Park and Stride (P&S) simply means driving some of the way to school, parking up and walking the rest of the way.

P&S is particularly good for families that live a long way from school and can’t walk the whole way. It has the added benefit of reducing congestion around the school entrance, making it safer for children to enter their school.

To P&S, all you need to do is choose somewhere to park. This will depend on:

• How far you want to walk to school
• Feasible parking places

 

Parents

All you need to do to get going is pick a place to Park and Stride from. You can change this regularly, so that you and your child get to explore and learn more about the area around school.

If you’ve found a good spot, why not tell your school, so they can tell other parents and get as many people as possible fitting in a spot of walking and enjoying their journey to school.

Schools

Download our Park and Stride pack which includes everything you will need to set up a Park and Stride scheme for your school. The pack  includes a step by step guide, example letters, case study and a lesson plan.

 

 

If enough families want to P&S, you can set up a ‘Walk together scheme’ from the P&S point, where parents (who volunteer on a certain day) regularly walk the children to school. This allows those children whose parents are unable to walk every day (eg. due to work commitments) to still get some exercise and walk to school with friends.

 

Get creative

There is lots of scope to be creative about P&S! Some schools:

• Use a local pub, town hall, British legion club or shop car park as an official P&S point, which has the benefit of more custom for them

• Ask their local supermarket if parents can park for short periods for free- supermarkets often have lots of space and are keen to enhance their green credibility!

• Ask your local authority to help- often they have links with other local organisations and often have the standing to get them on board!

 

Case Study - Koi Fish Farm and Chelsfield Primary School, Bromley

Chelsfield Primary School run their park and stride scheme using a local Koi Fish Farm car park. In a rural location, the school was struggling to offer parents somewhere to park other than the school gates. So, they spoke to the local farm who allow parents to park there in the mornings and afternoons. The scheme has been successfully running for several years and has boosted walking levels. Park and Striding has gone up from 0 to 6% after the scheme was implemented.

 

Another nearby rural school, Pratts Bottom Primary, park and stride from their local pub where walking has gone up from 18% to 44%! This goes to show the huge impact Park and Stride can have on walking levels in the school community.

See more case studies here.