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

and Facebook : Limerick Smarter Travel

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

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

and Facebook : Limerick Smarter Travel

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

and Facebook : Limerick Smarter Travel

December 2014

School Travel Mapping 

Galvone NS and Scoil Iosagain explored the concept of travel planning this month where students worked with large local area maps to identify sustainable travel options for their school. As part of this workshop students were invited to colour code routes, identify key bus stops and discuss travel options for their school. The primary aim of this workshop is to introduce the concept of travel planning for school journeys and raise awareness about local services in their immediate environment. 

School Travel Planning Workshop in CBS Primary/Scoil Iosagain

Our Lady Queen of Peace scoop top RSA Award 2014

We are delighted to announce that Our Lady Queen of Peace was awarded the RSA Leading Light award in the Primary School Category 2014 for their work to promote road safety outside the school gate. This innovative project was initiated as part of their work to promote safe sustainable travel in partnership with Green-Schools Travel and the Limerick Smarter Travel Schools Programme. This school was awarded on the 10th December and was the first primary school in Limerick to receive the award. Well done Our Lady Queen of Peace!! Further details on their project are available from the school website.

RSA Leading Light  Winners  - Our Lady Queen of Peace

St. Michaels Infant Schools Xmas WOW Launch
St. Michaels Infant School (Sexton St.) launched their Walk on Wednesday Initiative on December 9th 2015. As part of their work to promote travel to this young age group the school travel coordinator created monitoring charts on the doors of each classroom so students can place their name card beside the mode they used to get to school (see below). This is a fantastic way to communicate monitoring in infant schools. The event was a huge success and surveys indicated that over 55% traveled 'smart' to school up 16% from the norm'! Well done St. Michaels Infant School!.

Example of a travel monitoring chart in St. Michaels Infant School

Coke Zero Bike Launch
Limericks Bike Rental Scheme was launched this month across the city the Minister for Education and Skills Jan O’Sullivan TD. This is an exciting development for our city which we hope will support our efforts to promote cycling across the city. A total of 23 bike rental stations have been installed at various locations across the city. Further details on the launch are available here. If you would like to learn more about how to avail of this scheme please visit www.bikeshare.ie/

New Bike Rental Scheme Limerick

The Limerick Smarter Travel Schools Programme would like to wish you all a merry Christmas and a prosperous new year. We will look forward to working with you again in 2015

If you have any stories you would like to add to our news blog 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

June 2013

June was an absolutely BRILLIANT month across the study area. National Bike Week took place between 15-22nd June and many new exciting events were piloted across the study area.Here are the updates:

Launch of Limericks inaugural BeSpoke Cycling Festival
This month Limerick Smarter Travel launched Limericks inaugural bicycle festival as part of Bike Week on June 14th. This festival was entitled ‘BeSpoke’ and is to become an annual event in the city. An expo was also held in the city centre to raise awareness about the Limerick Smarter Travel project. As part of this there was a display of work generated from the school project. In total, over 10,000 people visited this expo throughout the week. 

BeSpoke Cycling Expo 2013 

National Cycle to School Day 2013

St. Brigids NS, Singland launched their first ever Cycle On Wednesday on June 19th 2013 as part of their list of Bike Week Activities. On the day over 179 students (36%) cycled to school from all year standards. Students who made the effort to cycle were rewarded with a hi-viz bag cover courtesy of the RSA. This event generated an enormous amount of positivity in the school community and has paved the way for the long – term implementation of this initiative. Well done to Linda O Reilly for all of her work to promote cycling in St.Brigids NS

179 cycled to school in St.Brigids NS! Limericks best COW day to date

Bling your Bike!

Gaelscoil Chaladh an Treoigh is also part of the schools programme pilot from the Castletroy Super Hub. As part of their National Bike Week activities they held a major ‘Bling your Bike’ and ‘Bling your hi-viz’ competition. This was quite the spectacle in the school where over 45 students cycled to school and of these 35 binged their bikes

Bling your bike parade in Gaelscoil Chaladh an Treoigh June 2013

 More news from June 2013 will be uploaded shortly

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

May 2013

Welcome to our online 'School Travel News Blog'

The Schools Programme is a joint initiative between An Taisces Green-Schools Travel Programme and Limerick Smarter Travel where we hope to work with schools across the city to promote sustainable travel between now and 2016. This exciting project aims to encourage sustainable transport for school journeys through the development of school travel plans. Please visit our website for further information. 

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!

If your school has a travel story to share we would love to hear from you! 

National Walk to School Week 2013 
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. 

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.

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. 

Salesian Primary Mapping Pilot - Students work on local area maps of varying scales to identify travel options for their school

School Travel Mapping Pilot in Salesian Primary  - Integrating ICT with hard copy mapping

Following on from the pilot in Salesian Primary,  Scoil Ide & Milford Grange both undertook a mapping workshop of their local area. This workshop is intended to become a standard workshop for city schools whereby the end result is a detailed travel map created by students themselves. Recently developed travel plan booklets for Castletroy & Corbally were also incorporated into the workshop. 

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.

Walk-Ability Audit Milford Grange (May 2013)

Map My Route

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 

Map My Route 2013

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.

Castletroy Shopping Centre Exhibition 2013

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.

Limerick Smarter Travel Launch the inaugural BeSpoke Cycling Festival 2013

Schools Bike Week Events
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

and Facebook : Limerick Smarter Travel