It was like Christmas at Victoria Park Primary school when we received our safety sign package through the Connecting School grant. What a valuable resource! We have used the signs to set up a realistic environment for the children to learn essential road safety skills through role play.

It was very rewarding to hear the students talk about their learning...

“We have to stop, look and listen before we cross the road and we should use a crosswalk or lights if they are close.”

“Now I know how important it is to wait until the cars stop before I step onto the crosswalk, because not all drivers pay attention.”

“We have to listen really carefully just in case a car comes around the corner, so we shouldn’t have our earphones in with the music really loud.”

We also look forward to the installation of the Bike Repair Station early next term. This will be conveniently located near our bike racks. Senior students will be trained in the correct use of the station and will assist the younger students when checking tyre pressure. We are confident that the bike repair station will encourage more students to ride their bikes to school.

A big thank you to the team at Your Move for providing us with opportunities to obtain such valuable resources for our school!

The Victoria Park Primary School Walking School Bus (WSB) is now in its third year and has been very successful thanks to our wonderful parent volunteers. This year, the service increased from three to four mornings a week, and we now have up to 26 children joining us. That’s double the numbers from last year! So great to see some parents also joining in the walk with their kids.

Although the WSB is not running due to the current circumstances, we are all looking forward to commencing again as soon as it is safe to do so. Stay healthy everyone!

Our school community is amazing! The response to our Ride2School day was fantastic! We promoted it by putting up posters around the school, and through the school newsletter. The Your Move flag was borrowed from the Dept of Transport and went a long way to promoting the event. The event complimented our weekly Walk, Ride, Scoot to School day together with our regular Walking School Bus. We were delighted to see more of our families involved, and are hoping this trend continues. On average this year, we have 64% of our students who regularly use active transport to come to school - it increased to 72% on the event day! The students enjoyed receiving their stickers and all names went into a lucky dip prize draw, one winner per class. Thanks to the Your Move Rewards shop for our prizes!

As usual, it has been a busy start to the term, however thanks to the Dept of Transport, we have been able to get a head start on our Your Move planning for the year by taking up the offer of the half day relief payment. A wonderful initiative and one that is very much appreciated!

As a result, we have been able to plan for the year and begin work on our first event, our Ride2School day. Posters have been created for each classroom to promote the event along with a newsletter article and a to-do list for both staff and students. Further discussion with staff will take place at our next staff communication meeting to ensure all are aware of the event day along with our plan for the year and our Student Council will make daily announcements to promote the event in the lead up to the big day. Prizes have been ordered from Your Move using our reward points along with vests for our student helpers to wear on the day.

The planning session enabled us to reflect on our achievements and challenges from last year and to plan accordingly, exploring options to promote and increase active transport to school and possible barriers we may face this year with our school undergoing an upgrade later in the year! One of our main priorities is to expand our successful Walking School Bus which began last year from 3 days to 4 days as well as increase the number of students accessing it. Planning is also underway for our Constable Care Safety School excursion, made possible through our Gold accreditation received last year! We can`t wait to make the most of this wonderful opportunity and encourage more of our students to take up riding to school as an option for active travel.

Victoria Park Primary School was very pleased to continue the Walking School Bus in 2019. We were able to offer this service on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings with the help of our amazing parent volunteers. We are so grateful for your ongoing support and could not do it without you! Looking forward to continuing this valuable service in 2020.

Some of the children have shared what they enjoy most about the Walking School Bus (WSB)…

“I get to see my friends and talk to them on the way, and it gives me lots of exercise so I enjoy it.” Josie

“I like the WSB because it’s healthy, and I like to talk with my friends.” Matteo

“It is relaxing and I like to talk to anyone I see on the WSB.” Zoe

“I like to hang out with Matteo on the WSB.” Jasper

“I like the WSB because you get more exercise and it helps your body.” Millie

Victoria Park Primary School students from Years 4-6, were delighted to attend the Constable Care Safety School in Maylands. What an outstanding, realistic environment for students to learn and practise vital pedestrian, bicycle and public transport travel safety skills. A very big thank you to Victoria Park Primary School P&C who funded this amazing opportunity! And thank you to the fabulous team at Constable Care for making the experience one to remember!

