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A year ago, when Patricia Boyd was on maternity leave, she walked her oldest son Malcom to Woodroffe Avenue Public School every morning. She strapped her infant to her back and pushed Malcolm and his three-year-old brother Farley in a double stroller.
“I loved walking the kids to school every day,” she says. “We walked in all weather. People thought I was a little crazy, bundling up three kids and heading out in winter. But it was way easier than buckling three kids into car seats. And it was important for us to get outside and get exercise and energy at the beginning of the day before Malcolm was expected to sit down and focus on school work.”
The family lives about a kilometre from the school, so the walk took about 10 to 15 minutes. But Boyd says it was often the best part of the day.
“I really liked the time in the morning to connect with him,” she says. “It was the best time to hear what was going on in his life. If he was practising for a test we could talk about it on the way to school.”
Malcolm wasn’t always keen to walk in the morning, says Boyd. But she noticed that on the days when he was sluggish, by the time he arrived at school, his level of energy had improved.
But this year, Boyd has returned to work. And like so many parents, she doesn’t have time to walk with Malcolm and Farley, who is now in junior kindergarten, then walk home and leave for the office.
Patricia Boyd and her two kids, Malcolm and Farley, wait for the walking school bus, a pilot project where paid adults walk large numbers of kids to school, before heading off to Woodroffe Public School on Sept. 30, 2014.
It’s a familiar story. According to Wallace Beaton of Green Communities Canada, in one generation, the number of children walking to school in most North American communities has been cut in half. About 30 per cent of students walk or bike to school today, whereas about 60 per cent of their parents did.
According to feedback from parents at a series of events held by the Ottawa Student Transportation Authority, a number of factors are driving the trend. Safety is an issue. But the biggest obstacle seems to be logistics. With time at a premium, it’s simply more efficient to drop them off on the way to the office, especially since the school grounds aren’t open until a specific time (gone are the days of kids arriving early and playing unsupervised in the school yard).
So far this year, Boyd’s husband has been driving the children to school on his way to work. Until Monday. This week, the Transportation Authority launched a “walking school bus” pilot project in partnership with Ottawa Public Health, the Ottawa Safety Council and Green Communities Canada. At eight schools across the city, including Woodroffe Avenue Public School, groups of up to 10 children are being walked to school along a prescribed route.
Schools and families have organized informal walk-to-school initiatives in the past. But in this project, the leaders of each group of children are trained and paid for the job, just like school bus drivers.
“This is the first initiative in Ontario to have paid walking school bus leaders,” says Vicky Kyriaco, general manager of the Transporation Authority. “The leaders have first-aid training, safety training and have undergone police checks. We’re hoping that having that structure does lead to a greater trust in the program and encourage more parents and children to try it.”
The pilot project is available to children who live too close to school to take the school bus. But just like a school bus, the walking program picks up participating children at specific stops along the route. As of the first day, 42 children had signed up for the 80 positions available across the city, but officials expected that number to grow as parents began to see the program in action.
For Patricia Boyd, it’s a welcome opportunity. Her husband will now drop Malcolm and Farley at the corner of their street at 8 a.m. each morning.
“Heading back to work this month, it was really disappointing that they wouldn’t be able to walk anymore,” she says. “Now they’re going to have a bit of activity in the morning before they sit down and focus. And they’re going to meet up with their friends who are walking in the neighbourhood. It’s a community thing.”
If more children walk to school it won’t cure childhood obesity on its own. But it is certainly a step in the right direction.
“If kids are walking 15 or 20 minutes a day, they’re closer to getting that 60 minutes of physical activity per day,” says Darcie Taing, a public health nurse with Ottawa Public Health. “When kids are physically active, there are many benefits, including academic performance and reduction in stress.”
And Taing is hopeful that children who walk to school will not just have increased activity but a new mindset. “We’re really great at putting our kids in structured programs that they go to once a week,” she says. “But outside of that, they’re on screens and they’re being driven to places.
“This is a whole lifestyle change and shift that makes activity part of your lifestyle every day. It’s about walking or biking to the grocery store, how exercise can be incorporated into your everyday chores and activities so it’s not just hockey on Wednesdays.”
