Travelling to School

How does your child travel to school?

Many of the problems highlighted by parents and carers are associated with the congestion found around schools at the start and end of the school day. Increased car use for the school journey now means that one in five cars on urban roads at 8.50am are taking children to school.

But increased use of cars can have damaging consequences. Children who are driven to school:

• gain very few road safety and personal safety skills;
• are less inclined to walk or cycle when they are older;
• have reduced independence;
• are denied the opportunity for regular exercise twice a day;
• have a reduced amount of social interaction with their peers and carers; and
• are subjected to more pollution than if they were walking at the side of a road.

How can you help improve the safety of children?

We receive many calls from concerned headteachers and parents about the perceived dangers outside schools at the beginning and end of the school day due to vehicle congestion outside the school entrance. Unfortunately, in many cases, parents are the root cause of the problem. Parents need to think carefully about their journey to school and consider the following:

• Do you really need to drive your children to school?
• If there is congestion near the entrance, park a little further away and walk.
• Don’t stop or park on SCHOOL - KEEP - CLEAR markings.
• Don’t park on the opposite side of the road to these markings.
• Don’t reverse your car into school entrances to turn around.
• Don’t double park outside schools.
• Do park well away from school crossing patrols near schools.

We are working with schools to develop School Travel Plans which identify problems with journeys unique to their local environment. Solutions are often found by trying out a variety of soft measures such as ‘walking buses’ or flexi start times. However, other solutions may include hard engineering measures. Funds are set aside from the Local Transport Plan and an annual Safer Routes to School Challenge is issued to the schools. Many schools around the city have benefited from the challenge with over 45 schemes already in place. In order to monitor the success of these schemes and to inform national statistics, an annual School Travel Census is carried out during the Autumn Term.

An information leaflet  called ‘Driving Children to School’ is available free of charge, you can request a copy by using the contact details at the bottom of the page.

Help with school transport

Children and young people may be entitled to help with school transport.  Use this link to find out if you can make a claim.

Or contact the Transport Officer for Children and Young People's Services on 01782 236867/236868 for further information or to request an application form.

Contact us: For more information about travelling to school you can contact our School Travel Plan Co-ordinator by:

Telephone: 01782 234968  

Email: transportation@stoke.gov.uk