Pupils, teachers, parents and school representatives from secondary schools across Edinburgh will come together at the Apex International Hotel for a free day of training on Thursday 12th March. The focus of the day will be to help boost healthy school travel across the city.
The School Travel Plan Action Day, which includes representatives from PP2 schools, has been organised by Edinburgh City Council in collaboration with sustainable transport charity Sustrans. It is one of a series of events taking place across Scotland throughout March to help school champions learn more about promoting healthy and environmentally-friendly travel to and from school.
The free training will be run by Edinburgh City Council and is designed to help schools proactively tackle the school run, promote walking and cycling as a healthy and fun way to get to classes, and find out more about creating and implementing a School Travel Plan.
Cecilia Oram, Sustrans' School Travel Project Officer for Scotland , said: "Sustrans has been working with schools throughout Scotland for over 10 years so we have lots of experience in helping make school travel more healthy and environmentally-friendly.
Currently the school run accounts for a fifth of all traffic on the roads every morning and obesity levels in the UK continue to rise with 25% of 11 to 15 year olds being overweight or obese. It is vital that we address these issues by tackling the increasingly car-dependent school run in Scotland and encourage parents, teachers and children to take to two wheels, two feet or use public transport to travel to and from classes. These free training days will give representatives the knowledge and skills they need to champion green and healthy travel in their schools."
Edinburgh's Transport Convener, Cllr Phil Wheeler, said: "The Council is committed to offering a broad range of intelligent and sustainable transport choices for Edinburgh - which naturally includes encouraging as many people to cycle as we can.
"Last year the Council invested £380,000 on several cycle projects including improvements to cycle lanes and a further £100,000 on the completion of the Rodney Street Tunnel project, which, on opening next month, will link up many of Edinburgh 's cycle routes. This year, we will continue to invest in high quality cycleways, with a further £130,000 being made available for other cycling projects. Of course, the benefits of cycling stretch well beyond the environment - it's a great way to keep fit and healthy - which is why the Council is working with Sustrans to offer this exciting training day."
Source: Sustrans
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City of Edinburgh offers free training for Edinburgh schools to help tackle the school run
