Talk N Walk to School – Bramfield Park Primary School

Annita Wenban
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YMAT organised a Talk N Walk to School Day for student wellbeing in Term 4 Week 9, our last active travel event for the year.

A Nature Play WA initiative, Talk N Walk to School Day highlights the wellbeing benefits associated with walking and talking to school. Conversation typically flows more freely when you’re walking and being active outdoors has many powerful and wide-ranging health benefits:

  • Boosts mood
  • Clears the mind
  • Helps relieve everyday stresses
  • Inspires creative thinking
  • Promotes communication
  • And much, much more!

Nature Play WA, with more than 100 children and young people, co-designed a free Talk N Walk app - with conversation starters, walking challenges and digital stickers – that’s about having fun and honing-in on how walking and talking makes you feel. The app is family friendly with no links to social media, in-app connectivity or personally identifying data.

We were lucky to be one of our first ten schools signed up for this event with Nature Play WA and were sent a prize pack. It included a Talk N Walk:

  • Sneaker bag
  • Water bottle
  • Stress sneaker
  • Sunscreen lip balms
  • Fold up Frisbees

The YMAT decided to use these on our Talk N Walk Day as prizes.

We were also sent a Talk N Walk card deck that included 50 conversation and walking challenge cards, based on the Talk N Walk app content. YMAT decided to use these as part of our messages and conversation starters drawn in chalk on footpaths leading to school for the event. The team also were keen to see these cards used as part of a class activity on the day or for future activities.

Promotion
Encouraging students to turn their commute to school into a wellbeing Talk N Walk Day with family and friends occurred via several promotional mediums.

• E-Newsletter, school website and Facebook (refer to Term 4 newsletter articles)
• School leaders PA announcements every day for a week during daily messages
• Students were selected to draw chalk pictures of what Talk N Walk meant to them around the lunch concrete area.
• YM coordinator with a PA announcement just before end of school day prior to the event when all the families are gathered around outside classrooms so they can also hear the message of Talk N Walk to School.

On the Day

Mrs Wenban and Ms Sneddon were up early to write chalk messages on the path to school for our walkers to get conversations flowing. They used some of the cards from the Talk N Walk deck.

This popular message had our walkers talking non-stop!

Families got involved and they expressed so many positive comments towards the footpath chalk comments whilst walking to school. It was great to see some families using the Talk N Walk app.

The Your Move Action Team were in the undercover area where all walkers joined them for a health and wellbeing activity and went into the draw for some prizes donated from the Talk N Walk initiative. We had 68 walkers (28% of our school – 9 less than our Hands Up Survey earlier this term). All walkers added a comment for “What made you smile today?” on the Wellbeing Wall. Classes came out to read some of the messages.

Every walker who wrote a message on the Wellbeing Wall got a faction card and went into the draw for some prizes. Those walkers who used the app got 2 faction cards, and therefore 2 entries into the prize draw.

The Year 1 and 2 teachers took their students out to the basketball court to go through the Talk N Walk card deck and have conversations whilst walking around the basketball court. They did laps of the basketball court to represent 1km of walking which is where most of the students live from the school.

Then the students had more fun and did some chalk drawings about what makes them smile.

Reflection

Our first Talk N Walk event at Bramfield Park Primary was a huge success with 68 walkers participating. Our reflection meeting highlighted that it was well received especially from families who provided positive feedback about the conversation starters on the footpath to school. A big number of our student walkers said that being with their friends walking to school, made them smile. What a great way to start their day. Trying to find the bird’s nest was a big hit! Next year we would like to promote the Talk N Walk app more, to encourage increased use of it with our families. Lots of teachers and students were talking about the chalk drawings on the basketball court when they went out for playtime – great conversations. With all the positive feedback, the YMAT have added Talk N Walk events in the 2023 Your Move Active Travel Planner, which value adds to our Wellbeing Pillar of the school Business Plan.

Our school provided feedback to Nature Paly WA via a survey at the end of term and went into the $500 prize draw and…. WE WON! YMAT and our school were so excited and look forward to putting the money towards future initiatives to support the school community’s wellbeing at Bramfield Park Primary school. A heartfelt thank you to Nature Play WA and Your Move for a collaborative approach to student wellbeing.

This is our last Your Move event for 2022 and it was nice to finish off the year with the Talk N Walk event.

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2 Comments

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Emma Jack (Your Move)

Congratulations Annita and Bramfield PS! How rewarding 🎊 I love the use of chalk drawings and chalk conversation prompters, as well as the wellbeing wall reflections 😍 That's a bonus 35 points for innovation and detailed sharing 🙌🏽

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Lindi

Thanks for sharing this Annita, it's good to see how the Talk N Walk app works in practice. You've inspired me to try this out at St Augustine's.

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