Travel Plan
Lea Forest Primary Academy - Active Travel Plan
Lea Forest Primary Academy participates in the ModeShift STARS Programme and currently working towards our Gold Star accreditation.
ModeShift STARS inspires children to travel to school sustainably, actively, responsibly and safely by championing walking, scooting and cycling. Mode Shift STARS supports pupils’ wellbeing, helps to reduce congestion at the school gates and improve road safety and air quality.
We actively encourage our Lea Forest Academy families to walk or cycle to school as part of a healthy active lifestyle.
What is active travel?
Active travel means walking or cycling as a means of transport in order to get to a particular destination such as work, the shops or to visit friends. It does not cover walking and cycling done purely for pleasure, for health reasons, or simply walking the dog. Active travel can be for complete journeys or parts of a journey.
What are the benefits?
Active travel can:
improve health
save money and fuel
reduce traffic congestion around our school
increase levels of physical activity
improve air quality
What can you do?
Consider how you currently travel: have you thought about parking or getting off the bus ten minutes away from where you’re going and walking the last bit?
Encourage your child to use healthy ways to travel and record their trips to school on our travel tracker.
Follow Birmingham Connected @bhamconnected to see how you could incorporate Active Travel into your journey's around Birmingham and the West Midlands.
We as a school are committed to promoting active and safe travel. Throughout this year we have run the following activities to support healthy and sustainable travel:
Walking Trips to the local parks
Living Streets Travel Tracker and Badge Design Competition
Cycling Proficiency Lessons
Brum Breathes - Air Quality Launch School
Poster competitions (Be Bright Be Seen)
Level 1, 2 and 3 Bikeability courses
Provided Free Bike Maintenance Checks
Staff and Families participated in Ride Birmingham
We are always looking for new ideas and how we can further reduce pollution and traffic around our school site and would welcome opinions on how we could tackle travel and transport issues. Therefore if you have any ideas on how we could further promote active travel, please feel free to email contactus@leaforestacademy.org
At Lea Forest we actively encourage our pupils and staff to walk, scoot or cycle to school as they:
keep us fit and healthy
help our pupils develop road safety skills which will keep them safe as they travel further afield and more independently
help keep our local air clean, and our local streets free from congestion
are life skills that everyone should be able to benefit from
How do we do this?
We use Living Streets Travel tracker to positively reward children that have walked, cycled, scooted or used public transport to get to and from school.
We use Modeshift STARS to update and monitor our school travel plan
We promote safe and active travel as much as possible by using our noticeboard, displays, newsletter, website and social media feed.
We encourage all members of our school community to walk, cycle or travel by public transport for the journey to school. To support this we provide:
Cycle training (Bikeability)
Scooter training
Pedestrian training (Safeside and West Midlands Police)
Cycle parking
Scooter parking
Lockers for children's belongings
Public transport information for local bus and train services.
Local school trips are made on foot if the destination is close by.
We let all new pupils and their parents/carers know that we promote healthy and sustainable travel to school before the child starts at our school
We participate in a parking pledge and regularly ask all parents to sign up to our code of conduct for parking around Lea Forest.
The school is supported in improving parking by Birmingham City Council with regular visits from the BCC Camera Enforcement Team
We understand that sometimes there is no alternative to driving to school.
Where a car must be used we ask parents to drive only part of the way, and drop their child(ren) off away from the school so that some of the journey can be walked or scooted
We have a park and stride zone that we ask parents to park outside of to help ensure everyone can get to and leave school safely.
We ask parents not to park on Eddish Road, Hurstcroft Road or Ridpool Road and instead park outside of the red area on the above map and walk the remaining distance to school.
If at all possible look to car share or use public transport as an alternative way of getting to school.
If you do have to drive your child(ren) and stop in the near vicinity please do so legally, safely and with respect for our neighbours and local residents
It is not acceptable to park or wait on double yellow lines, on the school zigzags or across residential driveways for any period of time.
Please note that the decision on whether a child is competent to cycle or scoot to school is for the parent(s) or carer(s) to make. The school has no liability for any consequences arising from this decision.
Lea Forest's Park and Stride zone.
Show you care, park elsewhere
At Lea Forest we ask that all of our community members sign up to our Road Safety Pledge and park in a safe and legal manner when visiting our school, dropping off or collecting your child.
Please make sure that you keep our entrances clear and don't park on the zig zag markings or cause an obstruction by blocking drives or the roads around our school.
We work in partnership with the local parking enforcement team from West Midlands Police and will report any vehicle that is parked in a dangerous manner.
What we ask of parents.
Please encourage your child(ren) to walk, scoot or cycle to school whenever possible
Ensure your child(ren) walk or ride sensibly and safely on the way to and from school, and to push bikes and scooters on school grounds
Ensure that bicycles and scooters are roadworthy and properly maintained. If in doubt consult a qualified mechanic
Consider providing your child(ren) with a cycle helmet
Ensure your child(ren) can be seen by fitting lights to their bike by supplying them with high-visibility clothing
Make sure your child(ren) has a lock for their bike or scooter and that they know how to use it
Ensure you have appropriate insurance cover for your child(ren)’s bicycle or scooter as the school is not liable for any loss or damage to cycles or scooters on the premises or being used on the way to or from school
If you travel by bus, can you get off the bus at least two stops early and walk the last part of the journey?
What we ask of pupils.
Ask your parents if you can walk, scoot or cycle to school
Behave in a way that shows you and the school in the best light whether walking, scooting, cycling or using public transport
Ride or walk courteously, sensibly and safely on the way to and from school
Push bikes and scooters on school grounds
Check that your bike or scooter is roadworthy and properly maintained
Consider wearing a cycle helmet
Make sure you can be seen by using lights in the dark or bad weather and by wearing high-visibility clothing
Make sure you have a lock for your bike or scooter and that you use it
Anything Else?
Families with transport difficulties are asked to speak with our Pastoral team. We are able to provide pick up and drop off services using the school minibus on a first come first served basis for families that have no alternative means of getting to or from the school site and will do our best to support families experiencing difficulties.
We also work in partnership with the University of Birmingham Birmingham City Council and Airly as part of the #LetSchoolsBreathe and #BrumBreathes campaign to monitor air pollution around our school site and will be working with parents and community leaders to further reduce levels this year.