To feel that there is something totally back-to-front with this Walk to School Week business?

[SixImpossible]

Ds walks to school every day. This week is Walk to School Week, and every child who walks to school every day this week will recieve a reward onFriday. But this week ds has an appointment, which means that he will arrive by car tomorrow.

So ds, who normally walks to and from school every day, gets no reward. The kids who normally drive to school every day will get a reward for only driving home.

I didn't say anything about this to ds. But he's no fool, he worked it out for himself, and he is Not Pleased.

It is ridiculous. Our school is opposite our house, so it nowhere to drive. But others live further away and get driven by parents on the way to work.

Can I sidetrack by saying how much I loathe bike/scoot to school week. We are in a city - school catchment is 500m and criss crossed by busy rds and hills. We, and nearly everyone else, walk to school.

On bike to school week my 4yo and 6yo become determined to kamikaze down our hill to a major arterial rd -cross said rd and two more and then push scooters up narrow pavement to school with dozens of other kids whacking adults ankles.

As far as I can see it has no health benefits and major safety drawbacks.

Where I work, the Head acknowledges the fact that for some children there is no alternative but to come to school by car. What has been suggested is that the car is parked further from the school than usual.

Agree utterly that the scheme, whilst well meaning, is insane. My DS' school are very odd about sticking to the absolute letter when ut comes to things like this. My DS has been marked down as not walking to school. Admittedly, he doesn't; he cycles, but surely the point is that he gets there under his own steam and not in a car.
He asked if he could lock his bike up on the street around the corner and walk in to get the points, but I am not happy about leaving (new) bike out on the road.
I have written to his teacher asking if he can lock his bike in the school bike sheds then walk around the block to get the marks!
Sorry for the essay, but am also peeved and grrr-tactic about this. Hope your son gets his reward!

We never walk to school, though we would love to. I work a 15 minute walk away from the school and start work 10 minutes after my youngest goes into school, therefore it's not going to happen.

we are too poor to be able to live close enough to the school to walk. Even if we were in catchment school, my dd has such poor walking tolerance due to hypermobile joints that she would not be able to manage the distance. it would be pushing my walking tolerance to walk it four times per day everyday.

Schools don't always think: my DD was at a school where anorexia is a big issue and they had a week of "drink only water" at break in solidarity with countries where the don't have ready access to water (not sure of the logic, even). My DD was worrying thin and I had just been advised by the Eating Disorders Clinic to encourage her to drink hot chocolate/ milk/ calorific drinks and to eat snacks as often as possible but she couldn't do that without losing her whole class marks. The school wouldn't budge on that even when I explained. Instead they pointed out that they would have to exclude her from school if she got any thinner. I can't believe I wasted £150,000 on that school between 2 children.

I hear you OP, but I suppose that's a week to promote more walking... it's impossible to suit everyone's needs.

Parking round the corner/supermarket car park and walking the rest of the way is a legitimate option in 'walk to school week'. It's even got a name- Park and Stride. The thing is, it only gets you 1 point (as does catching a bus or car sharing) and walking/scootering/biking gets you 2 points. Being driven all the way gives you 0 points.

cuppa either our school does it differently! or your school aren't following the rules. You should get 2 points for biking- as you say it's whether or not they got there under their own steam.

I guess it's unfair, but then so is life. There are lots of children who won't be able to walk as evidenced by posters on this thread. I get the school don't really want to do it either, we only do it towards healthy schools status, which is certificate that bloody OFSTED seem to like.

Why not park at home after your appointment and he can walk from home as normal?

Walk to School week is such a crock of shit. I am a teacher and periodically we get given the chart and those bloody stickers and have to find time in our already full to the brim day to find out who walked, who cycled and who drove. All of the kids who have to drive to school for various reasons (mostly to do with parents working as the catchment area is very small) still have to drive and so don't get a sticker - tbh they don't really care and I think my lack of enthusiasm for this particular initiative does rub off on them They love doing Eco stuff normally, but they are not silly kids and can see that this particular activity is a bit pointless and has been done to death now.

Having said that, if a parent came to me and explained the situation that you are in, then I would definitely let your DS have the sticker!

God I hate all this shit. Just get the children to school and cracking on with lessons. Who cares if they walked, cycled, scooted or arrived by teleportation?

My children have never received the certificate/sticker. I teach full time in a Primary School across town, so they are dropped at Breakfast Club in the car every day at 7.45 as I zoom off. There's no time for "park a bit further away and walk" as I'm already arriving at work by the skin of my teeth. That's life. They understand that, but it's still a little irritating.

For those suggesting that they drive home after the OP's son's appt then walk, this would just make the child late for school, surely that's not beneficial?

I often go straight to the station to go to the office from the school run. If I park 15 mins away so we can walk the last part, that means walking 15mins back and being 15mins later for work. Just not going to happen.

I think most people walk when they can, use their cars when they cannot. I don't see loads of people using their cars unnecessarily for the school run, there is usually a reason.

I think most people walk when they can, use their cars when they cannot. I don't see loads of people using their cars unnecessarily for the school run, there is usually a reason.

