Welcome once again to Heads Up. 

This is a generic message to all schools which has, at its heart, a local issue.

Some of you may be aware that there is some ongoing work taking place at Stanks Island, on the road into Warwick, which we feared would have a detrimental effect on traffic around peak times, early morning and afternoon rush hours.

One of the measures we had been looking at with our road safety officers, which might have helped to mitigate some of the effects of the roadworks, was to help local schools in that area to get more children walking to school instead of being driven. 

As it turns out, traffic management systems put in place have worked wonders and there is not the backlog of traffic that was being planned for.

But that didn’t stop me thinking that the walk to school remains a good idea.

Our children and young people are probably even more aware than we are of the need for us to change our habits if we are to tackle climate change. This was a wonderfully perceptive theme in discussions of Kenilworth School’s Green Team with the Headteacher, Mr Abbott, Cllr Hayfield and myself on Friday afternoon. Getting cars off the road for unnecessary journeys is just one thing out of many we can do.

Of course, there are so many other benefits to the physical and mental wellbeing of our children and their parents of incorporating a regular walk into their daily routines.  The ‘mile a day’ scheme, in which children walk or jog a mile each day has had immense benefits to the children doing it, with increased concentration and performance in class being the result for many of them.

How about a new year’s resolution to get our children and parents walking, get our families fitter and our roads safer?  Even if you haven’t made any personal resolutions, I would love to hear about more walking, running or cycling groups springing up (pun intended) in the coming weeks, especially as the mornings and evenings get lighter.  Even on the darker winter days, we need to keep our children safe when walking to and from school, so I would encourage you to share this new video from our Road Safety team 'Be bright, be seen' in assemblies, on your digital displays and on social media. 

With best wishes,