And for every child that walks there is one fewer car pulling up in front of the school each morning. “It reduces the vehicular traffic around the school,” says Taing. “That alone makes it a safer environment.”
The pilot project will run 12 weeks, during which time Kyriaco is hoping there will be a wide range of weather to test how effective it would be year-round. Parents are being surveyed at the start and conclusion of the test period to see if there’s a change in their child’s behaviour and stress levels if they spend more time walking. The cost of the project is about $44,000, including set-up costs like designing the routes, and the cost of the leaders. The cost is being funded primarily by Ottawa Public Health, with support from OSTA and the City of Ottawa’s transportation planning and growth management department.
Kyriaco is hoping that there might also be a ripple effect: if more children are seen walking to school, more parents will encourage their kids to do so as well. It might even start to reverse a long-term trend.
Schools that offer the walking school bus:
Convent Glen CES
Corpus Christi CES
Henry Larsen PES
Hilson Avenue PES
Robert Bateman PES
St. Gabriel CES
Steve MacLean PES
Woodroffe Avenue PES
To register your child at those schools, or find out more about the project: Online at http://www.ottawaschoolbus.ca/resources/safe-routes/596-walking-school-bus-pilot-project
Safe walking
If your child isn’t attending one of the schools at which the pilot project is being offered, here’s some advice from Ottawa Public Health about walking to school:
There’s safety in numbers. “It’s always safer if a child is walking with a buddy,” says public health nurse Darcie Taing. “When children are in groups, they’re much more visible to drivers. And the social interaction is enriching as well.”
Gauge your child’s maturity. Every child is different, but public health officials recommend that children start walking to school alone at about age 10. “It’s also about when they have those developmental skills to assess crossing the street safely,” says Taing.
Sometimes the fastest route is not the safest route. Taing says in many neighbourhoods, parents are worried about the safety of the route to school. There might not be a sidewalk on one of the streets their children usually take. “But maybe there’s a sidewalk one street over,” she says. Or there might be less traffic on a slightly longer route.
Organize your own walking school bus. “Put up a big map at your school and let parents decide if they want to work together,” says Taing. “Have parents take turns. If you only have to do it one day a week, that’s very simple and much easier on you.”
查看原文...
“I loved walking the kids to school every day,” she says. “We walked in all weather. People thought I was a little crazy, bundling up three kids and heading out in winter. But it was way easier than buckling three kids into car seats. And it was important for us to get outside and get exercise and energy at the beginning of the day before Malcolm was expected to sit down and focus on school work.”
The family lives about a kilometre from the school, so the walk took about 10 to 15 minutes. But Boyd says it was often the best part of the day.
“I really liked the time in the morning to connect with him,” she says. “It was the best time to hear what was going on in his life. If he was practising for a test we could talk about it on the way to school.”
Malcolm wasn’t always keen to walk in the morning, says Boyd. But she noticed that on the days when he was sluggish, by the time he arrived at school, his level of energy had improved.
But this year, Boyd has returned to work. And like so many parents, she doesn’t have time to walk with Malcolm and Farley, who is now in junior kindergarten, then walk home and leave for the office.
Patricia Boyd and her two kids, Malcolm and Farley, wait for the walking school bus, a pilot project where paid adults walk large numbers of kids to school, before heading off to Woodroffe Public School on Sept. 30, 2014.
It’s a familiar story. According to Wallace Beaton of Green Communities Canada, in one generation, the number of children walking to school in most North American communities has been cut in half. About 30 per cent of students walk or bike to school today, whereas about 60 per cent of their parents did.
According to feedback from parents at a series of events held by the Ottawa Student Transportation Authority, a number of factors are driving the trend. Safety is an issue. But the biggest obstacle seems to be logistics. With time at a premium, it’s simply more efficient to drop them off on the way to the office, especially since the school grounds aren’t open until a specific time (gone are the days of kids arriving early and playing unsupervised in the school yard).
So far this year, Boyd’s husband has been driving the children to school on his way to work. Until Monday. This week, the Transportation Authority launched a “walking school bus” pilot project in partnership with Ottawa Public Health, the Ottawa Safety Council and Green Communities Canada. At eight schools across the city, including Woodroffe Avenue Public School, groups of up to 10 children are being walked to school along a prescribed route.
