STRIDERS BIG ADVENTURE DIARY

Striders Diary - Mon 16 October 2006

Striders Big Adventure

Strider visits a school in Surrey, then meets some meerkats.
Hello again!
I decided to head west over the weekend, and finished up at a school in Surrey.

Nonsuch Primary School, Epsom

Nonsuch Primary school had such a cool name, I thought I had to visit. It sounds like the school doesn't exist! It is actually named after a Surrey castle which has been demolished - so the castle (at least) doesn't exist.

I started the day in assembly, telling all the pupils about my adventures and why walking to school is so good. After assembly, I went out to play with the children and they showed me their new garden. It is a themed garden, with lots of features to do with journeys and travel to far flung corners of the world. My favourite feature was the moongate. This is a big hole in the wall which is similar to some they have in China. See photo below

I also had a chance to look at the new bike racks - they are used to hold the bikes and scooters that some of the children use to get to school. I had a go on one of the scooters, but I kept falling off - I think I need more practice. See photo below

Then I saw the WoW display board. WoW stands for Walk Once A Week. They are all given a collector card. Every day they walk to school they tick off one of the boxes on their collector card. If they walk to school often enough during the month they receive a metal badge. There are 11 to collect - one for every month of the year (except August when they are on holiday).

The school held a competition last term where the pupils took photos on the way to school and the best photos were put on the board. Some of the photos were really good. I expecially liked the one of the lollipop lady. See photo below

My last visit of the day was to the reception class, where I met a real policewoman! WPC Campbell told us all about the work that the police do - and then we got to try on police hats and pretend to be in the police. It was great fun!

I had a fantastic day at Nonsuch primary school, and I was sad to say goodbye to all my new friends, but I still have lots of places to visit during the month.

Chessington World of Adventures

Just down the road from Nonsuch primary school is Chessington World of Adventures. This is a theme park with lots of rollercoasters. I wanted to go on some of the rides, but I was not tall enough.

Instead I went to visit the zoo. My favourite animal was the meerkats. They have a tunnel you can crawl through, and then you can pop your head up in the very middle of the meerkat pen, and pretend to be a meerkat. It was amazing how close I could get to them - just a glass bubble between the meerkats and me.See photo below

Meerkats live in Africa, in the desert. They are meat eaters, mainly eating insects (especially scorpions) but will also eat small birds, eggs and roots.

Meerkats live in family groups and, because they are about the right size for a snack for an eagle or jackal, they take it in turns to keep on lookout while the others eat. The meerkat on guard stands on its back legs, resting on its tail, and will give an alarm call if something comes along that is likely to eat them. They make different noises to warn of different animals.

They are definitely my favourite animal because they are so cute!

I can't continue my journey without your help - so keep walking!

On Monday, an amazing 1718 Walks to School were recorded on my website. Thanks to everyone who has already logged their journeys, but please keep adding your journeys. Find out how to record your journeys to school, and keep me on my Big Adventure. Keep walking!