Active Transport Parent Survey

We created and sent out a survey to our parents last term to understand more about how our families currently travel to school. The results are really positive, particularly for a survey run during a wet a wild winter season!

Over one third of our families were represented by the survey results. We found that just under half of families usually travel to school by car, and around 46% arrive by active transport. This is a great outcome. We also found that at least once a week, more people travel by active transport, tipping the balance away from car use and toward active transport! This is supported by over 40% of our families living within 1km of the school and over 80% living within 2km.

A large proportion (80%) of families that usually drive to school also indicated that they thought they could move to active transport for at least 1 day each week.

Families were mostly motivated to use active transport because of the physical activity and environmental benefits of doing so. Families were also motivated by developing the independence of their children and learning road safety skills.

A third of our families have expressed an interest in working together to develop informal walking school buses and have provided their contact details to the Your Move Team. This is an excellent beginning to gaining a better understanding of what our current families are interested in doing to support their safe and active trips to school.

We wonder if new opportunities from employers for parents to work from home since COVID-19 started may have increased active transport use to and from school. We found that around half of all parents go on from school to work, study or errands, and half return home (some to working from home).

To follow up on the survey results, the Your Move team is summarising the findings and publishing them at the school for review by all families. We will also be connecting the prospective Walking School Bus families together this term to better prepare for a formal Walk To School day planned for early Term 4, which will be open to the whole school and be celebrated with prizes and class activities.