Saturday 25 July 2015

July 2015

Schools Team visit the Parkway

The schools team was invited to complete a workshop with the Parkway Shopping Centre Kids Club on July 23rd 2015 as part of the centres involvement in the Limerick Smarter Travel Workplace Programme. The aim of this event was to engage young students (2-11 years) in the concept of sustainable travel through interactive play and games. This was a fantastic event which offered the schools programme an opportunity to engage with students in a new way outside of the classroom.

Children attending the workshop were split into groups to work on two interactive activities designed to raise awareness about sustainable travel options. Travel Snakes & Ladders (courtesy of Green-Schools) was lead by Siobhan and was a huge hit with all age groups. The second activity invited students to think about what they see and feel when walking and highlight them using paper cut out dolls. We were thrilled with the result!

We would like to extend our thanks to the Parkway and Giggles entertainment for inviting us to deliver this workshop.  It was a true delight!
Interactive Travel Snakes & Ladders lead by the wonderful Siobhan

Take my body for a walk activity : Students were invited to highlight things they see, feel and hear when walking in their local area using paper cut out dolls and coloring pencils.

We were thrilled with the outcome....children see so many different things when they go out walking. 

For further information on the schools programme please visit our website www.limericksmartertravel.ie . 

Regular updates relating to the project are provided via Twitter : @lksmartertravel or @gstravellimerick


June 2015

June was a bumper month for the schools programme where we celebrated National Bike Week which is celebrated in Limerick via the Limerick Smarter Travel BeSpoke Cycling Festival. Some of the wonderful events undertaken in schools throughout the month of June are outlined below. Please visit our Limerick Smarter Travel Schools Programme  Flickr Gallery for further images and stories from National Bike Week 2015.

National Bike Week 2015
National Bike Week is a key event in the Limerick Smarter Travel calendar where we organise a range of activities to promote cycling across workplaces, communities and schools. Limerick was a hive of cycling activity and this is thanks to the wonderful students and teachers working on the ground.


Mary Queen of Ireland kicked off the schools bike week with a major bike fixing workshop with 3rd-6th class students. Students were invited to learn the various parts of the bicycle, how to conduct minor fixes and which tools to use. Over 90 students participated in the event on Friday June 12th. 

School Travel exhibition in Limerick City Library (June 12th -25th). This exhibition was comprised of entries from our 'Travel Smart' competition  which was launched in May 2015. 
The Gleeson family were out in force at the BeSpoke Bike Expo on June 13th 2015. The Limerick Smarter Travel Bike Expo was held on Bedford Row and was designed to showcase cycling related work underway across the city. Visit www.limericksmartertravel.ie for more details. 
St. Brigids National School, Singland held their 2nd annual LST school bike fixing event in association with Halfords (Ballysimon) on June 16th 2015. Over 60 bicycles were seen to!!
Over 480 students from study area schools cycled on June 18th ( National Cycle to School Day 2015)

The 3rd annual Golden Bike Award was won by St.Brigids  NS, Singland for the third year in a row!. An average of 130 students cycled to school for each day of National Bike Week 2015! Well done

Other School Events

Scooter Training 
Bicycles didn't get all of the attention this month. Several schools took part in our new scooter training workshop as part of their school  travel action plan. Scooter training is one of our flagship workshops which is gaining popularity across the hubs. The aim of this workshop is to raise awareness about the use of scooters as a mode of transport and to deliver safety messages for scooting to school. On June 22nd the schools programme officers visited An Modhscoil to complete training with three 3rd class groups. We had an absolutely brilliant morning! Thank you An Modhscoil! 
An  Modhscoil,O'Connell Avenue, Scooter Training Workshop (June 22nd)


Walk or Cycle Road Signs 
Two new sets of 'walk or cycle' signs were erected outside St.Brigids NS and Sexton Street as June drew to a close. These road signs were designed in 2011 to raise awareness about students walking or cycling in the area and are granted to schools that make an exceptional effort to promote sustainable travel in their school. There are now six sets of signs in place in school districts across the city with more due to be installed in the coming few months. Thank you Rory from Limerick City Council for your continued support of the schools programme. 


