An East Riding primary school has been named as a regional winner of an event which celebrates the success of schools which encourage greener and healthier ways of travel.
St Mary’s CE Primary School in Beverley was named as the Yorkshire and Humber primary school of the region for 2018 at the Modeshift STARS awards event, held in Leeds.
The school will now go on to take part in the national awards, to be held in March in London.
Modeshift STARS (Sustainable Travel Accreditation and Recognition for Schools) is the national travel award scheme designed to recognise schools which have shown excellence in promoting walking, cycling and other forms of sustainable travel.
The awards celebrate schools’ success in encouraging pupils to travel to school in greener, healthier and safer ways in order to improve the health and wellbeing of children and young people.
The scheme is open to schools throughout the country and is supported by the Department for Transport. Schools across the East Riding have achieved Modeshift STARS accreditation.
St Mary’s Primary School was one of the first schools in the East Riding to achieve the gold STARS accreditation.
Its pupils are elected as junior travel ambassadors and activities are held throughout the year to promote the road safety message, including park and stride events, walking school bus days and other events to encourage cycling and walking to school as a healthier option to taking the car.
Wendy Copley, the school’s road safety champion, has been praised by East Riding of Yorkshire Council’s road safety team for her ‘enthusiasm, dedication and passion’ in achieving its success.
Wendy said:
“Our school has had a road safety team for over 10 years now, so to win this award is fantastic. Road safety is part of our every day school life and is truly embedded in the school fabric.”
Councillor John Barrett, the council’s portfolio holder for operational services, said: “I would like to congratulate staff and pupils at St Mary’s Primary School for their success in being named as regional award winners for this very worthwhile scheme.
“We all know that walking or cycling is good for your health and better for the environment than jumping into a car. The awards are a welcome recognition of the effectiveness of persuading pupils to choose greener and healthier ways of getting to and from school.”
Nick Butler, Modeshift’s national awards manager, said:
“The regional awards are a great opportunity to recognise schools for their commitment to promoting sustainable travel. It’s fantastic to see the varied range of new and creative ways that schools adopt to embed a culture of active travel within their communities.”