Here is what the children had to say…

“From today’s excursion at Constable Care I learnt that you need to go to a pedestrian crossing if it is only 20 metres away from you. Also I learnt that when exiting a roundabout you should put your left hand out to indicate you are exiting.” Siddhanth

“A key message I learnt today is that if you are given the choice you should not sit on the front seat as it is more hazardous.” Riddhi

“First of all I really enjoyed visiting the Constable Care Safety School. I really enjoyed riding the bikes and answering the questions on the iPads. The thing that I’m always going to remember is that if you are 20 metres from a road crossing, you have to use it.” Medhansh

“I learnt how to use an indicator when riding around a roundabout… right when riding, left when exiting.” Arya

We are very excited to see the commencement of the Victoria Park Primary School Walking School Bus Service (WSB) this term. We have four WSBs operating in difference locations two mornings per week.

Whilst keeping kids active is our goal, the WSB also provides an opportunity for the children to socialise, and develop their road safety awareness. The feedback from parents has been extremely positive.

We are very grateful to the parent volunteers who have made this valuable service possible. We couldn’t do it without them!

Traffic congestion?? Not a problem on our Ride2School day held last Wednesday! Over 75% of our school population walked, rode or scooted to school making for a most successful day. On arrival, students from PP-Yr 6 ticked off their name on their class list to go into a lucky dip prize draw where one student per class won a Ride2School gift pack. Students were given a sticker before enjoying fruit and yoghurt to celebrate their healthy start to the day.

When asked about the event day, the overwhelming message from the students was that they found it quicker and easier to cross the road and felt safer doing so. They also enjoyed meeting their friends along the way as they used active transport to come to school. We already have many families who come to school using active transport on a regular basis. Hopefully our successful event day encourages more families to do the same on a more regular basis.

Thank you to Your Move reward points for our new scooter racks! We already need another one!

Next Wednesday, March 14 we are holding our first Your Move event for Kindy to Yr 6. It will compliment our weekly Walk,Ride, Scoot to School Wednesday with a few extra goodies added in! The students will receive a sticker on arrival and enjoy some fruit and yoghurt to celebrate their efforts. All students who participate will go into a lucky dip prize draw as an extra bonus. We have used our reward points to obtain an IGA voucher for the breakfast foods and we will use the stickers etc provided when registering for Ride2School. Next step is to meet with our Yr 5 & 6 student volunteers who will help tick off the names of the students as they arrive, give out stickers, help with the breakfast and take some photos of the big day. Fingers crossed for some great weather for riding, scooting and walking!

Check out the neat poster we made to promote the event.

The most interesting thing I've learnt from walking to school is that you can have some fresh air in the morning and it can wake you up so that you arrive at school feeling fresh. Also you can enjoy the scenery. From Jesslyn Yr 5

Advice I would give to other families who have not tried walking to school is

it's a good way to spend some time with parents walking to school and look at birds and nice gardens. We meet many friends on the way and also, if we are early, we get to play in the park for a while. From Anoushka Yr 4

I loved walking to school. Advice I would give to other families who have not tried walking to school is it`s lots of fun to walk to school, I also have a short play in the park and meet many friends on the way to school. Aarnav Yr 3

Q1: What is you favourite way of getting to school: walking, riding or scooting?

Nea: Walking!

Aksa: Walking!

Q2: What is the best thing about walking, riding or scooting to school?

Nea: We can skip, and dance around while walking! Aksa: We can run!

Q3: What advice would you give to other families who haven’t tried walking, riding or scooting to school before?

Nea: You should try it because it is fun! Aksa: Try! It’s fun!

Q4: What is the most interesting thing you’ve learnt from walking, riding,or scooting to school?

Nea: To wait for an adult with you to cross the road and to look for the cars before crossing.

Aksa: Same!

The best thing about walking, riding and scooting to school is that it builds camaraderie between me and my grandpa. I never grew up with my grandparents. They are here in Australia for a holiday and he drops and fetches me from school every day so this is my chance to become closer to him and also I get to know him better. Along the way he tells me lots of stories and I enjoy his company. From Aadi Yr 4

Common monster: I would advise you to use a bus or park 2 blocks away from school and walk the rest of the way.

Uncommon monster red: The best thing about walking, riding or scooting to school is that you get to see your friends on the way to school.

Uncommon monster green: Our favourite way to get to school is scooting.

Rare monster blue: It is important to walk, ride or scoot to school because it is good for the environment and it is healthy to walk, ride or scoot to school.