New Walk or Cycle Sign on Sexton Street (June 2015)

This is just a snapshot of the various events that took place during the month of June. Limerick Smarter Travel would like to express our gratitude to the teachers and students of Limerick City & Castletroy and we wish you all a fantastic summer break!! 

HAVE A GREAT SUMMER EVERYONE!

For further information on the schools programme please visit our website www.limericksmartertravel.ie 

Regular updates relating to the project are provided via Twitter : @lksmartertravel or @gstravellimerick

May 2015

School Car Free Day 2015
School Car Free Day was launched this month as part of Limericks participation in National Walk to School Week. This event invited schools across the study area to 'ditch the car' and try an alternative means of getting to school. This event was designed to be all inclusive and enable secondary and primary schools across the study area to try and work together to reduce the impact of traffic outside the school gate. The event was a huge success where over 2,300 students from across the study area walked, scooted, cycled or took the bus!! Images from this event are available from our school car free day gallery

Laurel Hill Colaiste,South Circular Road on School Car Free Day 2015
These two Ardscoil Ris (North Circular Road) students cycled >11km on School Car Free Day!!! WOW!


Our Lady of Lourdes (Southside) had NO cars on School Car Free Day 2015!!!!!!!
Caitriona & Aisling (Travel Coordinators) who coordinated School Car Free Day in Gaelcholaiste Luimnigh






























Please visit our  school car free day gallery for more stories and images from the day

Well Done Limerick!

Travel Smart Art Competition
Limerick Smarter Travel is accepting entries to our first 'Travel Smart' Art competition which was launched as part of National Walk to School Week. Please visit our website for further details


Travel Smart Competition 2015
Walk Smart Pilot
A new resource, developed specifically for the schools programme is now being piloted in two study area schools. 'Walk Smart' is an activity which invites students to virtually navigate their local area on a tailored map made specifically for their school. To participate, each student receives a passport where the are awarded points for each day they walk, cycle or Park & Stride to school. At the end of the week they the class calculate their totals and then estimate how far they traveled on their virtual 'map'. Further details on this initiative are available from our website.  


'Walk Smart ' Salesian Primary 
Example of a tailored 'walksmart' map where each dot represents a set distance and number of points

Secondary School Action Projects
Secondary school action projects in Ardscoil Ris and Clements went full steam ahead this month. Five groups of 2nd years from Ardscoil Ris took on sustainable travel as their CSPE Action Project for their junior cert. Each group worked diligently to promote different modes ahead of School Car Free Day. One of the cycling groups invited Halfords & Limerick Smarter Travel to teach them about bicycle safety and maintenance. They then arranged to teach 1st year students about bike maintenance as part of their action day event. Another group took on bus transport and created a detailed map of the local area to highlight public transport networks servicing the school. 

Ardscoil Ris 2nd Year students invited Limerick Smarter Travel & Halfords to teach them about bike mainteannce and safety on May 12th. They then used this information to deliver peer to peer training on May 13th with 1st years
2nd year students from Ardscoil Ris training in 1st year groups in basic bike maintenance as part of their CSPE Project
Ardscoil Ris Bus Action  Project 




























Clements Secondary School on the South Circular Road had a busy few weeks where they completed two action projects to promote sustainable travel. Their first project, led by Thomas Giltenane focused on infrastructure where the groups identified key routes to school using actual student distributions and then audited them to determine barriers to sustainable travel. This formed part of their Junior Certificate CSPE project and came to fruition in early May. Sinead Crowes group took on School Car Free day as their action project and focused their attention on promoting the event across the school. Clements came up trumps on School Car Free day where even the staff made the extra effort to participate. Well done boys!! looking forward to working with you again next year,


St. Clements 'Carpool Selfie' from  Staff who made the extra effort to carpool on School Car Free Day
School Car Free Day Team in St. Clements Secondary
Scoot Safe Training Galvone NS
The schools programme had a fantastic morning in Galvone NS with 1st/2nd class students delivering the scoot safe training workshop. Since initiative conception over 700 students across the city have received scoot safe training. This school is set to merge with Southill Junior School in September to form 'Le Cheile' where they hope to get more involved in the programme. 


