Getting kids active on their way to school

Bellarine Community Health (BCH) is currently delivering the Walk, Ride, Scoot, Roll (WRSR) program in partnership with the City of Greater Geelong (CoGG) and the Portarlington, Leopold and St Leonards Primary schools.

Funded via the Victorian Government’s Kids Active Travel Program, WRSR works with schools to encourage more students and their families to actively travel to and from school. The program enables the school and surrounding community to implement changes that make it easier, safer and more fun for students to use active travel.

Initial program design worked with groups of students to understand their needs, barriers and enablers to actively travelling to and from school. BCH also consulted with parents and staff to gain a detailed understanding as to the reasons why students do or don’t actively travel to/from school.

Subsequent actions have included a second bike shed at Leopold Primary School, which allows even more students to safely store their bikes or scooters during the day.

Additionally, each school hosted their own Ride 2 School Day event. Students led the planning and running of the schools’ event, with activities including smoothie bikes and a poster competition. Winners from the poster competition were judged by school and BCH staff and won either a brand-new bike or scooter, with helmets.

Future actions will include:

A bright and engaging footpath mural at St Leonards Primary
A new bike shed at Portarlington Primary
Bike Ed Teacher Accreditation for staff at all three schools
Bike Maintenance classes for students at all three schools
Installation of wayfinding signage and Park and Stride locations at each school

Learn more about the work done by our Healthy Communities team HERE.

Getting kids active on their way to school