Carmarthenshire pupils lead the way in national walking initiative

Pupils in Carmarthenshire are celebrating coming fourth in a national leader board of schools making strides to walk or wheel to school.

Myrddin Community Primary School is one of ten schools on the WOW Top Ten leaderboard for June 2024.

WOW – the walk to school challenge from charity Living Streets sees pupils record how they get to school using the interactive WOW Travel Tracker with those who walk, wheel, cycle, scoot or ‘Park and Stride’ being awarded a monthly WOW badge.

The WOW Top Ten helps boost pupils’ engagement in WOW and increases walking rates at schools. With a few challenges scattered across the school year, WOW Top Ten supports pupils’ health and wellbeing while reducing congestion and pollution around the gates.

This term, pupils at Myrddin Community Primary School took part in the summer WOW Top Ten which asked them to walk to school as many times as possible in June. Pupils who live too far away or are not able to walk the whole way to school were encouraged to Park and Stride by asking their parents or carers to park at least ten minutes away from the school and walk or wheel the rest of the way.

Only around 50 per cent of primary school children in Wales walk to school. However, the number of car trips all the way to the school gates have significantly decreased at Myrddin Community Primary School since taking part in WOW.

Kelly Theis, Project Manager (Wales), said:

“We’re very happy to reward pupils from Myrddin Community Primary School as part of the WOW Top Ten. Walking and wheeling to school keeps us fit, healthy and happy – and it reduces congestion, air pollution and road danger outside the school gates.

“It’s great to hear that pupils at Myrddin Community Primary School are benefitting from walking to school. I’m sure that they’ll inspire other children and their families to follow in their footsteps.”

Myrddin Community Primary School is one of 170 primary schools in Wales benefiting from WOW – the walk to school challenge – thanks to a two-year project in partnership with Welsh Government.

Myrddin Community Primary School beat off competition from 232 eligible schools taking part in WOW across Wales to secure their place on the national leaderboard of most active schools.