Galvone NS Scoot Safe




Scooting for Adults!!
Calling all adults....Would you like to feel ten again? Why not try adult scooting? Following on from all of our scoot safe workshops with students we have decided to get in on the action and try it out ourselves and what a result! As a mode of transport it couldn't be simpler.... 

Reasons to try 'Adult Scooting'
  • It is light, easy to use
  • It gets you places faster than walking (and in many cases driving)
  • If you need to stop somewhere you don't need to find parking as it is easy to fold up and carry.
  • You may have heard of  'Park & Stride' so how about  'Park & Scoot'....why not...live a little....:) 
  • Scooting makes you feel young again 
  • Adult scooting would give teachers some serious street cred with students :)
  • Guaranteed you will arrive at your destination in great humour:)
                                                                            We absolutely LOVE it!
Why not try adult scooting! #notjustforkids! 













































Breaking NEWS !! 
Bike Week is COMING!! 

National Bike Week 2015 We are excited to announce that Limericks 3rd Annual BeSpoke Cycling Festival will take place from June 12th - 21st 2015 as part of National Bike Week 2015. Throughout this week there will be bike expos, bike parades, bike fixing events and much much more!! Please visit our social media for updates on events across the city for this years event. 

Is your bicycle ready?
  • National C.O.W. Day will take place on June 18th 2015. National COW day  invites students from schools across the country to cycle to school if they can. Letters will be forwarded to your school in early June. 
  • Travel Smart Exhibition 2015 - Entries to our Travel Smart competition will be displayed in the granary as part of a travel exhibition to be held from June 13th - 26th. Further details are available here 
  • Miniature Bicycle Competition - The schools programme is linking with Limerick City & County Council (Environment Section) to run its 2nd Miniature Bicycle Competition. This fun competition invites students to create their own miniature bike models out of recycled material to be in with a chance to win a 50euro voucher. Please visit our school travel gallery to see last years entries
  • The schools team is also offering free bicycle maintenance workshops and bike fun days to schools across the study area.  If your school is interested in participating in these events please contact us via lstschoolproject@gmail.com 


For further information on the schools programme please visit our website 

Regular updates relating to the project are provided via Twitter : @lksmartertravel or @gstravellimerick



April 2015

School Car Free Day 2015

National Walk to School Week is just around the corner! Limerick Smarter Travel is holding its first 'School Car Free Day' on May 13th 2015. This event aims to raise awareness about alternative transport options for the school run and is being held as part of National Walk to School Week 2015. As part of our support for schools we are offering free workshops, resources and support ahead of May 13th.  All you have to do is register your schools interest in this event by emailing lstschoolproject@gmail.com. Further details are available from our website 






Scooter Training
Work to promote scooter safety continued this month where over 250 students participated in ‘Scoot Safe Training’ from St. Patricks BNS and Gaelscoil Chaladh an Treoigh. Both schools really took to the training and teachers from both schools identified that they would be interested in incorporating the idea into their PE Curriculum.

Gaelscoil Chaladh an Treoigh Scooter Training Day (April 2015)
Secondary School Action Projects
A walkability audit was completed with Action Group 2 in Ardscoil Ris on April 15th where students took to their predefined routes to school to determine positive/negative attributes. This group are working on completing the final report for submission to the Local Authorities and are gearing towards promoting walking for their school car free day on May 13th 2015. Four other groups are working on the theme of travel and are in the process of creating leaflets, posters and maps ahead of school car free day 2015.

