Category: Smarter Travel

Don’t park on our yellow zig-zags!

We know that schools are always trying to prevent parents from parking across the yellow ‘keep clear’ zig-zag lines outside your school gates. This week, we are sending out some campaign leaflets that can remind families not to do this. Parking directly outside the school gate, across the zig-zag lines, is dangerous and puts our children’s safety at risk as they cross the road to get to school. We suggest you send a letter home with these leaflets as a reminder to parents. You could combine this with re-publicising your 10-minute walk zone maps and remind parents to park and stride.

TfL STARS school travel planning

We are still urgently waiting for your Hands Up Survey figures.  Every school that has requested support from us, or received it, we need your active travel and car usage figures to be able to support you. We have great difficulty assisting schools when we have no idea what your issues are or how many people are coming to school by car. 

The STARS Hands-Up Survey is easy: you send your colleagues a link to an online form, they count how each child came to school in their class – it goes directly into the surveys. They then do same for the adults in the class. Your Travel Champion only has to collect information from non-teaching staff and enter this too.

Call us to access the TfL Stars Site or send you a link to make it really easy for you. If you don’t have a travel champion in place, please email Smarter.Travel@haringey.gov.uk to get started.

The Golden Lock – cycling and scooting incentive

We have boxes of prizes waiting for schools who want to increase the number of pupils cycling/scooting to school. These are generous and make a huge impact. We have filled them with 16 different cycle/scooter related prizes and will deliver them with instructions.

To qualify, you must complete your hands up survey on STARS, email us and we will deliver one of our boxes. Please contact Smarter.Travel@haringey.gov.uk if you are unsure on how to get started.

Cycle Training

Our cycle training company Cycle Confident has funds from us now. Please liaise with them to arrange bikeability training for your students, we are very keen to support you with cycle training once again.

Online Cycle Training

We would like you to take up the offer of free online cycle training from TfL. This training can be accessed for free by anyone, and all participants who complete the training receive a voucher for free Santander cycle hire for 24 hours. Please promote this to all your staff and parents, as space on the adult cycle skills sessions at the moment are limited. 

The cycle training can be accessed at: https://cycle-skillsonline.tfl.gov.uk/

International walking month and walk to school week in October!

October is international walking month. Please encourage your families to walk to school for the month of October to promote healthy, safer, less polluted journeys to school. We have a number of resources available for you to support walking month and you have your walking zones that you can promote. Contact Smarter.Travel@haringey.gov.uk if you’d like Hari bear walking resources and a new wall chart and please remember to take evidence of any promotion or activities as it all contributes to STARS!

Half term is coming up…

This is a time when the days are getting shorter and darker. Please find time, before the break, to remind children that they cannot be seen all of the time when out in the streets. They must take responsibility to look for vehicles, wear brighter reflective clothes and always use the Green Cross Code.  STOP, LOOK, LISTEN AND THINK!

From nursery-age to adults, everyone needs to observe the rules of the road.

You will find extra resources on TfL STARS for home learning and road safety education activities plus Think! Road Safety has activities and lesson plans for all ages that can help 

Plan for a Road Safety Week in November (16-22 Nov 2020)– some schools say road safety week is every week!

International Walking Month and Walk to School Week – October 5 – 11

Walk to School Week wall chart

October is international walking month and 5 to 11 October is Living Streets’ Walk to School Week. You can find more information via the Living Streets website where resource packs are available to buy. Please encourage your families to walk to school for the month of October to promote healthy, safer, less polluted journeys to school. We have a number of resources available for you to support walking month.

Contact Smarter.Travel@haringey.gov.uk if you’d like Hari bear walking resources and a new wall chart and please remember to take evidence of any promotion or activities as it all contributes to STARS!

Walking Bear Wall Chart

Walking Bear Poster

Walking Bear Certificate

Clean Air Day – 8 October

Clean air day coincides nicely with international walking month this year! Global Action Plan organise the day and have a packed virtual agenda that you can access with your students! Please have a look on their website for activity ideas and their free resources. There is also a virtual assembly taking place at 10.15am! If you attend, you could take a photo and upload this to STARS.

TfL STARS School Travel Planning

We are still urgently waiting for your Hands Up figures.  Every school that has requested support from us, or received it, we need your active travel and car usage figures to be able to support you. We have great difficulty assisting schools when we have no idea what your issues are or how many people are coming to school by car. 

