It’s Walk to School Week 20 – 24 May!

May is National Walking Month and we want to encourage as many children as possible to walk, wheel, cycle or scoot to school and join in with this year’s Walk to School Week.

Walking is one of the easiest ways to improve our health and stay connected to our community, helping us feel less lonely and isolated.

If you usually drive your children to school and can’t walk the whole journey, you can still join in by parking a little further away and maybe walking at least some of the way.

It’s important to reduce the time children spend sitting or lying down and break up long periods of not moving with some activity.

Being physically active can help children in lots of ways:

• Increasing levels of physical activity can improve the personal and social development of children.
• Regular physical activity has a positive impact on anxiety, depression and self-esteem in children.
• Walking helps to build strength in bones, muscles, hearts and lungs.
• Physical activity can improve sleep quality.
• Physical activity can help improve concentration, behaviour and attainment in school.

NHS guidelines recommend that children between the age of 5 – 18 should do at least 60 minutes of moderate or vigorous intensity physical activity each day. Find out more.

Our 20 Minute Movement encourages children to split this amount up into three manageable chunks of 20 minutes each day. Find out more.

In the UK, the school run is responsible for half a million tonnes of CO2 emissions each year. Walking to school can help to reduce these harmful emissions and improve the quality of the air we breathe.

After Walk to School Week, why not keep up your good work in the half term holidays and beyond? Find some great walks in parks near where you live, visit Bradford District Parks.

Download our What Did You See poster and fill it in with something you saw beginning with each letter of the alphabet on your walks!

If you would like to know more about the benefits of walking or how to get started if you have a mobility or health conditions that make walking more difficult, please click here.