Schools and families have organized informal walk-to-school initiatives in the past. But in this project, the leaders of each group of children are trained and paid for the job, just like school bus drivers.
“This is the first initiative in Ontario to have paid walking school bus leaders,” says Vicky Kyriaco, general manager of the Transporation Authority. “The leaders have first-aid training, safety training and have undergone police checks. We’re hoping that having that structure does lead to a greater trust in the program and encourage more parents and children to try it.”
The pilot project is available to children who live too close to school to take the school bus. But just like a school bus, the walking program picks up participating children at specific stops along the route. As of the first day, 42 children had signed up for the 80 positions available across the city, but officials expected that number to grow as parents began to see the program in action.
For Patricia Boyd, it’s a welcome opportunity. Her husband will now drop Malcolm and Farley at the corner of their street at 8 a.m. each morning.
“Heading back to work this month, it was really disappointing that they wouldn’t be able to walk anymore,” she says. “Now they’re going to have a bit of activity in the morning before they sit down and focus. And they’re going to meet up with their friends who are walking in the neighbourhood. It’s a community thing.”
If more children walk to school it won’t cure childhood obesity on its own. But it is certainly a step in the right direction.
“If kids are walking 15 or 20 minutes a day, they’re closer to getting that 60 minutes of physical activity per day,” says Darcie Taing, a public health nurse with Ottawa Public Health. “When kids are physically active, there are many benefits, including academic performance and reduction in stress.”
And Taing is hopeful that children who walk to school will not just have increased activity but a new mindset. “We’re really great at putting our kids in structured programs that they go to once a week,” she says. “But outside of that, they’re on screens and they’re being driven to places.
“This is a whole lifestyle change and shift that makes activity part of your lifestyle every day. It’s about walking or biking to the grocery store, how exercise can be incorporated into your everyday chores and activities so it’s not just hockey on Wednesdays.”
And for every child that walks there is one fewer car pulling up in front of the school each morning. “It reduces the vehicular traffic around the school,” says Taing. “That alone makes it a safer environment.”
The pilot project will run 12 weeks, during which time Kyriaco is hoping there will be a wide range of weather to test how effective it would be year-round. Parents are being surveyed at the start and conclusion of the test period to see if there’s a change in their child’s behaviour and stress levels if they spend more time walking. The cost of the project is about $44,000, including set-up costs like designing the routes, and the cost of the leaders. The cost is being funded primarily by Ottawa Public Health, with support from OSTA and the City of Ottawa’s transportation planning and growth management department.
Kyriaco is hoping that there might also be a ripple effect: if more children are seen walking to school, more parents will encourage their kids to do so as well. It might even start to reverse a long-term trend.
Schools that offer the walking school bus:
Convent Glen CES
Corpus Christi CES
Henry Larsen PES
Hilson Avenue PES
Robert Bateman PES
St. Gabriel CES
Steve MacLean PES
Woodroffe Avenue PES
To register your child at those schools, or find out more about the project: Online at http://www.ottawaschoolbus.ca/resources/safe-routes/596-walking-school-bus-pilot-project
Safe walking
If your child isn’t attending one of the schools at which the pilot project is being offered, here’s some advice from Ottawa Public Health about walking to school:
There’s safety in numbers. “It’s always safer if a child is walking with a buddy,” says public health nurse Darcie Taing. “When children are in groups, they’re much more visible to drivers. And the social interaction is enriching as well.”
Gauge your child’s maturity. Every child is different, but public health officials recommend that children start walking to school alone at about age 10. “It’s also about when they have those developmental skills to assess crossing the street safely,” says Taing.
Sometimes the fastest route is not the safest route. Taing says in many neighbourhoods, parents are worried about the safety of the route to school. There might not be a sidewalk on one of the streets their children usually take. “But maybe there’s a sidewalk one street over,” she says. Or there might be less traffic on a slightly longer route.
Organize your own walking school bus. “Put up a big map at your school and let parents decide if they want to work together,” says Taing. “Have parents take turns. If you only have to do it one day a week, that’s very simple and much easier on you.”
查看原文...