Super rare monster orange: we should make going to school easier by making a special place to park your scooter or bike. From Christopher Yr 6 and Christian Yr 2

The best thing about walking, riding, scooting to school is it causes less pollution. It is also a kind of exercise and a way to stay healthy. Try it! It is so much fun and you can meet your friends along the way.

Maanya Rm 6

Jayda and Z'harah think it's important to ride to school because you need to be active everyday!

You get exercise, and you stay healthy. It's also nice to be outside!

The Make Your Move Week Scavenger Hunt has seen many of our students on the look out for monsters! The aim of the game is to get active by walking, riding or scooting to school with family and search for 25 monsters along the way. Once found,families are encouraged to take a photo with the monster and post it online to earn points for our school.

Behaviour Change Results

Our results for Make Your Move Week to a usual day are as follows:

-17%Decrease in driving

18%Increase in walking

-29%Decrease in public transport

-6%Decrease in cycling

On Wednesday, May 24 we held another Walk, Ride ,Scoot to School Breakfast event with an added focus of involving the parents in activity stations on their arrival at school. Many thanks to Natasha for all her great work in co-ordinating the event with the Public Transport Authority. We promoted the event through a poster designed by Design Works, our daily announcements as well as our newsletter and through emails to the parents. From there parents could register for the event. The response was excellent! The weather cleared nicely for parents and students to use active transport on the day. As they arrived they were greeted by Smartrider Man, a huge hit on the day! A delicious breakfast of yoghurt, fruit and scones was enjoyed with students receiving stickers and parents being involved in 4 activity stations where they could take a quick commute quiz, map safe routes to school, personalise their journey plans and make a pledge to use active travel. An added incentive was the $20 Smartrider given to parents who made a pledge. There was a long line for this one!! A Transperth bus was also on-site and all classes from Pre-Primary to Year 6 were involved in a 15 min familiarisation lesson on the bus.The Transperth Ed Team provided a most worthwhile session for the students to the point where each time a Transperth bus goes past the school now the students all start waving! Our Hands Up survey was fantastic with an average of 83% of students per class being involved. By sharing the success of this event on social media and through the Community Newspaper as well as our own newsletter we hope to keep on encouraging our school community to keep using active transport. It certainly eases the congestion before and after school as well as making our school a healthier and happier place!

Many thanks to Natasha for co-ordinating our next `Your Move` event on May 24. We are looking forward to building on the success of last term`s event as well as maintaining the momentum from our recent Walk-a-thon.

Joggers on, hats on, sunscreen on.......let`s walk! Our Walk-a-thon, an annual fundraiser, saw the entire school from Kindy - Year 6 walk a variety of distances last week. We were joined by many parents and grandparents as we made our way along the foreshore. Even the dolphins joined in the fun as they swam beside us. A wonderful day was had by all!

These are our results from our big event yesterday - amazing statistics indeed! Our school community reduced car congestion by 51%. Our goal now is to keep it that way!

Our 'Your Move' event saw many, many families walking, riding and scooting to school today. On arrival they had their name ticked off so we knew they had arrived safely. Each participant received a sticker and enjoyed some fruit and yoghurt before heading off energised and happy to their classroom. Thank you to Natasha for lending us the 'Your Move' flags- a welcoming addition to our day. The final piece to the puzzle is to now draw the lucky winners of our prize packs for each year level. What a wonderful way to start the day!

Our first 'Your Move' event was a huge success today! Walk, Ride, Scoot to School Wednesday saw a huge amount of families using active transport to come to school.........resulting in no congestion at the front of our school this morning! What a wonderful sight!

Our prize packs are ready for action for our `Your Move` event tomorrow!(Walk, Ride, Scoot to School Wednesday). There will be a lucky dip draw per year level with all walkers, riders and scooters receiving a sticker and a healthy breakfast on arrival at school tomorrow morning. Let`s move!

2 days until our big event! Thank you Natasha for creating such a great poster.

Just completed our first weekly Hands Up survey! It compliments our regular Walk, Ride, Scoot to School Wednesday event well. Pleasing to see that 68% of our students either walked, rode or caught a bus to school yesterday. We look forward to seeing this percentage increase over time.

Great opportunity to share ideas with schools within our local community. Congestion seems to be a common problem. Our goal is to educate parents to reduce congestion through a variety of campaigns. Thank you to the "Your Move" team for their guidance, expertise and support. We look forward to working with you in the future.