Pippa Pop-ins has chosen to be part of an exciting accreditation scheme for London schools and nurseries, to encourage more children and their families to make an active commute to school. The aim is that this will result in increased active travel, physical activity and reduced congestion and car emissions. STARS is TfL’s accreditation scheme, inspiring young Londoners to travel to school sustainably, actively, responsibly and safely by championing walking, scooting and cycling. STARS supports pupil’s wellbeing, helps to reduce congestion at the school gates and improves road safety and air quality.

Why STARS?

The average journey to school is less than one kilometer, around a 10-minute walk but many of these are being made by car, resulting in congestion at the school gates and a polluted environment. By swapping car journeys for active travel, STARS schools can make a difference to our city and support the Mayor’s vision for healthy streets.

What are the benefits of walking to school?

Walking to school helps children feel happier and healthier and even do better in class because they arrive refreshed, fit and ready to learn. More families walking means fewer cars on the road during the school run, helping to reduce congestion and pollution at the school gates.

What if we can’t walk to school?

If you live too far away or don’t have time to walk the whole way to school, you can Park and Stride or car share. Park or hop off public transport at least ten minutes away from the school and walk the rest of the way. 

To gain our accreditation, we have participated in many practical active travel activities and educating children, parents and staff on the benefits of active travel on not only our bodies but the wider community and environment. Here is a taster of some things we got up to:

• We carried out surveys with staff and children, finding out how they travel to school and what their preferred mode of travel would be.
• Walking Pippin – the Pippa Pop-ins puppy! This is a teddy bear dog that goes home with a different Transition child each weekend. Pippin likes his walkies, so he gets walked home from school and back again on Monday morning.
• We took part in WOW (Walk Once a Week) – the year-round Walk to School Challenge, which is delivered by Living Streets, the UK charity for everyday walking, encouraging children to walk at least once a week, every week.
• We marked national awareness days, such as Air Quality Day, Green Transport Week, Walk to School week and many more.
• The children’s active travel artwork has been displayed around the schools.
• We invited local Road Safety Officers to come and do workshops with the children.
• Our teachers got involved by taking part in a pedometer challenge.
• We wrote an Active Travel policy which can be found in the policies and procedures section of our webpage.

These are just a few examples of the children’s and teacher’s hard work to make Pippa Pop-ins a healthy school and we will continue to work towards this goal throughout each academic year. Come and join us in our mission to be a car free school