Charlie’s Story - WOW Champion tops leaderboard
IN DECEMBER 2019, LIVING STREETS PROJECT COORDINATOR ED WICKS MET WITH THE HEAD TEACHER OF MOAT FARM JUNIOR SCHOOL, LARA STONE. THE SCHOOL WANTED TO SUPPORT THEIR PUPILS IN LIVING HEALTHIER AND HAPPIER LIVES, WITHOUT TAKING AWAY FROM VALUABLE CURRICULUM TIME.
As a result, we launched WOW – the walk to school challenge at Moat Farm Junior School in January 2020. The school is in Oldbury, Sandwell which lies in the Bristnall ward of the Warley constituency. Moat Farm Junior School sits in a vibrant, diverse area, with an Index of Multiple Deprivation rating of 2, and approximately 30% of pupils are eligible for free school meals.
After supporting the school in the initial stages of the launch, the WOW baton was handed to the School Administrator, Charlie Ward (pictured below), who became the school’s WOW Champion. Charlie selected a team of pupils WOW ambassadors to support the running of the challenge and together they went from strength to strength.
Ed Wicks noted, 'after getting them set up, I kept an eye on how the school was going and I noticed that they were consistently recording on the WOW Travel Tracker. Last year, our WOW Top Ten challenge was rolled out to all WOW schools in England and Wales. As a local coordinator I always like to see how “my” schools are doing. I was delighted to see that Moat Farm Junior School finished 1st place in the England leaderboard, going up against over 1500 schools across the country. Sandwell’s Public Health Team were so impressed they did a short press piece on the school’s success, with the aim of inspiring other schools in the area to get involved.'
As of October 2022, Moat Farm Junior School have 483 pupils taking part in WOW, with over 6,500 active trips logged and 464 badges awarded.
Not only is this an incredible achievement for the pupils of the school but Dr Laura Braznell, Moat Farm Junior School’s Business Manager, told us how Charlie’s personal and professional development blossomed since being in the role of WOW Champion. Dr Braznell also noted that it is thanks to the hard work of Charlie and his team of WOW Ambassadors that the school came first on the leaderboard.
WE CAUGHT UP WITH CHARLIE TO HEAR ABOUT HIS EXPERIENCE AS A WOW CHAMPION.
“I was delighted to be given the responsibility of running the administrative part of WOW. Our brilliant team of pupil WOW Ambassadors helped out by reminding teachers to log their classes progress on Travel Tracker and advocating for walking to school with their friends. Throughout the year, I personally made the switch to more active travel by Parking and Striding twice a week.”
“This is our fourth year of WOW, and it feels like second nature, with the help of the WOW Ambassadors who are a huge part of our success - I can't thank them enough for their hard work. I continue to promote WOW by taking part and earning badges myself, the children are really interested in how many badges I've earned and what the next badge will be!"
HEAD OF SCHOOL LIZ SHAW SAID:
“As a school, we recognise the positive impact that regular exercise has on children’s physical and mental wellbeing. We’re committed to providing our children with plenty of opportunities to exercise and understand how good it is for them. This is why we signed up to take part in WOW. It is a simple, fun and effective way to encourage children to be more active on the way to school. Our children love self-reporting how they get in to school and are really proud when they earn their badges. The WOW initiative has helped us raise the profile and importance of exercise even more, hopefully giving our children good habits for life. It has also created a real buzz in our classrooms first thing in the morning! Our children really enjoy taking part and wear their badges with pride.”
HERE IS WHAT SOME OF THE BRILLIANT WOW AMBASSADORS SAID:
