'Walk to school Week'- why, why, why?

[ampere]

What IS the point of this money wasting exercise?

Surely mums (as mums it practically always is!) who drive their DCs to school, by and large either do it because:

-they work and unless they have a very understanding employer who will accommodate them being late for a week, may lose their job over this; or

-mums whom wild horses wouldn't induce to walk, let alone a poxy sticker scheme!

Once again it's attempting societal engineering via schooling rather than attack the 'core' of the problem- if, indeed it IS a problem- being the fact none of us have any time any more and many of us have mortgages or rent to pay! Furthermore, really, why expect DCs to trog to school in all weathers when we, as adults, take the car everywhere?

I wish schools would spend the money on sticking to the point and schooling our DCs not rewarding behaviour 'walkers' already do and guilt tripping those who can't!

I can't walk to school either - but I see not reason why there shouldn't be a campaign to encourage others who can, but don't, to walk.

There is a supermarket about half a mile from school and we've agreed with them that parents can park there at school drop off and pick up times so they can walk the last bit. Perhaps you could think about doing something like this. It has made such a difference tot he congestion and bonkers driving round our school.

Unfortunately, I would have to drive past school to park there, so it would rather defeat the object in my case!

I think the key point is that society has changed such that many parents do find it impossible to walk their children to school - and the reinforcing effect is to make it much more dangerous for those who walk/cycle (yes, including those of us who work & cycle 2.5 miles each way).

Personally, I don't worry so much about the health of the kids in cars (they probably get exercise elsewhere) - but I do feel very bad about the number of children from poor families (whose parents work & don't have a car) who are killed/injured each year in car accidents, and who suffer from the extra pollution.

Worth remembering that plenty of people don't have the option to drive their kids to school - I am in a rural low income area and there are a lot of families without cars or with only one car which isn't available at school drop off/ pick up time. I imagine that will be even more the case in a city where people have less push to try to have a car even if they can't really afford one.

I'm not sure that walk to school week is the answer (pretty sure it isn't) but at least if it makes people think about the stupidity of a society where people can end up with two kids too young to walk in schools 3 miles apart (and I know that is almost certainly not the parents' fault but a crazy system) then maybe that is a good thing?

I think things are now very much based around car use...for instance many towns don't even have any useful shops or supermarkets in the centre, and if you need to buy food or whatever you need to take the car.

So to walk to school, THEN go and get the car and drive to the shops, which are right out of town, seems a bit ridiculous.

If everything was in the same place it wouldn't be such an issue but the walking to school thing doesn't fit very well with the other everyday things many of us have to do.

Plus most of us are assumed to have a car for other stuff - such as helping at evening events at school or bringing our kids to sports matches.

So why are we not supposed to use this same vehicle for the actual school run?

I guess because so many people would need to park at the same time.

If that problem could be solved it wouldn't matter so much I think. Seeker I like the idea with the supermarket.

dd's school offer a drop off at the local shops and then walk to school with the head and other volenteers. works pretty well.

we live under half a mile away, so walk it. i used to drive in really bad weathers or if i was going straight to harefield. but now we dont have car, we just walk everywhere. dd's are getting very good at walking 2miles+ to get to the lakes and back again.

At least it's not compulsory.
Makes little difference on the whole, like most one week wonders. You still get the fit and healthy children bounding into school all bright eyed and mentally alert.
And the sluggish waddlers who slump like melting blobs onto the carpet and barely remember their names for the register.
A lot of children get no exercise at all outside school hours.

I've always felt sad that I can outrun and outwalk a third of my class of ten year olds, and I'm almost five times their age.

This is the thing - the assumption is that we all have cars and that it is sensible to use them.

Interestingly, a couple of friends without cars are in circs where the nearest route to school (which is under 2 miles) is not safe to cycle, so they were cycling a long way round (over 3 miles) with nursery & reception children. As a result both ended up keeping their children home from school quite often as they were getting too tired to cycle back at the end of the school day five days a week.

Funnily enough at that point school transport was sorted which goes round the valley & collects a number of children. . .

I used to take my DSs to work with me then they would walk the 20 mins to secondary school from there. Anybody looking at us in the car would assume I was "one of those lazy mothers driving her kids to school". You don't know what anybody else's circumstances are, even if you see them every day.

