Detailed description (English): Walk to School is an awareness-raising campaign combining the themes of transport, environment and civic participation. It motivates children and parents to walk to school through a positive experience and a competition. At the same time, through educational and accompanying activities, it presents the benefits of active mobility for the healthy physical and psycho-social development of children and for a healthy urban climate.
At the heart of the event are walking days organised at schools, which motivate children and parents to experience what it is like to swap transport to school by car for walking. Education alone is not enough for a behaviour change. People need another positive experience and only then they are willing to adopt new behaviour patterns. By combining a positive experience with appropriate educational activities, we want to get pupils and parents to change their thinking about transport choices and try to get to school at least occasionally in a different way than by car. To increase the appeal, the event includes a competition with prizes from commercial partners. We provide methodological support to participating schools and parents.
Thanks to the synergistic effect of the involvement of schools from all over the CZ and the timing of the event for the European Mobility Week and the beginning of the school year, we achieve a great media and social response. The impact of the campaign is growing from 2017. We continue to develop it, add new materials and adapt it based on feedback from participating schools, parents and children.
Detailed description (original language): Pěšky do školy je osvětová kampaň spojující témata dopravy, životního prostředí a občanské participace. Prostřednictvím pozitivní zkušenosti a díky zábavné formě a soutěži motivuje děti i rodiče k pěší dopravě do školy. Zároveň prostřednictvím výukových i doprovodných aktivit představuje výhody aktivní mobility pro zdravý fyzický i psychosociální rozvoj dětí i pro zdravé klima měst.
Jádrem akce jsou pěší dny organizované na školách, které motivují děti a rodiče, aby si vyzkoušeli, jaké to je vyměnit dopravu do školy autem za chůzi. Pro změnu chování není dostačující jen osvěta. Lidé potřebují jinou pozitivní zkušenost a teprve potom jsou ochotní přijmout nové vzorce chování. Díky kombinaci pozitivního zážitku s vhodnými vzdělávacími aktivitami, chceme dosáhnout toho, aby žáci i jejich rodiče změnili své uvažování o dopravní volbě a zkusili se do školy dostat alespoň občas jinak než autem. Pro zvýšení atraktivity je součástí akce soutěž o ceny od komerčních partnerů. Zapojeným školám i rodičům poskytujeme metodickou podporu.
Díky synergickému efektu zapojení škol z celé ČR a načasování akce na Evropský týden mobility i začátek školního roku dosahujeme velkého mediálního i společenského ohlasu. Dopad Pěšky do školy od roku 2017 skokově roste. Stále ji rozvíjíme, obohacujeme o nové materiály a přizpůsobujeme na základě zpětné vazby od zúčastněných škol, rodičů a dětí.
Target group(s): The action focuses on three main target groups - children, parents and schools (primarily primary schools, with a large number of kindergartens, and marginally also secondary schools).
Healthy habits are formed best in childhood, so it is important to teach children, as part of the educational process, to behave in a way that is sustainable for them and the environment. Children, especially younger ones, love exercise and usually take to active travel to school quickly. It is therefore important to motivate them appropriately to adopt active transport.
Parents are the ones who decide how their children will travel. That is why Walk to School focuses on introducing the benefits that regular exercise brings to children and to themselves. It is important to work with the parent community to explain that active mobility is a good and healthy choice for their children.
Schools are very aware of the problematic traffic situation, concerned about the dangers and the fact that children are not used to moving independently and regularly. Those schools that participate in the Action appreciate that its activities allow them to link environmental, civic and traffic education with health education and regular exercise in a meaningful way.
The number of participating schools and children is growing by leaps and bounds every year. In 2017, 3 schools from Prague took part in the Action, in 2023, 439 schools from 270 locations took part and we reached about 100,000 children.
Objectives: What are our children like today?
- On average, one in four children is transported to school by car.
- 80% of children do not get enough natural exercise.
- 27% of children spend more than 2 hours a day on the computer.
- 12% of girls and 25% of boys are overweight.
The cause of children's passivity and lack of natural movement is not their laziness. The public space of today's cities is overwhelmed by car traffic and is unfriendly and dangerous for children. The aim of the Action Walk to School is to give children back their daily dose of natural movement by walking to school. The more pedestrians there are around schools, the fewer cars there will be and the more peaceful, safe and friendly the surrounding environment will be.
The aim of the Action is to increase the proportion of children who regularly use sustainable modes of transport (not only) to travel to school and to raise awareness of how individual transport behaviour affects the overall state of the environment. It also seeks to reduce traffic congestion in front of schools and to create a safe and welcoming environment that encourages people to stay in public spaces.
Partner: BESIP (Road Safety Organization of the Czech Republic) - organization which is the main coordinating body for road safety in the Czech Republic. https://besip.cz/
Union of Towns and Municipalities of the Czech Republic - smocr@smocr.cz - The Union is a partner for governmental and parliamentary political representation.We disseminate information about the campaign Walk to School and our good practice.
Local Agenda 21 (MA21) – it is a tool for implementing sustainable development at local and regional level. It is coordinated by Ministry of Environment of the Czech Republic. We disseminate information about the campaign Walk to School and our good practice.
Commercial partners - LIDL, DM drugstore, bookstores, entertainment centres, Messenger
Media partners - Radio Junior, Czech Television
Patronage - Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, City of Prague, regional cities of the Czech Republic
Czech Republic