The STARS Hands Up Survey is easy: you send your colleagues the link, they count how each child came to school in their class – it goes directly into the surveys. They then do same for the adults in the class. Your Travel Champion only has to collect information from non-teaching staff and enter this too.

The Golden Lock

We have boxes of prizes waiting for schools who want to increase the number of pupils cycling/scooting to school. These are generous and make a huge impact. We have filled them with 16 different cycle/scooter related prizes.

To qualify, you must complete your hands up survey on STARS, email us and we will deliver one of our prize filled boxes. Please contact Smarter.Travel@haringey.gov.uk if you are unsure on how to get started.

Cycle Training

Our cycle training company Cycle Confident has funds from us now. Please liaise with them to arrange training, we are very keen to support you with cycle training once again.

Additionally, we would like you to take up the offer of free online cycle training from TfL. This training can be accessed for free by anyone, and all participants who complete the training receive a voucher for free Santander cycle hire for 24 hours. Please promote this to all your staff and parents, as space on the adult cycle skills sessions at the moment are limited. The cycle training can be accessed at: https://cycle-skillsonline.tfl.gov.uk/

September sees traffic levels increase and roads become more dangerous as more people travel by car  rather than public transport. Our aim is to get more children, parents and carers walking and cycling to school.  We have the following resources available for schools:

• Leaflets and booklets for reception children
• A Junior Travel Ambassador programme
• Be bright, be seen leaflets and posters
• Green Cross Code leaflets
• Stepping Out (road safety activity books for years 3 and 4)
• In car safety information
• Air quality information
• Walking maps
• Cycle training A5 postcards
•  Cycle training booklets
• Cycle activity sheets for years 4,5 and 6

Here are some useful road safety and active travel links:

https://tfl.gov.uk/info-for/schools-and-young-people/teaching-resources/junior-travel-ambassadors

http://www.brake.org.uk/

https://www.think.gov.uk/education-resources/

www.cycleconfident.com

Please e-mail if you would like any of these resources for your school and we will deliver them to  you: Halema.Uddin@haringey.gov.uk or Smarter.Travel@haringey.gov.uk

Working with schools, teachers and council staff, Haringey Council is supporting children and young people to return to school safely through the Streetspace School Programme. As children and young people return to school, the guidance to continue to social distance remains in place and the advice for parents/carers, children and young people is to walk or cycle where possible, only drive if essential and avoid public transport.

Supporting active travel in Haringey has been a key priority as part of the council’s response to the pandemic, ensuring that residents can travel safely and in line with social distancing guidelines.

Transport for London (TfL) has supported Haringey to provide additional Streetspace for Schools across the borough, using funding that the council has successfully bid for.

These measures aim to make it safer and easier for people to maintain social distancing through active travel, while reducing air pollution to improve everyone’s health. 

The council is working closely with schools in the borough to ensure that measures to enable social distancing are in place through a set of temporary measures – some of which may become permanent following consultation with residents and local businesses.

This work includes the use of banners and barriers along the carriageway to widen pavements outside some schools, allowing teachers, adults and pupils to arrive at school safely.

Walking maps will also be shared around all schools, showing safe travel routes, and a number of walking initiatives encouraging a walking commute to school will launch.

Competitions to promote cycling, cycling schemes and active travel training will also be introduced as part of the programme – to encourage a strong and long-term take up of active travel.

The programme will run alongside TfL’s London-wide plans, which includes additional buses and dedicated school services, and will see an additional 230 extra dedicated buses being made available on some of the busiest low-frequency bus routes, from the 1st September.

More than 220 high-frequency routes that serve schools will have designated “School Services” before and after school’ and some existing regular buses will be designated as School Services, which would be prioritised for school travel. TfL is also urging children to walk, cycle and scoot to school where it is safe to do so.

In Haringey, additional school buses will run across at least 24 high frequency bus routes between 07:30-09:30 and 14:30-16:30, until at least the end of October – this includes the W3 route, a main route for secondary school students in the borough – an additional 7 routes will also see more buses added.