Ardscoil Ris Walkability Audit (April 15th 2015)


Clements Secondary school on the South Circular Road completed their walk-ability action project map last week. This group audited two routes as part of a Junior Cert Action Project and compiled display maps, letters and surveys as part of their work. 
St.Clements Secondary School Audit Map (CSPE Action Project 2015)

Junior Achievement Workshop - Ardscoil Mhuire
The Limerick Smarter Travel schools programme was invited to speak at a special junior achievement workshop held in city hall with 1st year students from Ardscoil Mhuire Corbally. This event aimed to highlight Limerick City Council projects underway across the city. Ellen O Sullivan (Limerick Smarter Travel School Project Coordinator) presented a detailed outline of the schools programme and the benefits of sustainable travel in general. This was followed by an audience with the Mayor of Limerick.



Junior Achievement Workshop with students from Ardscoil Mhuire, Corbally in City Hall (April 2015)

RSA International Conference on Child Safety 2015


The schools programme was invited to attend the RSA International Road Safety Conference following the Leading Light award win by Our Lady Queen of Peace in December 2014. This conference focused specifically on child safety where a range of speakers presented their work and findings. These included Professor Alf Nicholson (Consultant Pediatrician, Temple Street), Dr. Divera Twisk (SWOV institute for Road Safety Research, Holland), Rod King (20’s Plenty Campaign), Asa Viklund (Swedish Transport Administration). The conference presented extremely relevant and interesting research with regards children and transport and it was a delight to see the brilliant work of Our Lady Queen of Peace showcased in the conference video. A copy of this is available here 

International Road Safety Conference  video featuring RSA Leading Light winners Our Lady Queen of Peace, Limerick



Do you have news stories you would like to submit ? We would LOVE to hear from you! Please email : lstschoolproject@gmail.com



For further information on the schools programme please visit our website www.limericksmartertravel.ie


Regular updates relating to the project are provided via Twitter : @lksmartertravel or @gstravellimerick
and Facebook : Limerick Smarter Travel


March 2015

Introducing 'Scoot Safe'
‘Scoot Safe’ is an new initiative designed to educate younger students on how to scoot safely to school. As part of this workshop students are guided through the parts of the scooter, what they can do to be safe when scooting and then complete some basic tasks that promote safe scooting behaviour. This initiative was launched early march to coincide with National Scoot to School Day on March 11th and is being offered to schools across the study area via the schools programme and An Taisces Green-Schools Travel Programme. To date over 450 students from four schools in the study have undertaken the programme with further events planned in 12 other schools




Scoot Safe Training takes off across the city

National Scoot to School Week 2015
National Scoot to School Week was a huge success in the Limerick area and has proven to be one of the cities most popular sustainable travel initiatives. As part of this week, Limerick Smarter Travel linked up with Green-Schools Travel to promote the event across the city where reports indicate that over 300 scooted on March 11th!!. The impact of this initiative has been phenomenal and recent visits and calls to schools has highlighted that numbers are on the up since National Scoot to School Week. For instance, 58 students scooted to Salesian Infants on March 11th, the following week numbers as high as 73 were recorded, similarly for St. Michaels Infant School where numbers doubled the week after National Scoot to School Week. Further images are available from here


National Scoot to School Day 2015
St. Michaels Infant School get Crafty
St. Michaels Infant School were busy this month completing a series travel projects such as ‘bling my shoe’ projects, school walks and writing competitions for their 'environmental week' which took place at the beginning of March 2015 . They also used this week to raise awareness about National Scoot to School Week where numbers scooting increased from 0-10 for the event on March 11th and continued to rise to over 23 students scooting to school the following week.



These shoes were made for walking 
Our Lady of Lourdes
Following on from the walk-ability Audit completed with the school in late February, students from Our Lady of Lourdes NS undertook an interactive workshop to discuss findings and create a representative map for their school. The school is currently running a major coloring competition to raise awareness about sustainable travel.


Follow up workshop to the walk-ability audit conducted in Our Lady Queen of Lourdes

Our Lady of Lourdes Walk-Ability Audit Display...Great Work!

Secondary School Travel Action Projects
The first stage of this major series of action projects took place this month where the schools programme worked with 2nd year students from Ardscoil & Clements to brainstorm environmental issues relating to increasing car dependency and identify barriers experienced by students attending each school. The students were then presented with an outline of travel planning to date in their school and asked to identify solutions and ideas to promote sustainable transport. This was an inspiring workshop and we received a great deal of input from the boys. These projects will continue to May 13th where the boys will be organizing their first School Car Free Day as part of National Walk to School Week 2015.


