Feeling healthier and happier with WOW - the walk to school challenge
At Living Streets, we want every child who can walk or wheel to school to be able to do so on safe and welcoming streets.
Thousands of children across Wales are feeling healthier and happier with WOW – the walk to school challenge from Living Streets thanks to support from the Welsh Government.
WOW is a pupil-led initiative where children self-report how they get to school every day using the interactive WOW Travel Tracker. If they travel sustainably (walk/wheel, cycle or scoot) once a week for a month, they get rewarded with a badge.
Children love taking part and each year, the collectable WOW badges are designed by pupils in our annual badge design competition.
Ysgol Rhostyllen in Wrexham is one of 170 primary schools in Wales benefitting from this partnership, and since launching WOW in January 2024, more pupils than ever are walking and wheeling to school. So far, walking and wheeling all the way to school has increased by 37 percent while the number of parents driving their children for the entirety of the journey has fallen by 15 percent.
"The badges are a great idea to motivate pupils to walk to school. The Eco-Committee are enjoying the responsibility and ownership they have with their WOW Ambassador role." - Miss Maddock
Pupils enjoyed an assembly presentation from Living Streets explaining everything they need to know about WOW and Living Streets provided in-person WOW Ambassador training, teaching pupils of the eco-club the benefits of active travel and how to use the WOW Travel Tracker.
Our Living Streets Coordinator also helped set up a Park and Stride site by providing a template letter for the school to send to local businesses asking to use their car park. Ysgol Rhostyllen now has an agreement with a local pub which allows parents to park at the car park and walk or wheel for the rest of the journey to school.
The pupils are very excited to take part in WOW and members of the Eco Club think ‘it’s a great idea’, say that they ‘can’t wait to earn a badge’ and hope ‘it will make more people want to walk to school’.
Miss Maddock, class teacher and eco-lead at Ysgol Rhostyllen, said:
'The badges are a great idea to motivate pupils to walk to school. The Eco-Committee are enjoying the responsibility and ownership they have with their WOW Ambassador role.'
If you’re a primary school in Wales and would like to take part in WOW – the walk to school challenge, please contact [email protected].