Last Friday, students and parents had the opportunity to participate in the National Walk Safely School Day. Now in its 25th year, National Walk Safely to School Day (WSTSD) is an annual event that encourages all Primary School children to walk and commute safely to school. It is a Community Event seeking to promote Road Safety, Health, Public Transport and the Environment. We had an amazing turnout for our Two Walking School Buses, with one leaving from Wateredge Road Reserve, driven by Miss Sandhu and Mrs De Rooy, and the other from Bottlebrush Drive Reserve, driven by Mr Holmes and Mrs Horan. Overall, we had 111 students walking passengers and 90 parents! Miss Sandhu and Miss DeRoy’s bus had 75 student passengers, comfortably surpassing Bus Two, which had 36 student passengers. All students who participated received double stamps for their walking charts as well as a raffle ticket for Walk Safely To School prizes. Thank you also to the Year 6 “Your Move” leadership team, who assisted with the morning.
The objectives of WSTSD are:
• To encourage parents and carers to walk to school with primary school age children and reinforce safe pedestrian behaviour.
• To promote the health benefits of walking and help create regular walking habits at an early age.
• To ensure that children up to 10 years old hold an adult’s hand when crossing the road.
• To help children develop the vital road-crossing skills they will need as they become mature pedestrians.
• To reduce the car dependency habits that are being created at an early age and which will be difficult to change as children become adults.
• To promote the use of Public Transport.
• To reduce the level of air pollution created by motor vehicles.
• To reduce the level of traffic congestion.
Mr Andrew Holmes (Principal)
