Active School Parents Survey

At Harrisdale Primary School our families are the number one priority. We value the opinions of our school community and recently took to our Facebook page to ask parents what they believe is important when it comes to being active with their children through the form of a survey. We had 61 participants in the survey and found that the greater majority of parents who contributed indicated that health and wellbeing, road safety and physical activity are essential for students. As a Your Move school we want as many students walking to school as possible to reduce car-based congestion and promote a healthy lifestyle.

The survey allowed parents to leave further comments if they saw necessary. There were many comments from a range of parents, which allowed us to determine where we can identify changes that are within our capacity to adjust.

In the survey we asked a range of questions including the following:

• The level of importance you place on road safety, physical activity and health/wellbeing The level of importance you place on physical activity.
• How far do you live from the school?
• How does your child(ren) usually get to school?
• Do you travel with your child(ren) to school?
• If you travel with your child(ren) to school, after you have left the school on a regular day do you: return straight home, take another child elsewhere, run errands?
• If you currently use a car to take your child(ren) to school but are interested in trying out an alternative mode of travel such as walking, cycling or scooting, how many car trips do you think you could swap per week?

We will be working closely with the local council to ensure that we can continue to provide a safe environment for students to walk to school each day. We are currently in the organisational phase of a Park and Walk area, where parents can park close by the school and walk the rest of the way with their children.