Highlights from Walk to School Week 2011
Walk to School Week was a huge success with pupils taking part up and down the country. We scored some sporty celebration events for some of our WoW schools to mark the week.
Football clubs Aston Villa, Hull City, Newcastle United and Bolton Wanderers and Salford City Reds rugby club helped kick-start this year’s Walk to School Week, each hosting a fun-packed event for local schools together with Living Streets and partners in each area.
A number of our WoW (Walk Once a Week) schools were invited to celebrate a successful first year taking part in the scheme at the events. The expansion of our WoW scheme has been a great success with many of the schools now involved having seen impressive increases in the number of pupils walking during the year.
Pupils who came along to the events took part in a range of activities including a walking tour of the stadiums and a road safety quiz linked to the ‘Walk Smart’ theme of Walk to School Week this year. All the children took away a ‘Walk Smart’ T-shirt and other goodies and some lucky ones even got to meet the club mascot and Walk to School mascot, 
Strider!
In total, 31 schools and over 350 pupils across the country took part in the events, with many pupils and school staff members telling us what a great time they had.
Ann-Marie Banks, WoW Champion at Queensbridge Primary School in Bolton, commented, “The children have really enjoyed today and it was nice to meet other schools and find out what they do for WoW."
Sandra Wiseman, Head Teacher at Mere Green Primary School in Birmingham added, “A really big THANK YOU, all of our children thoroughly enjoyed the event. They were really excited today in assembly when they were given the opportunity to feedback to the rest of the school.”
A huge thank you to all of the schools and the following local partners who worked with Living Streets to help make the events such a success: Villa in the Community, Birmingham City Council, Bolton Wanderer’s Community Trust, Bolton Council, Tigers Sport and Education Trust, Newcastle United Foundation, Newcastle City Council, Salford City Reds Foundation, NHS Salford, Salford Council and Urban Vision Partnership Limited.
Want to read more about the events? Follow the links below to some local news features.