School travel plan resources

Benefits of using the new system

You can:

• get guidance for each stage of the travel planning process including set up and delivery, common obstacles, getting people involved, tracking success,
• get ideas and inspiration from other schools, top tips and information about tried and tested initiatives such as park and stride and the walking bus,
• celebrate success by being part of a bronze, silver, gold accreditation scheme and entering into local and national awards.

Start a new school travel plan

Register with Modeshift STARS. Once registration is complete you'll find information and guidance to set up your school travel plan.

Move an existing school travel plan

Transfer your school travel plan to Modeshift STARS. It's very easy to do.

Setting up a school travel plan

There are a variety of things you'll need to consider. We've outlined the main things below:

Set up a working group of people committed to implementing the plan.

• How to hold effective school travel plan working group meetings (PDF) [68KB]

Initiatives, events and activities to encourage sustainable travel

Consider what events, activities and initiatives can be successfully delivered at your school to encourage and support an active school run and what you have planned for the future.

• School travel plan case studies

Tried and tested initiatives

• Park and stride
• Walking buses
• WOW 'walk once a week'
• Walking zone
• Cycle permit scheme
• Car share scheme
• Promoting sustainable travel and planning for successful secondary school transition (PDF) [103KB]
• School travel plan initiatives for staff (PDF) [84KB]

Find out more about these initiatives in the  What initiative will work for you? (PDF) [43KB]  document.

Obstacles

Think about the obstacles or barriers your school might face when it comes to sustainable travel and how these could be overcome:

• Identifying barriers to sustainable travel (PDF) [28KB]

Communicating your school travel campaign

How to develop a school travel plan brand (PDF) [480KB]  Consider creating a brand for your school's campaign and find out  How to develop a successful school travel plan campaign (PDF) [36KB] .

Managing and monitoring the success of your school travel plan

Regular review

You will need to review and update your school travel plan at regular intervals to make sure it contains all your achievements and progress and details future plans. If you're using Modeshift STARS this helps you work towards Bronze, Silver and Gold accreditation. If you're not using the new system then find  School travel plan review guidance (PDF) [480KB] .

Tracking progress

School travel plans work best when they are based on real data - information about how your pupils and staff get to and from school. By capturing this information a couple of times a year, you can see if your school travel is having the right impact - as time progresses, each survey should show more and more pupils and staff walking and cycling for example. 'Hands up' surveys allow teachers to easily log how pupils travel to get that snapshot of data.

Find out more about  Correctly analysing data (PDF) [569KB] .

Celebrate your success

• in school
• in the press
• share with Modeshift STARS on Twitter or in their newsletter

Accreditation

Work through Modeshift STARS accreditation scheme to achieve Bronze, Silver and Gold status. Take part in their regional and national awards. Find out more on the Modeshift STARS website.

More information

School travel plan lessons developed by Living Streets are a useful resource for classroom activities.