Get moving this International Walk to School Month

This October, pupils around the globe are walking to school to celebrate International Walk to School Month – and Living Streets is encouraging British families to do the same. 

For many of us, walking is an easy and inexpensive way to keep active and spend time with friends and family, but less than half of primary school children walk to school in England today, compared with 70% in the 1970s.  

And with notable increases in air pollution, rising childhood inactivity and post-lockdown poor mental health, encouraging children to be more active and ditching the school run in the car for more sustainable modes of transport is more important than ever. 

Here in the UK, hundreds of thousands of schoolchildren take part in WOW – the walk to school challenge from Living Streets – which sees pupils record how they get to school using the interactive WOW Travel Tracker.  

WOW schools typically see an increase in walking rates of 23%, with a 30% reduction in cars driving to the school gates.

Walking to school helps contribute to the 60 active minutes a day recommended by health experts to keep children healthy and happy.

Being active helps prevent long-term health conditions such as certain cancers, type 2 diabetes and heart disease. 

The potential mental health benefits of walking to school from a young age are also significant, with an active lifestyle able to improve mental wellbeing and reduce stress, anxiety and depression. 

Encouraging children to move is a great way to balance out screentime, and regular walks can improve sleep cycles as well as the quality of their sleep.  

And, in the long-term, walking from a young age creates healthy habits for life, promotes independence and freedom, and teaches road awareness. 

October is the perfect month to give walking to school a go, so why not swap the school run for a school walk this International Walk to School Month and celebrate the many benefits of this easy activity?