Brainstorming travel ideas in Clements (March 2015)

Child Mobility Report Launch 2015

Limerick Smarter Travel Schools attended the Childrens Independent Mobility Report Launch in Mary I this month. This report highlights findings on children’s mobility from 16 different countries where Ireland was cited as 12th in the overall ranking system. A copy of this report is available here. Reports will be distributed to schools in the coming weeks. Congratulations to Dr. Brendan O Keefe and Alanna O Beirne for bring this fantastic report together.











Upcoming Events

  • National Walk to School Week takes place May 11-15th. Limerick Smarter Travel will be organizing Limericks first 'School Car Free' day as part of this event. Please visit our website for further details 
  • Schools across the study area are invited to participate in our 'Travel Smart' Art Competition. Further details on this competition are available from our website 
  • National Bike Week will take place between June 13th-22nd 2015.



Do you have any news stories you would like to share?
We would love to hear from you! 
Please email lstschoolproject@gmail.com 


For further information on the schools programme please visit our website www.limericksmartertravel.ie . 
Regular updates relating to the project are provided via Twitter : @lksmartertravel or @gstravellimerick

February 2015

Our Lady of Lourdes Walk-ability Audit
Our lady of Lourdes is shooting ahead in their work to promote sustainable travel. A survey completed with the school indicated that 40% are driven to school with 47.5% walking all the way to school. This is a great result but the team felt they could do better. As part of their action planning process students examined where students travel from and worked out common routes to school. Once common routes were identified the group set about auditing them for positive and negative attributes for pedestrians/cyclists. The students found that the area is well serviced by bus routes and has footpaths in all directions but much of these were in slight disrepair and road markings could be better in places. This report has since been submitted to the Local Authorities for review.


Walk-ability Audit Our Lady of Lourdes
Our Lady of Lourdes Audit Report 

An Modhscoil Walk-abilty Audit
Students from An Modhscoil took off along common routes to school this month to identify positive and negative attributes to walking. Over the course of the morning we covered a great deal of ground from O'Connell Avenue to the Peoples Park and the students really engaged in the activity....we learned so much about school routes leading to An Modhscoil! This report is currently being reviewed by the school and will be submitted to the Limerick Smarter Travel team shortly

Students made notes of all of the findings
This bus stop could do with attention!

































Modhscoil Walkability Report 

Charlie Bird visits our lady queen of peace
Following on from their win at the RSA Leading Light Awards 2014, Our Lady Queen of Peace was invited to participate in a special video showcasing their work to promote school gate safety for the RSAs International Conference on Child Safety. It was an exciting morning across the school especially as the interviews were being conducted by none other than Charlie Bird. A copy of this video will be availlable in our April Edition.


Janesboro mens group discussing their work on road safety figures with Charlie Bird

























Filming for the RSA Child Safety Video 
School Travel Plans
One of the key elements of our work is the development of school travel plans to support the uptake of sustainable travel options. As part of this process we work with students to identify common routes, determine how they travel to school and use this information to develop an action plan. Another aspect of our work is to determine any knowledge gaps relating to sustainable travel and then implement ways to address these i.e. bus stop timetables, bike shop locations. This process is ongoing and evolving all of the time thanks to the enthusiastic input from teachers across Limerick. 



LST School Travel Plan Example




Upcoming Events
  • National Scoot to School Week will take place from March 9-13th where schools across the country will be encouraged to scoot if they can. The schools programme will be offering schools free scooter training ahead and during this week. If your school is interested in participating in this new workshop please get in touch with our office


If you have a story you would like to share we would love to hear from you!

To submit stories please email lstschoolproject@gmail.com 

For further information on the schools programme please visit our website www.limericksmartertravel.ie . 
Regular updates relating to the project are provided via Twitter : @lksmartertravel or @gstravellimerick