Keep up-to-date here: www.Haringey.gov.uk/school-journeys

TfL STARS Accreditation
We are waiting for a decision from Transport for London (TfL) about what will happen to STAR accreditations this year. We believe the current status will be held over. We know there are a few new applications going in this year so we will be asking for advice. Meanwhile, please do not upload anything as TfL are looking at the process.
Walk to School Week
In these uncertain times, Walk to School Week is a strange thing to promote, however it would be interesting if any children use the route to school as their daily exercise with their parents. This could build confidence when the lockdown is lifted not to go straight back into the car. Would you be interested in a project to promote learning the route to school?
We will be creating a new project, focused on International Walking Month in October 2020. If you have any ideas you would like us to investigate or work on, please let us know. Hari Bear’s Big Adventure was extremely popular, so we are happy to create a new adventure on this theme. Let us know.
Banners, lines and signs
Can you check your No Parking and Walk Zone banners and let us know if you need more or a replacement. Do you need more Walk Zone leaflets? If you have two school entrances let us know as you can get a banner for each.
The zigzag markings outside your school should be visible, plus there should be a pole with a sign telling people when the restrictions are in operation. If any of these are faded or gone! Send an email to Frontline@haringey.gov.uk and copy us in – smartert.travel@haringey.gov.uk
Cycling
All training has been put on hold, due to the lockdown. As have the 1:1 lessons for students and adults.
Lockdown Exercise? We still have the offer of Try Before You Bike, so if anyone would like a bike to train on, during this time of no school/college/work, Peddle My Wheels is still working.This scheme offers residents in Haringey to choose bike/s from their site, (including e-bikes, e-cargo and pedal cycles for Adult or child) the scheme means that you don’t pay money up front, but pay for them on a monthly basis, after six months you have option to return or to continue to pay for the bikes.
The Golden Lock
We have all the stock and boxes waiting for you all to return to school. Just let us know as soon as you want it. This is the scheme to encourage coming to school on bikes and scooters.
Road Safety
Transition to secondary school: This age group are the most at risk and feature high in road traffic collisions!
We normally provide your year 6 pupils with a Moving Up magazine, competition and deliver The Junior Citizenship programme with the Metropolitan Police.
There are questions at the moment as to whether we will be allowed to proceed with this year’s Junior Citizenship, however we are updating the magazine and competition, we have included information about Operation Fearless as we hear from parents and children that there is a barrier to travel caused by the issues emanating from gang, drug and knife crime.
If the schools re-open before the end of the school year, we will ensure this information has been distributed along with the lessons we normally send out. If it is a later return, we would really like to hear from secondary school head of year 7 to see if this can be included in their induction week at secondary school.
We know that road safety and active travel are important messages that we need to instil in every student.
Nursery
Although The Big Toddle is not going ahead as planned, on a grand scale, you and your little lovelies can still take part and have some fun with the free activities based on a jungle theme.
https://www.barnardos.org.uk/bigtoddle
School Streets Project
We have finished our assessment and waiting for a meeting with councillors to finalise, meanwhile if you would like more information or if you need to chat about the information above, please let us know.

Wendy Thorogood, Halema Uddin, Dilek Sabri and Georgia Law
Office 020 8489 5351
Active Travel and Health Officer
Smarter Travel Team

STARS celebration Event
Here is the Wall of Fame poster 2020 which shows what level your school has reached. STARS certificates and Stars have been sent out by internal mail, please let Wendy Thorogood know if you don’t receive yours. Here are the  logos for your website etc:

Thank you to the 24 schools that came along to the celebration event and learned about Vision Zero, Active Travel, air quality and cycling in the borough. We have prepared a Celebration event information sheet  from the event, please contact Wendy Thorogood if you would like to receive a copy. 
We are happy to send the information from our activities for you, please email us for copies:
·         Active Travel  – School Travel Plans – wendy.thorogood@haringey.gov.uk
·         Junior Citizens July contact Charlotte.Bell@met.pnn.police.uk  
·         Haringey Schools cycling League and BMX courses – pnwheeler@gn.apc.org
·         Cycling -inc training for adults and pupils, Cycle around the borough – www.cycleconfident.com, Dilek.sabri@haringey.gov.uk
·         Sustrans The Big Pedal a free activity for your school community to have some fun with.
·         Peddle my Wheels – bike markets and Try Before You Bike  contact company
·         Vision Zero and Junior Travel Ambassador scheme contact Halema.uddin@haringey.gov.uk
School Streets
The project is progressing, one essential element is the schools participation in TfL STARS. We hope to be able to let you know what the progress is with this scheme by end of the school year. 
STARS Training
We are able to book 1:1 sessions with each school to make sure that each school is confident to upload activities and make progress on the issues that have been raised.  Start by asking your colleagues what issues they have noticed.
The  Hands up survey is the first indication of how pupils and families want to change their travel habits.  Ask me how to create a link for your hands up survey to be completed on line. Hands up survey
An active travel plan helps with school attendance too.  Contact Wendy.thorogood@haringey.gov.uk  to book training
For more information on all of the above, please contact the officers named or smarter.travel@haringey.gov.uk

