Walking School Bus

Contact
ACT Walking School Bus Program
GPO Box 767, Canberra ACT 2601
Ph: 02 6175 9900, Fax: 02 6175 9991
E-mail : wsb@ywca-canberra.org.au

Program Manager: Fiona Loaney
Program Officer: Amanda Young

Badge Design Competition

A chance for your design to be on a Walking School Bus badge!

The ACT Walking Schools Bus wants your help to create an awesome design for our badges. The theme for the badge is "I walk to school because..." You can draw, paint or even glue on different materials to create your design.

The competition is open for ACT Primary School students aged between five and twelve years old.
Entries close Monday 6 September 2010.

WSB Badge Design entry form (98 KB)

Quick Links

What is a Walking School Bus?
Setting up a Walking School Bus
Benefits
Safety
The ACT Walking School Bus Program
Other Walking School Buses
Active Travel

Downloads

Information
Forms
Publicity
Newsletters
Articles

The Walking School Bus logo is a trademark of the
Victorian Health Promotion Foundation (VicHealth)

The ACT Walking School Bus program is managed by the YWCA of Canberra and supported by the ACT Government under the ACT Health Promotions Grants Program.

What is a Walking School Bus?

The Walking School Bus (WSB) is an active, safe, fun and free way for children to travel to school. Each WSB has a minimum of two volunteers who walk along a set route to the school, picking up children along the way. A timetable is developed so that children and their parents know when to arrive at their ‘bus stop’ or pick-up point. Each WSB operates as frequently as volunteers are available to lead it. Most WSB routes are about 1.5 kilometres long, with the WSB taking 20-30 minutes to walk to school. Children who live outside the school area can be dropped at the beginning of a route to join the WSB.

All walking routes are checked for safety and the Walking School Bus program staff and all volunteers undergo a police check and are provided with public liability insurance.

Setting up a WSB

Approximately 20 per cent of primary schools in the ACT participate in the WSB Program. If your school doesn’t already have a WSB and you are interested in setting up one, contact your school to express an interest in participating in the WSB Program. Once you have met with the school either yourself or the school needs to contact the WSB Program.

The WSB Program will support you and your schools to start a WSB by:

providing an article for your school newsletter to inform the school community about the idea of setting up a WSB
sending your school a School Travel Survey for all families to complete
attending a meeting to discuss setting up a WSB and its many benefits
providing a WSB questionnaire for all interested families to complete
collecting and analysing the WSB questionnaires
suggesting the most appropriate route
working with interested families to produce a WSB timetable and volunteer roster
arranging for all volunteers to be police checked
providing WSB fluorescent vests and a short pedestrian safety training session.

Benefits

There are a number of benefits to the WSB Program including:

increased level of physical activity
improvement in children’s road safety awareness and pedestrian skills
reduced vehicle congestion around schools
providing children with safe passage to and from school
reduced greenhouse gas emissions
increased social interaction and the opportunity to make friends
reduced exposure to in-car air pollution
allowing children to become familiar with the community in which they live
greater childhood independence, while being part of a team
cleaner and safer neighbourhoods
time saved by not always having to accompany your child to school
money saved on before school care and fuel costs
children arriving at school better prepared to concentrate and learn
greater awareness of sustainable travel alternatives
a fun start to the day!

Safety

Volunteers need to:

be aged 21 or over
undergo a police check
commit to a volunteer roster
wear a WSB fluorescent vest
attend a short training session.

The WSB has a number of safety procedures in place to ensure the safety of children participating in the walk. Parents must sign a consent form for their children to walk and all children are checked off against a WSB roll on arrival at school. Volunteers ensure that children practise their road safety skills on each walk to school. Volunteers must follow established guidelines in the event that a second volunteer is unable to walk.

All WSB volunteers are covered by the YWCA of Canberra’s public liability and personal accident insurance. There is a WSB folder in each school with an incident report form in the case of an incident. The YWCA of Canberra maintains and regularly updates a WSB risk management plan.

For fact sheets about pedestrian safety and safety in school car parks, please see www.kidsafe.com.au.

The ACT WSB Program Events

The ACT WSB Program conducts four special events per year to encourage participants and raise the profile of the program. To download posters, see Publicity (link).

The Walking School Bus Birthday – first week of March
Winter Solstice Week – the week leading up to June 21
Step into Spring – 1 to 5 September
International Walk to School Month www.iwalktoschool.org

Other WSBs

In Australia Walking School Bus programs are operating in Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania. Walking School Bus programs are also very popular in New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States. Switzerland and Germany also have Walking School Buses.

Active Travel

Other types of active travel, including cycling and travelling by bus, offer many of the same benefits as walking. Often parents find that they are able to either cycle or catch a bus to work after accompanying a Walking School Bus to school. For information about other types of active travel see: