One lucky boy is riding to school with joy after he won a brand-new micro scooter in a competition aimed at keeping children active.
From the 180 entries in the prize draw, Harvey, a Year 4 pupil at Gorse Ride Junior School in Finchampstead, was randomly chosen after taking part in this year’s Active Journey campaign.
The campaign is part of the Active Movement programme, which encourages children to get active by adding standing and movement to their daily routine in the classroom. From 31 October to 25 November children took part in Active Journey activities aimed at reducing the amount of time spent in cars and on buses, including a walking bingo challenge.
Active Journey is supported by Wokingham Borough Council’s public health team in partnership with My Journey Wokingham. It aims to improve physical activity among young people within a school setting, which supports the council’s overall aim to reduce levels of childhood obesity.
For the Active Journey competition, the children received a bingo card and each time they completed one of the journeys featured, they crossed it off. Once they completed all nine, they handed it into their school to be entered into a prize draw.
As well as the top prize of a new scooter, there were goodie bags won by children from all ten schools that took part in the competition. The bags included a reusable My Journey water bottle, a family swim voucher from Places for Leisure, a medal and high-visibility slap bands and stickers.
Making a long-term change to children's health
Councillor David Hare, executive member for health, wellbeing and adult services, conducted the prize draw at Emmbrook Junior School.
He said: “It was such a privilege to be able to choose the winner of this year’s competition. All of the children were really enthusiastic about it, which shows the Active Movement campaign has achieved what it set out to. This is not about a sporadic, short-lived interest in being active – it is about trying to encourage a long-term change in the way children and their schools view exercise and how small things can make a big difference to their physical and mental health.”
Active Movements offers a unique approach to behaviour change within schools by encouraging children to sit less, stand regularly and move more. Last year’s pilot saw seven schools take part across the academic year, with more than 2,000 pupils getting involved. There was even more interest this year, with ten schools signing up.
A new element for this year was the partnership with My Journey Wokingham. This is a borough-wide sustainable travel campaign, which aims to help and inspire residents, employees and students to travel by active and sustainable methods and to reduce air pollution.
Schools have also been developing their travel plans using Modeshift STARS, a free travel planning tool open to all schools in Wokingham Borough.
Children are happier, healthier and more active
Competition winner Harvey said: “I like Active Movement because it means I am always moving and it is about doing little things every day instead of sitting.”
Fellow Gorse Ride Junior student Jake, who is in Year 6 and won a goodie bag, said: “In the middle of a lesson, we will sometimes go out for a walk. Active Journey encourages me to walk a bit more before and after school and it is a good way to remind me I can be active every day.”
Eileen Rogers, executive headteacher of Gorse Ride Schools, said: “Active Movement easily fits into our everyday routine and helps the children to be healthier, happier and more active. Our children enjoyed the opportunity to stand and move during lessons. It helps parents and children to realise that you can be more active just by changing the way you travel to school. It is not only good for their health, but also for the environment too.”
One of the key aims of encouraging active travel is to reduce air pollution, particularly outside schools where there is increased traffic at certain times of the day. This also helps the council to honour its pledge to do all it can to address the climate emergency.
By encouraging active travel and seeking to provide more amenities, such as crossings or cycleways over the coming years, the council also hopes to address inequality by offering access to more affordable ways of getting around.
Email peter@activemovement.co.uk to find out more about the Active Movement programme.
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