Haringey STARS celebration event on 5 February
STARS Celebration Invitation
We are delighted to invite your school to take part in our STARS celebration event on Wednesday 5 February 2020 at the London Academy of Excellence in Tottenham (next to Spurs’ new stadium). We have changed the date, so we hope that you and your pupils can make it. The day will provide you and your students with an exciting celebration of your TfL STARS achievements, information about upcoming events in Haringey, plus the students will work through a number of fun workshops and activities run by the Smarter Travel Team.  
Register here (external link).
Please sign up for only the morning or afternoon session and note that lunch will be provided for everyone. One ticket admits two adults and four pupils, so only one sign-up per school is necessary. Please notify us of any dietary requirements while booking. We will have a variety of halal and vegetarian options available, but will need to know about any allergies or other requirements. We really hope you can make it and are looking forward to seeing you there.
If you are a nursery school you are welcome to send adults, but we are not sure the little ones would enjoy it. (We are happy to create a meet up and training event for nurseries, please let us know). 
Other STARS news
Please register on STARS as soon as possible and confirm your email address. We really would like to help all of our schools improve the traffic management and increase the active travel at our schools. Obviously, we have a climate emergency and a public health crisis too meaning we should be encouraging our pupils to increase their physical activity so swapping the car ride for a walk, scoot, cycle, run to school is infinitely better for the person and the environment. 
Stars In School
You will shortly be seeing TfL adverts like this Stars In School around the borough. These compound our activities to promote active, car free travel. It would be great if you could print this out and add it to your your parents’ notice board. 
School Streets 
We are currently finalising the assessments from all of our primary schools. if you have comments about your local traffic issues, we will be checking on STARS and using the issues you have added to finalise our decisions on where and when school street projects are implemented. Your Stars accreditation and engagement is essential.
Cycling
The latest news is that we have additional funding to support our adults to cycle. We have great opportunities for your staff and parents to receive free training. If your staff or parents and carers are interested, please contact: www.cycleconfident.com to arrange a suitable training session. Cycling can also improve mental health as you devote your time to concentrating on a new skill that lifts your spirit and gets those endorphins working for you.
Cycle skills for pupils: There is still availability to train your pupils, we would like to see more secondary schools taking part too, with the climate emergency, cycling is a very eco-friendly way to travel to school. 
Need a new bike?
In addition, we are running the Peddle My Wheels schemes – Try Before You Bike and Bike Markets
If you think your school would benefit from holding a bike market to recycle unloved bikes and offer opportunity to buy a bargain, then contact us at smarter.travel@haringey.gov.uk .
Alongside is our Cycle to Work Scheme for our Haringey employees, this is a perfect time as shops have good sales on and you will be up and running ready for the improved weather. 
Vision Zero – Road Safety
The Mayor of London wants a collision-free city by 2040, but we are all doing our bit now. TfL has a web page dedicated to their Vision Zero. Road Safety is a vital part of active travel. If you and your Junior or Youth Travel Ambassadors need some support and advice, please do not hesitate to contact us for resources and guidance as well as signposting to the best support around – Smarter.travel@haringey.gov.uk  
Our next major project is: 
Safe Drive Stay Alive  at The Bernie Grant Arts Centre on Monday 16, Tuesday 17 and Wednesday 18 March.
If you work with 16 – 18 year olds, sign up and register at this event. It is a powerful project and covers essential part of PSHE – please don’t be disappointed. Contact us now to secure seats and transport to and from the venue (subject to distance). The project officer in charge is Halema.uddin@haringey.gov.uk

Haringey is committed to making cycling a safe, enjoyable and practical method of transport in the borough. Anyone who lives, works or studies in Haringey is entitles to use the services of Cycle Confident and we actively encourage people to do this.
Our programme of cycle training continues throughout the year and is available to parents, teachers and all adults working at your school.
You can book sessions with Cycle Confident for all children from year 5 up to year 13. They will also deliver cycle training to staff and parent groups: Parent cycle skills leaflet