October is International Walk to School Month, organised in the UK by walking charity Living Streets, when pupils around the globe celebrate the joys of walking and wheeling to school.
At Waldegrave pupils in Year 8 and 9 have been getting involved in Richmond Council’s environmental project: Our Air, Our Action. As part of this they have had assemblies and also had the opportunity to take part in workshops about air quality and healthy, sustainable travel. They have learnt about how the travel sector causes air pollution and is responsible for a high amount of greenhouse gas emissions. They discussed how sustainable travel is very important, and the range of social, environmental and economic benefits it has.
In Richmond borough, transport accounts for 71% of total nitrogen oxides emissions in tonnes per annum (London Atmospheric Emissions Inventory, 2019), and cars make up 51% of road transport’s total nitrogen oxides emissions (London Atmospheric Emissions Inventory, 2025).
It is so important to think about how you travel to school, meet up with friends, go to different activities and move around the local area. Are you being driven somewhere that you could maybe walk or cycle part of the way? If you do have to drive, ensure you turn your engine off when the car stops. Leaving engines idling while stationary is simply an unnecessary source of air pollution and is illegal.
Small actions make such a huge difference, so we are asking all pupils to travel to and from school using a sustainable method throughout October. That means leaving the car at home and switching to either walking, cycling, scooting or taking public transport for their school commute. We’re excited to hear how you all get on!
The second part of this workshop involved our a smaller group analysing a range of data sets and using their own lived experiences to plot and create a map which highlights the best routes around the area according to the Healthy Streets Indicators like:
- There are good cycle or walking paths
- It feels safe
- There are things to see and do
- It is easy to cross
- There is clean air
Use this map to help plan one of your local journeys, it can be downloaded onto your phone, or printed.