers if their parents did not help, but this proved a problem and so we have gone back to only accepting children whose parents assist us which works extremely well.

The children love the Walking Bus and even sing songs as they walk along the one mile route to Reculver School. Teachers say that the children seem to be happier and brighter at school when they use the Walking Bus, so all in all it seems to be quite a success story.

The Wincheap Walking Bus was launched in July 2002. Recently, helpers and children celebrated our first three terms of operation with a picnic at the Global Bandstand in Dane John Gardens, Canterbury. The sun shone, we felt the rhythm and a good time was had by all! The event marked the end of an eventful year in which the bus has become a regular feature of the early morning scene in South Canterbury and Wincheap.

The Bus began when a group of parents, who had read about the Walking Bus in the KM Gazette, decided to set up our own scheme at Wincheap primary school. With the help of the head teacher, Mrs Ruth Jenner, a questionnaire was circulated to all parents to find out how many were interested in the idea.

A meeting was then held at the school, at which Simon Dolby, from the East Kent Walking Bus Group and Jan Wickham, from Kent County Council road safety, explained to interested parents how a Walking Bus scheme works.

At this stage, it was hoped that we could run one Bus from South Canterbury and one from Thanington. As it turned out, there was more demand for a Bus from South Canterbury but it was almost a year before we made our first journey. This was mainly due to the long delay in getting the police checks for helpers arranged.

We were unlucky in being caught in the middle of the change to a new system of checking and the transitional period was fairly chaotic! Not discouraged, we joined in the Big Bus 2002 event and then held a second meeting at the school.

At this meeting, Jan Wickham described the route and gave us useful tips on road safety and on organizational matters. We agreed to strike while the iron was hot and made out first two journeys during the last week of the summer term.

A photographer from the local KM paper the Kentish Gazette recorded the event and instant fame followed!

Both the number of children and the number of helpers has increased since we started. We now have sixteen children, thirteen juniors and three infants, involved. Ten helpers take part and the bus runs each morning and on four afternoons during the week.

The keynote is flexibility and not all the children join every journey. The route begins opposite the Kent and Canterbury Hospital and continues along Cromwell Road, Milton Road, South Canterbury Road, Nunnery Fields, Nunnery Road and Oxford Road, and finally joins a footpath that leads to Hollowmede.

The journey takes about twenty-five minutes and challenges the stamina of the younger infants (not to mention the helpers!).

Most of the helpers work and we decided to share the load by rotating the position of co-ordinator every month. We also ensure that at least one parent of each child on the Bus does a minimum of one journey a week. In some cases, helpers switch over halfway along the route. This is useful for those helpers who need to get to work fairly early in the morning or who are not quite able to get to the school in time to start an afternoon journey.

A special mention should go to Rutgard Rumpel, who has acted as helper on most journeys during the past year.

The children enjoy the chance to talk to each other during the journeys. They have joined in the Big Bus events and they introduced the idea of a banner at the 2002 gathering. They also appreciate the various rewards offered by the sponsors!

Five juniors will be leaving the Bus at the end of the summer term but new passengers are waiting in the wings. We are looking forward to the next school year.

Tim Chancellor, Debbie Grantham, Mike Grantham, Gail Hone, Rutgard Rumpel and Vonny Hartanto (co-ordinators).

Wingham Primary School has won a top environmental award for a scheme designed to cut traffic congestion in the village.

The school, near Canterbury, was awarded the trophy for best research category in the prestigious Barclaycard Living Land Awards. They just missed out on the star prize, worth �40,000, but as finalists the class of 30 children who helped develop a Walking Bus scheme, have won a week-long field trip to Dorset. The pupils, aged 10 and 11, collected their trophy at a star-studded awards ceremony at Whipsnade Animal Park with celebrity judges including David Bellamy, Shauna Lowry and Joe Inglis, from Vets in Practice.

The awards are run in conjunction with the Young People's Trust for the Environment and attracted more than 100 entries from all over the country. They were eventually whittled down to five finalists.

Under the guidance of teacher Helen Conder, the Wingham children had to identify a local environmental problem and develop a solution to it.

Their plan involved traffic counts, surveys of drivers and parents and setting up the Walking Bus scheme.

Head teacher Gary Davies said: "We are absolutely delighted. There was no big disappointment from the children that they had missed out on the top prize. All the talk on the coach home was of the trip to Dorset. "We now hope to persuade parents who live further afield and need to drive to park in the village car park. They can then let their children join the Walking Bus for the last few hundred yards and help ease the shocking congestion around the school."

Herne Bay Infants School walking bus scheme was set up with several goals in mind. Firstly to promote exercise and a healthy life style in times when fewer and fewer children are involved in physical activity. Secondly to try and reduce the terrible traffic congestion around the school making it better for pupils and local residents.

All parents were sent a letter about the walking bus idea, meetings followed from there and eventually two routes were chosen. After an initial excellent response to the scheme numbers decreased leaving four families. It was decided that the scheme would go ahead regardless and we would endeavour to encourage more members once the scheme was up and running.

The two routes are from opposite ends of Herne Bay. One starts at the station with the idea that parents who live further away could drive to the station, park their cars and join the bus. The route goes through the park, across Dering Road and Gordon Road onto Stanley Road and into school. The other route starts at the junction of Mickleburgh Hill and Dence Park and goes straight down the hill, over the roundabout, onto Kings Road, into Stanley Road and into school.

At the moment the co-ordinator role is fulfilled by the Family Liaison Officer, Helen Maund. Once more parents are involved it is envisaged that the role will be rotated.Parents have to participate in the scheme if they want their children to walk. They are asked to walk at least once a week.

The bus runs on Monday and Thursday mornings, starting from the Orange Tree Pub, Folkestone Road at 08.25 hours.

We walk down Folkestone Road to Church Road, into Markland Road and then left into Eaves Road to the back entrance of the school.

Our second bus started in April 2003 and we have 10 children using it at present.

We operate this bus on Tuesday mornings from the HorseTrough on Elms Vale Road and meet at 08.25 hours.

We walk along Elmes Vale Road into Church Road, across into Markland Road and in the front entrance of the school.

Get in touch with the Kent & Medway Walking Bus Group:

Contact Simon Dolby, Jackie Chambers, Karen Brinkman, Katie McDaniel, Paula Ray, Janine Terrana, from the contact points below:

sdolby@kmwalktoschool.co.uk

jchambers@kmwalktoschool.co.uk

kbrinkman@kmwalktoschool.co.uk

kmcdaniel@kmwalktoschool.co.uk

pray@kmwalktoschool.co.uk

jterrana@kmcharitychallenge.co.uk

Contacts:

Contact a School Travel Planner from Kent County Council or Medway Council to arrange a school presentation, or to ask an operational question:

Contact a Representative

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