Welcome to our online 'School Travel News Blog'
This blog is designed to keep you up to date on all news and events relating to the schools programme. For news and updates prior to May 2013 please refer to our former newsletter format which is available for
download here. We hope you enjoy our news blog!
download here. We hope you enjoy our news blog!
If your school has a travel story to share we would love to hear from you!
May was a busy month across the city with many schools taking part in National Walk to School Week. St. Patricks GNS continued their WOW winning streak with average walking levels at 60%. This is an increase of 35% since beginning the initiative. St. Brigids also came up trumps for the Limerick city hub with a near perfect score of 97% travelling green to school on National WOW day. Our Lady Queen of Peace in the Southill/Regeneration hub launched their WOW initiative with 154 students walking or Park & Striding to school.
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| Mary Power from Our Lady Queen of Peace had a busy morning distributing WOW stickers at the school gate on National WOW day 2013 |
School Workshops
Travel Team from St. Patricks GNS share their experiences
In May 2013, St. Patricks GNS - Limericks leading travel school visited St. Patricks BNS to offer them an insight into their work to promote sustainable transport for school journeys. St. Patricks GNS have worked to promote sustainable travel since 2011 through An Taisces Green-Schools Travel Programme and have built up extensive experience in the implementation of sustainable travel objectives. Antoinette McNamara & her Green-Schools Committee visited St. Patricks BNS on May 23rd 2013 to present their work to the travel team in St. Patricks BNS. It was an absolutely inspiring morning! Thank you to Antoinette for taking the time to share your experiences.
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| Antoinette McNamara & her Green-Team outlining their work to promote travel to St. Patricks BNS |
Salesian Primary School Mapping Pilot
Salesian Primary in Limerick city undertook a unique mapping workshop which is currently being developed for Limerick schools for application in both LST & GST. This interactive workshop incorporates ICT and map reading skills with an emphasis on the local environment and how they travel to school. Following an introduction to mapping via scoilnet maps, students then work on A0 size maps of their local environs and identify key routes, bus routes, cycle lanes and key estates. This workshop finished with a balloon buster activity using the distances measured on scoilnet maps. One of the key elements of this workshop is that everyone gets involved and the maps are carried between classes so everyone has input. This was the first workshop of its kind and it received very positive feedback from all involved.
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| Salesian Primary Mapping Pilot - Students work on local area maps of varying scales to identify travel options for their school |
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| School Travel Mapping Pilot in Salesian Primary - Integrating ICT with hard copy mapping |
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| Scoil Ide Mapping Workshop 2013 |
Walkability Audit Milford Grange NS
Milford grange undertook the most recent LST Audit with 2nd Class students on 24th May 2013. This involved assessing three routes with regards safety and walking/cycling infrastructure. This school completed travel in 2010 and are now a pilot school for LST. Survey results from March indicate that re-engagement was essential as in excess of 80% of those surveyed travel to school by car. Recent WOW results indicate that 76 walked and 111 parked and strode. It is hoped that this can be augmented over the coming year as part of the LST Project.
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| Walk-Ability Audit Milford Grange (May 2013) |
The schools programme piloted a new 'Map my Route' initiative this month as a means of involving the entire school community in the walkability audit process. Walk-ability Audits are where students actively assess routes for positive and negative things relating to sustainable travel. This activity is normally done with the committee specifically thus in an effort to include everyone in the process, the schools programme developed a new 'Map my Route' activity which invites students to draw their own route to school and note down what they feel is positive/negative about it. This activity also doubles as an art competition for schools. This activity was a great success especially in Monaleen NS where over 120 students participated. This activity was completed in Gaelscoil Chaladh an Treoigh, Our Lady Queen of Peace and Monaleen NS and were then displayed in Castletroy Shopping Centre as part of a school travel exhibition throughout the month of May. This activity available for download via our website
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| Map My Route 2013 |
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| One of the brilliant entries from Monaleen NS for Map my Route 2013 |
School Travel Exhibition
The second part of the Green-Schools moving exhibition opened in early may with exhibits from several schools from across the city including Our Lady Queen of Peace, Salesian Infant School, Monaleen NS, Gaelscoil Chaladh an Treoigh, St. Brigids NS, Salesian Primary and St. Patricks GNS. The first exhibition was held from February – April in the Parkway Shopping Centre. This exhibit is also a joint exhibition with Limerick Smarter Travel where work from both projects will be on display until the end of June 2013.
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| Castletroy Shopping Centre Exhibition 2013 |
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| Castletroy School Travel Exhibition 2013 BIKE WEEK IS COMING! |
National Bike Week is a week dedicated to the celebration and promotion of cycling and will take place between June 15th -22nd 2013. This is a special week across the country where numerous cycle themed events take place. This year Limerick Smarter Travel is organising Limericks inaugural beSpoke Cycling Festival where a wide range of events have been planned to promote cycling in our wonderful city.
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| Limerick Smarter Travel Launch the inaugural BeSpoke Cycling Festival 2013 |
June is going to be a busy month for schools. As Irelands demonstration city for sustainable travel we are piloting a number of new events to promote the uptake of cycling as part of a normal daily routine. These include
- Golden Bike Award :This award aims to celebrate the school with the most cyclists during National Bike Week. The school with the highest average number of students cycling during bike week will be awarded a hand crafted 'Golden Bike' trophy for their school and 100euro worth of vouchers.
- National Cycle to School Day or National COW day : Schools across the country are invited to try to cycle to school on June 19th 2013. This event, also known as National Cycle on Wednesday or C.O.W. day is a brilliant opportunity to focus your schools action plan on cycling. As part of this event Green-Schools Travel and Limerick Smarter Travel are offering free cycling workshops to participating schools. Please contact us for further details.
- Bicycle Exchange : Several schools have signed up to complete a Bicycle Exchange action evening for Bike Week. This initiative is where schools invite parents to bring unwanted bicycles with a view to exchanging them with persons seeking similar sized bikes. If your school is interesting in running this type of event please contact us for further details.
- School Hub Bike Repair Bonanzas: Two bike repair bonanzas will be delivered in Southill Area Centre and Castletroy Park. These events aims to address minor repairs and fixes ahead of National Bike Week. Please visit our website and social media pages for further information
Upcoming Events
- A community engagement exhibition is due to be held in Scoil Ide on 7th June which will showcase work from the LST School Project. Do call in if you are in the area.
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
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