I wish that was the case at our school where many parents admit they drive because they 'can't be bothered walking' - the catchement is only 0.7 miles yet many parents still drive even if not going off out somewhere after. 2 families living near me (so under half a mile away) use the car and then come straight home afterwards. They have to go out earlier than if walking though so they can park!

I guess they are the families these schemes are trying to target, but unfortunatly it makes it awkward for those who need to drive.

Why not ask your school if they can become involved in the Living Streets Walk once a week initiative WoW? They keep a record on a wall chart or online tracker of when each child walks each week, and those that walk at least once a week for a month gets a badge. Each year there is a theme to the badges, and yes children who are unable to walk to school get the chance to walk around the playground at lunchtime for 15 minutes or so, to be given a chance to join in. It's about highlighting that walking is a valid mode of transport, getting children to understand how to be safe whilst being a pedestrian, reducing congestion, and helping ease issues around the school gate. By pushing walking the hope is that children will not automatically get in their cars when they are older, and will be able to keep themselves safe when they are more independently making their way to school, rather than suddenly being allowed to make their own way to school after years of being driven.

Ds has found his own solution . As the point is to reward people for doing something good that they don't normally do, he asked if he could be rewarded for doing something good that he doesn't normally do: getting up, dressed, and down to breakfast without any nagging. He's done it every day this week, so far, so his suggestion is that I reward him with a cooked breakfast on Friday if he does it for two more days.

Sorted.

I think in these circumstances it would be a lot fairer if the school could make discretionary decisions based on how often a child usually walked to school. I think the real point of it is to encourage people to walk who wouldn't otherwise do so, but I can see why that would seem really unfair to a child.

Having said that, I wouldn't particularly have wanted my children to be rewarded for walking to school when they were that sort of age, because we lived about 5 minutes' walk from the school and the decision to walk was a no-brainer. There was nothing admirable or challenging about it, it was just the way it was. I think anyone who walks for more than, say, 20 minutes at primary school age is a lot more deserving of respect than they were.

I am 37 weeks pregnant with a poorly-healing sprained ankle getting dodgier by the day due to the excess weight on it, have a full on cold, and a husband away on a business trip. I have 2 children to get to nursery and school at the opposite ends of the village which necessitates 2 x 2 mile round trips for me walking every day, up and down steep hills. Walk to School Week has come at completely the wrong time for me - give it another month or so and I'll be happy to do all that walking to get back into shape post-baby, but this week I think we'll only manage to walk in once if we're lucky (although we have walked home twice out of 3 so far). It's tough luck on the statistics really, although at least they should see significant improvement from us next year if they look at the data longitudinally :)

Oh I remember this one well, DD walked to Primary every single day because I do not drive so there was no other option. She always forgot to get her sticker.

Evertonmint - Please don't worry about the statistics, just do what makes life easy for you. I'm sure nobody would expect your full participation considering the circumstances. Try and take it easy.

In my class of 30 year sixes, I have 27 who live within a 500 yard radius of the school so, naturally, walk in. Then I have 3 looked after children who taxi in from considerable distances who have no chance of participating in walk to school week. What a nice way to single them out!

Our local school has a very small catchment area, with the majority of homes being within 400 metres. Yup, a short walk.
And yet there is a huge issue with parents driving their children to school, which is at the end of a small residential street, with only one entrance/exit. Cars are not allowed in the school grounds, so the parents park across driveways, block residents' parking bays, block the road as they attempt to turn in a tight space etc. The level of congestion and the high speeds from parents and teachers mean that we are just waiting for an accident to happen to a child. Already pets have been killed and just left at the side of the road as the parents speed off
Sadly, the school does nothing to encourage children to walk to school. This year they are having ONE day of a walking bus as their sole effort towards Walk To School Week.
Our district council has banned parents from entering the streets around some local schools in an attempt to try to make it safe for children to walk to school - I just wish they would introduce the same thing here.

We have this all year round, the kids get a stamp in a diary every morning if they make their way to school under their own steam (park and walk allowed). Once they've got X number of stickers they get a badge, different colours for different numbers of walks. We are on the edge of the catchment, just under a km away, if we walk once a week we have walked further than some kids walk if they walk every day. It's completely daft. Oh, and walks home don't count . The DDs go to wrap around care at their old nursery, the kids there are on to the scheme and decided that even if they were driven to nursery the 2 minute walk from nursery should count so they all get their badges.

this sort of thing really cheeses me off, we have been trying to get the school to see that their current system of 100% attendance certificates, discriminates against some children who have to have regular hospital/physio etc visits. OK so they are "authorised" absences, but still absences, and they can't agree that it is not fair for a child who has only missed less than half a day in a term, for a necessary medical appointment that they have no control over, not to get a certificate when their friends and siblings do.
Likewise in the case of walk to school week, what happens to the child who is dropped at the door because they are a wheelchair user? what about their siblings - do the parents really have to make alternative arrangements to walk those children to school having dropped their other child off already?

jonsnow that stinks