Extra play time for ‘active travellers’

[microkneesya]

We lived 2.5 miles from school. Moved mid-school year a few years ago because of being deployed by work nearby. Council allocated places and there was nothing closer with the year groups we needed. We love the school. After drop off I then have to go onward in the car to park & ride as I can’t wfh so it’s about more than the school run.

They have started awarding active travellers (children who come to school on foot, bike or scooter) extra playtime on Fridays. My DC are so upset and beg to be allowed to walk but we just can’t. I feel like the school shouldn’t do such a demonstrable ‘reward’ when for some families it’s not so easy.

Do your schools do this? Worth approaching the school?

But the OP has said that there is no parking problem at her school - they can* *use the large Church carpark. So encouraging people to park a few hundred yards away, not only isn't solving a problem but potentially creates a new one for the people who live in those streets. That's exactly what happened at my children's primary school, and worse. There's no pavements on the road into our village until the last few hundred yards hence no designated safe walking route for a lot of pupils so there's an LEA provided minibus. Some children were so desperate to get the prizes that managed to persuade their parents to drive them to the edge of the village so they could walk the last few hundred yards instead of taking the bus. So we had more car journeys and more congestion. The bus is surely the greener option. And these are country kids, lots of them farmers children, who spend half their lives outdoors. Walking a few hundred yards in the morning is supposed to make a significant difference to their health? Yeah right.
"Park a few streets away and walk" is tokenism and unlikely to have any real benefit if we're talking about the environment or child health. Yes, if there is a congestion issue around a school getting people to park elsewhere has some merit but why not be honest and call it a traffic management scheme and find some way to insentivise (or more likely penalise) the parents who are the actual problem, not their kids.
Yes, obviously reducing car journeys and getting people more active are both laudable goals but schemes like this aren't going to do it. Improving cycling and walking infra structure, providing decent public transport, creating walking or cycling buses for schools, car sharing schemes, park and rides, changing road layouts and so on are much more likely to be effective than this sort of thing. Oh, and improving PE provision in schools and investing in community sport and leisure facilities. Initiatives need to be targeted to a particular area based on what's actually needed and feasible there. But of course all that takes time, effort and money, whereas guilt tripping parents into stuff like this costs very little and gets the politicians off the hook as they are "doing something".
Most of the suggestions here are actually just ways it might be possible for the OP to stop her children being upset by circumventing the system, not anything that will have any meaningful environmental impact or improve their health. Parking a couple of streets away isn't reducing the number of cars on the road, just moving them round a bit and the walk is hardly enough to impact on fitness. Might be just enough to make the OP late for work though.

Agree. I would be furious if my children missed out for a reason beyond their control!

So many people being overdramatic on this thread. The school aren't punishing some children whose parents drive to school, they are highlighting positive behaviour (walking to school).

So the school has made a decision you think is unfair. So what? Roll your eyes and move on. Some parents will agree with you, some will support the school. The school can't please all parents all the time because it's impossible. Your DC won't be traumatised because they didn't get to play outside for a few extra minutes and won't be harmed. They will however learn that sometimes other people get stuff they don't. That's life.
I also presume this extra play initiative is a temporary campaign which will end at some point. The school may then move on to another topic, maybe promoting healthy eating or something. You might like the way they deal with it. Other parents won't. The school don't deserve a constant barrage of complaints from different parents when they are ultimately trying to do a good thing.

So those who are in position to walk or cycle to school get extra exercise they don't need.

And those who may have moved house or be bused in due to disability and it being named on an ehcp don't get extra - when realistically they are the ones who need it.

Who makes these rules? 🤦‍♀️

They're getting extra playtime, I doubt it consists of compulsory physical jerks...

Presumably it would be within your control?

The extra playtime thing is way too much pressure on you and the kids in my opinion- that’s awful. My kids’ school give them badges for active travel each term but they award them even if we’ve parked a very short distance away and walked a little bit of the way once a week (and the kids don’t get upset if they don’t get a badge, it’s not made a huge deal of). Definitely worth mentioning to the school.

