20,000 Walsall pupils put best foot forward for Walk to School Week

Pupils from more than 60 primary schools in the borough have joined the nationwide initiative, Walk to School Week, which began on Monday.

In addition to the health benefits, the annual campaign highlights the importance of road safety issues for little ones and their parents.

Walsall's initiative is being promoted as part of the local A*Stars Programme Active Sustainable Travel and Road Safety which is a series of walking, wheeling and road safety initiatives, along with training, expertise and support that is given to schools to help them to develop and promote safer, healthier lifestyle choices for all.

One of the schools which held a walk on Monday was Park Hall Junior Academy, who were joined by Park Hall Infant Academy. About 130 children and adults went on the walk on Monday which could now lead to something more permanent.

Karen Petrucco, one of the A*Stars coordinator for the school, said: "We were really pleased with the walk, it went far better than we anticipated.

"When the children came back the comments were lovely, they liked the fact that we were walking together.

"We are going to map out a five-minute walk zone now ready for September and hopefully the parents will be able to park and then walk in to school with their children from that zone."

This year, schools are supporting the initiative by entering the Forest Challenge.

Each class has a blank Forest Poster with five trees on it, one for each day of the week, which forms the template for the challenge.

Each day every child who travels actively, either walking, scooting or cycling, receives a coloured sticker to place on the branches of the trees. The challenge is to fill the branches with stickers by the end of the week to create a Forest Scene.

Councillor Adrian Andrew, who is taking part in the initiative with his own children, said: "It is a perfect opportunity for some quality family time and to have a good chat with friends on the way to school."