HAPPY SHOESDAY 2019! #HappyShoesday We’ve signed up to HAPPY SHOESDAY 2019! #HappyShoesday What is Living Streets and Happy Shoesday? Living Streets – is the UK charity for every day walking. They run the national walk to school campaign which includes the WOW challenge! Living Streets’ also runs Walk to School Week and within that a fundraising walk to school day event called Happy Shoesday. Happy Shoesday takes place on Tuesday 1 October 2019 and our school is taking part!

What is happening? Walk, scoot, cycle or park and stride to school on Tuesday 1 October in your favourite or decorated shoes Donate £1 to your Happy Shoesday box to raise vital funds for Living Streets Pupils can wear their favourite shoes or decorate their own shoes. There is a suggested donation of £1 per pupil. Funds raised directly help Living Streets – the UK charity for everyday walking, to do work all over the UK, making our streets safer for all. Above all, the work Living Streets does creates communities designed for people, not cars. #Roadsafety

Shoe examples – wear your favourite shoes or decorate a pair!

Shoe examples – wear your favourite shoes or decorate a pair!

Why are we taking part in Happy Shoesday? Walking to school is fun! And it’s a great time for talking! Walking to school is a great time to talk to your family and they can find out about your day. Because when your parents/carers drive you, they will have to focus on the road more so probably won’t be able to talk as much.   You could meet up with your friends on your way to and from school too – a great time for talking to them! Hands up if you met your friends on the way into school this morning? Great, hands down.

Walking is good exercise for us Walking is good exercise for us. As we walk our hearts beat faster, our breathing gets quicker, we warm up, and we feel energised. Exercise is important because it helps to keep our bodies healthy and is good for our hearts, lungs, muscles and bones.   Did you know that it’s recommended that you carry out 60 minutes of physical activity every day? Well, the walk to school is a really good way of getting some of that exercise. And not only does walking help keep us fit and healthy, it can help wake us up in the morning and make us feel happy! If you walk to school then you’ll be more alert when you come into the classroom, and a lot more relaxed and ready to start your day.

Walking to school takes cars off the road and fewer cars means less traffic, and less traffic makes our roads feel safer. Fewer cars also means better air quality and reduced CO2 emissions. All the better for walkers! Who here would feel safer if there were fewer cars around the school gates?

Walking is the greenest form of transport so you can actually help the planet too by walking. There are over 10 million children travelling to school every morning in the UK and nearly half of children travelling to school make that journey in a car.   Why is it better for the environment if we walk rather than travel by car? Hands up if you have any ideas. (Take a few suggestions, answers along the lines of: cars release gases that pollute the air and this contributes to global warming, whereas walking is clean and green) Hands down. If more people walked there would be fewer people in their cars and less pollution would be pumped into the air.

#happyshoesday, @livingstreets. HAVE FUN! Teachers, don’t forget to take photos to showcase your pupils Happy Shoes. #happyshoesday, @livingstreets. Teachers and parents can take photos and share on social media using: #happyshoesday, @livingstreets. Tell us what #roadsafety means to you to be entered into our competition to win school book tokens. * *Visit www.livingstreets.org.uk/happyshoesday for full T&Cs.