I'd be amused if DD got extra playtime for walking to school.... we can see the school gate. She forgot her glasses the other day, realised in the 10mins classroom settling time and was able to nip home for them! (Shes I Yr6). The majority of the drivers park further away!

Suggest the breakfast club plays outside before school... lots of energetic activity for yhem!)

Not really. 2.5 miles is a bit far to expect a kid in reception to travel under their own steam, and the place was allocated by the council because the closer schools were full. How is that within the OP's control?

I don’t think they should spoil it for the kids who do walk and are getting rewarded for it but surely they could put something in place for further away kids like having them sprint a few laps around the field before school?

I'd park literally round the corner out of sight of the school gate and walk the last 100m end up doing that most days anyway because it's so hard to find a parking space

Is the school really keen enough to police this at 7.45 when breakfast club opens?

Its good for children to learn that they can't get every reward, and its not the end of the world when they don't get one, and its good that a school is trying to encourage children to be more active as that's very important, but probably a certificate or badge or something would be a better reward.
My daughter's school does a Be Active week every year where they are all encouraged to bike or walk to school every day that week (tbf the vast majority of children walk or bike anyway) but I don't think there's any reward for it, its just strongly encouraged (and apparently the children encourage their teachers to do the same!)

It is cruel and nasty to punish a child because of the needs or choices of the parents. Its one thing to encourage not using cars. But this is batshit.

Hyperbolic much ?

I agree with @Punk4ssBookJockey at 18.00

No-one is "being punished" - School are offering an incentive which might persuade some parents to get their dc walking a bit more. As schools have been doing for years and years.

Those saying they shouldn't offer rewards to children for things outside their control are really being a bit naïve. Whatever people get 'rewarded' for, or encouraged and celebrated for throughout their school life will be impacted by factors outside of the dcs' control.

We live driving distance from my kids school and they do a similar rewards for walking scheme. On days when we're not in a major hurry I just park about ten minutes away from school so they've technically walked there. It's a stupid system so I have no qualms about encouraging my kids to game it.

Explain the policy is discriminatory against those with additional needs, escalate it to the trust or LEA and watch the head back down super fast

Nasty, nasty policy

So are 100% attendance awards though and it doesn't seem to stop a lot of schools having them.

Son’s school does the same. It annoys me as younger primary school children have no say at all in how they get to school

I opened this thread assuming it was going to be about children from the traveller community. Before I started reading it I guessed active travellers were those who moved from place to place rather than staying on permanent sites, and that the traveller kids were being rewarded with extra playtime because they maybe had more freedom than other kids, were used to life on the open road etc, and found it hard to sit still in a classroom so we’re given extra playtime to burn off some energy. And maybe because there’s a higher drop out rate in among travellers, especially in secondary schools, I believe, so anything that encourages them to enjoy school was good.
All of this flashed through my mind from the title thread.
How wrong I was!

Op I'd definitely bring it up with school. Unfair for them to miss out on things for things outside their control.
Stand up for your kids.

Your kids already have long days and are at school before some kids will be out their jammies.

And the same in the evening, they'll be kids home in front of the telly while yours are still actively playing.

How many children would be discriminated against by being asked to walk more? If they're unable to walk, they wouldn't need extra time running round the playground 🤯
Stop tying yourself in knots trying to find something be offended about in something so bloody innocuous, ffs.

@StarlightLime

Must be nice to have children with zero medical or neurodivergent issues.

Get back in your box.

It's a ridiculous policy designed to punish kids for their circumstances or parental choice, schools need to be taught be less thick.

It is nothing of the sort. Look in the mirror before you throw the label "thick" around in future, maybe.

Im sure she can hop on a bike with 3 kids in her rucksack and then travel miles to work, amazing idea!

I would just park very nearby and lie about walking in (so not mention hybrid arrangements and so on). Not fair for your DC to miss out.

Agree- it's not 'rewarding' some kids, it's punishing those whose parents can't just hop to school and then to work. So prioritising kids of parents who don't have to work or work from home and live opposite school.