More than 350,000 students from more than 900 schools around Australia have participated in this year’s National Ride2School Day.
Keeping active is a really important way to keep healthy. It is recommended that children get 60 minutes of physical activity every day to maintain their health, and riding or walking to school is an easy and fun way to make sure they are hitting this target.
Every year, National Ride2School Day takes place in March, giving children the chance to put their helmets on, jump on their bikes or scooters and zoom to school.
Since the return from COVID, our bike and scooter racks have been pretty empty. On Ride2School Day this year, we had over 100 bikes and scooters parked in the racks. There were also hundreds of learners who either walked to school or didn’t keep their wheels at school. It made the carpark and drop off zone pretty empty instead!
PE co-ordinator, Joe Grimes, was very pleased to see so many active travellers.
“Riding, walking, skating or scooting to school makes children feel more self-sufficient, builds resilience and helps them to develop an awareness of road safety and the environment around them,” Joe said.
Active travel to school also makes an impact on learning, with Joe explaining, “A Danish study has shown that children who walk or ride to school display improved concentration for 4 hours longer than those who are driven.”
“Not only does walking and riding to school keep our children healthy, happy and ready to learn, it also helps the environment.”
On National Ride2School Day 2022, students across Australia saved 28 tonnes of CO2 by actively travelling to school – the equivalent of planting 195 trees. If that happened every day, we’d save 5,600 tonnes of CO2 – the equivalent of planting 39,000 trees!