Walk to School Challenge
Walk to School Week runs from 15 to 19 May 2023
by Hannah Taylor
Suitable for Whole School (Pri)
Aims
To consider the advantages of walking to school.
Preparation and materials
- You will need the PowerPoint slides that accompany this assembly (Walk to School Challenge) and the means to display them.
- Have available the YouTube video ‘Walk to School Week 2022’ and the means to show it during the assembly. It is 2.15 minutes long and is available at: https://youtu.be/IF6I5usdOII
Assembly
- Show Slide 1.
Ask the children, ‘What is Walk to School Week?’
Listen to a range of responses. - Show Slide 2.
Explain that Walk to School Week is celebrated every year in the UK. It aims to encourage us to walk, cycle or scoot to school rather than travelling by car.
Ask the children, ‘Did you know that every child is supposed to do at least one hour of exercise every day?’
Think about it: if we all walked to school, we could achieve a lot of our daily exercise before the day had barely started! - The first Walk to School Week was in 1995. Only five schools took part - that’s not very many, is it? Last year, over half a million children from over 1,500 schools were encouraged to walk to school - that’s more like it!
So, let’s think about the benefits of joining them. - Show Slide 3.
There are many great benefits of walking to school. - Show Slide 4.
Travelling on foot, in a wheelchair, by bike or on a scooter rather than travelling by car means that there is less pollution. This creates cleaner, healthier air for everyone to breathe, including animals and plants.
Active travel such as walking, cycling and scooting is also great exercise. It can strengthen our bones, build our muscles and help our heart to pump blood around our body.
Exercise releases feel-good endorphins in our bodies, which make us feel happy after we’ve exercised. If we’ve had a bad start or end to our day, doing some exercise is a great way to cheer ourselves up. - Did you know that a Canadian man called Jean Béliveau walked nearly 47,000 miles through 64 countries, a trip that took him 11 years to complete?
- Ask the following questions.
- Apart from walking to and from school, how else can we walk more?
- Where else could we walk to?
- Can we get our parents or other people involved?
- How can we make sure that we are safe when we are walking?
Time for reflection
Next time we are walking somewhere, let’s take the time to reflect on how good it is for our health and for our environment. Let’s also take the time to enjoy the lovely plants, flowers, trees and animals around us and remember to be thankful for nature.
Prayer
Dear God,
Thank you for everything that you have created:
For our plants and flowers,
Our food and drink,
And our friends, family and school.
Thank you for the opportunity to take part in many kinds of exercise.
Please help us to take time to exercise and look after our bodies.
Amen.
Song/music
‘I’m gonna be (500 miles)’ by the Proclaimers, available at: https://youtu.be/aJ9usrpAPao (3.38 minutes long)
‘Walking on sunshine’ by Katrina and the Waves, available at: https://youtu.be/iPUmE-tne5U (3.48 minutes long)