The primary ours started off at was a good 30 minutes walk along country lanes with no pavements. DH did walk them sometimes but it was too dangerous to do regularly.

We've been househunting recently and trying to find somewhere suitable that we can afford near an even halfway decent school has been a nightmare.

Northernlurker I read your post with interest about cycling to school. I sometimes bike to school with my DCs and they ride their scooters. They don't ride their bikes however as there are no bike racks at school and the school does not encourage cycling - reasons given are: narrow windy hilly roads mean that the cyclists have to bike on the pavement as there are too many cars on the roads, meaning that the cyclists endanger the pedestrians

DS in particular would love to ride his bike to school but he has been told that he really shouldn't for reasons above. Shame really

Yes I agree with northernlurker and toccata - I don't take the car everywhere either, thanks.

I think if the week gets just one family in a school walking or even doin git now and then (or parking further away and walking to cut congestion) then it was worth it.

So many people drive to our school and park right by the school gates. I genuinely don't understand it. Even if they have to get to work, can they really not have 4 mins leeway so they can park that distance away and then scooot back double quick (minus kids so a lot faster IME)? If a week and a sticker and a bit of pestering fromtheir kids might make them try that then well worth the money.

Lol @ toccata's school gate chatterers who need to drive to work, yes we all have them!

Looked at from the other side ... we DO walk to school ... in all weathers from a further distance than some people who drive (with no particular good reason). DS moans most days that we are not taking the car. At least during Walk To School week he feels that it is something worthwhile (and I get less moaning).

zapostrophe - I agree, but it does seem that if parents then keep children home when they don't feel it safe to transport them, the councils are more inclined to come round, certainly round here . . .

(and the rule that under 5's can't go in council transport seems to evaporate too for those whose parents don't have cars)

Legspinner - I am shocked at your schools attitude! Re lack of cycle racks (which somebody else mentioned below) I think you would find if you locked the bikes to any available drain pipe or fence school would provide racks fairly soon
Narrow roads are no reason at all for people not to cycle - a car should leave the same space to get past a bike as when passing a car so if they wouldn't pass a car they can't pass a bike and will just have to drive behind you. (Might encourage them to park up and run the last bit if a school run mum!!)
People not cycling is what makes the roads unsafe for cyclists. I recommend flurescent (sp?) jackets - Ikea do good cheap ones and good lights and a slightly arsy attitude on part of parent cycling with child - that tends to sort things out The jackets could also be worn by children walking in rural areas if you don't have them already?

'I wonder if school P.E. teaches 'short-burst' activities where stamina would be more useful, but I suppose it's harder to have competitive sport if the focus is stamina. I mean, they'd be a bit wee for triathalons.'

I knew we'd get back to the catch-all solution.
In my school we have 2 hours of PE, this term it's athletics and hitting balls with an object stuff like rounders. Yes, we also do paced running over distances up to a mile.
Doesn't solve the problem of under-exercised children, that's a parenting issue.

Well, that is very true, Riven about pollution in cars - I guess I just mostly breathe it from outside so it pisses me off more . . . (heartless emoticon)

ButterflyParty - agree that it would be great if there was more walking places from school, although to be fair dd's school often takes them out & about on foot.

There are plenty of parents who have to drive to school.

There are also plenty of lazy arse parents who can't be bothered to walk. I see them every day, pulling on the car park. Christ there are parents at my school who send their kids in taxis rather than walk theme to school. And I don't mean children with SN or children whose transport is paid for I mean bog standard lazy folk who really would just rather not walk a mile and a half because it's uphill or it's raining.

Goblinchild, I agree that it is up to parents - but in winter it is hard given that they are in school so much of the daylight hours - particularly if they are then kept in on wet playtimes/lunches.

Even allowing for a half hour walk to/from school it is difficult to fit in a reasonable amount of exercise in the depths of winter.

Not blaming school - but I do think that the more activity that can be built into the school day, the better for everyone.

It's not you, it's me.
I just get a bit weary when the answer to all society's ills seems to be to try and wedge it into the school curriculum so that the teachers can sort it out. And when it's not as effective as everyone believed it to be, the schools get yelled at.
Healthy eating, sex ed, citizenship, socialisation and the rest. It should be a partnership between school and home, 365 days a year. I don't mind doing my bit, but it can't be in isolation.