Like a lot of other schools West Leederville Primary School is growing in population along with the community surrounding it. Great for diversity and community, not so great in terms of increasing traffic at rush hour i.e. after school pick up.

So, on the back of our active travel work with the Town of Cambridge, the P&C and School faculty, we have created a Traffic management plan to help address the impact of increasing kids and increasing cars. Please get in contact with Adam if you want to see the full proposal.

Thanks to some special volunteer effort over the first 2 weeks of Term 4 we have completed a trial of our 'traffic flow' principles and now looking to extend the 'pick-up zone' car bays plus a few other bits and pieces with the Town.

We've completed marking up 50+ lane-ways and road crossings, with the 'stop', 'look', 'walk' stencils.

Our massive thanks goes to:

• The students and parents that helped with all the painting
• Sue Waite, Sustainability Officer at the Town of Cambridge for all her support in completing the school and surrounds audit, parent survey and safe routes
• WLPS School Faculty for helping formalise the safe routes
• The school and broader West Leederville community for all of their fabulous feedback.

I was impressed to see Minister Dean Nalder present the 2015 TravelSmart awards last week and have Luke McPharlin MC the formalities. Congratulations to all the winners and I hope West Leederville is in the running for one or two awards in 2016. 

Thanks so much to the organisers for everything you do.

It is remarkable the open collaboration between the schools - I fully appreciate everyone for being so open and sharing their stories - so many shining lights.
Some of my key takeaways from the day were:
 Need a whole systems and three pronged approach consisting of students, parents (community) and teachers;
 Kids being leaders amongst other kids to: help influence positive behaviour and mentoring
 How valuable a cross curriculum coach is to support teachers embed TravelSmart and sustainability into their lesson plans;
 The need to develop innovative ways to engage the kids - especially the older ones, through student centred project delivery that have impacts beyond the individual, classroom and school;
 Ensuring support at all levels within the school;
 The need for evaluation and continuous improvement of activities; and
 Ensuring rewards recognise but don't become the rationale for doing the right thing.

It is the right time to be thinking of your school's sustainability credentials at a time when the globe is looking to approve the Sustainable Development Goals as a plan of action to 2030.
Simply Carbon, a business that is focussed on helping schools become sustainable is currently running a Sustainable Schools initiative.
Objectives:
 Reduce your school’s carbon emissions from electricity and gas by 20%
 Address emissions from the commute to school by staff and students
 Measure and reduce your schools water consumption and waste production
 Foster connections with community, AuSSI WA organisations and local sustainability businesses to create a low carbon school community
 Identify ways to embed low carbon initiatives into the curriculum using AuSSI WA guided principles
Benefits:
 Reduce the annual cost of operating your school
 Access expertise from experienced and qualified specialists
 Receive and provide peer support through regular contact with other schools, as well as from the Low Carbon Schools program facilitators
 Connect to local suppliers, receive help to source discounts
 Receive assistance to calculate your school’s emissions and create emission reduction strategies
 Create your own unique carbon management plan

A massive thank you to Sue Waite at the Town of Cambridge for her generous support and effort toward completing the West Leederville Travelsmart audit and parent survey results.
Some interesting results:

 30% parents responded to the survey;
 88% of respondents felt that the issues addressed in the travel survey are either important or very important;
 In dry weather 63% of students walk, cycle or scoot to school and in wet weather the active transport component is 48% (consistent with our day in March TravelSmart audit with  the kids themselves); and
 Significant concerns raised in relation to driving behaviour and safety

There are at least 10 recommendations the school in conjunction with TravelSmart, Main Roads and the Town of Cambridge will be looking to implement in 2016 and beyond.

Disruption and change is happening everywhere so its not surprising new design and ideas will continually evolve 'school'. Below is a link to a good little animation highlighting some key themes for the future, such as:
student project centred learning on projects that have genuine impact outside the classroom and
a focus on collaboration, creativity, resilience...

Looking forward to working out ways where the kids can help implement the findings from the West Leederville and Town of Cambridge 2015 environment audit and parent survey.
For those interested here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSMXLCsNb3A&feature=youtu.be