Introducing the WOW Walk to School Challenge!

16th September 2026

Dear Parents and Carers,

Today, we introduced our children to the WOW Walk to School Challenge during assembly, and we are excited to officially launch the programme on Monday 21st September.

WOW is a national initiative from Living Streets, the UK's charity for everyday walking, which encourages children to make active journeys to school. The challenge runs throughout the school year and rewards children for travelling actively whenever possible.

How does it work?

Children can earn a special WOW badge each month by recording their journeys to school. To achieve their monthly badge, they simply need to make at least one active journey to school each week during that month.

Active travel can include:

Walking
Scooting
Cycling
Wheeling (using a wheelchair or mobility aid)

For families who need to drive part of the journey, children can still take part through Park and Stride by parking a short distance from school and walking the final section. If children are arriving at school via North Somerset home to school transport, we will ensure they are being given opportunity to take part in activity daily that will enable them to log their active travel journey.

Why are we taking part?

At Mendip Green, we are always looking for ways to support children's health, wellbeing and independence. Active travel helps children:

Develop healthy habits
Improve physical fitness
Arrive at school feeling alert and ready to learn
Spend quality time with friends and family
Reduce traffic congestion and pollution around our school

A community challenge

Many families will be aware of the significant traffic challenges currently affecting Weston. With increased congestion across the town, due to the ongoing roadworks, this feels like the perfect opportunity for us as a school community to explore whether there are small changes we can make to reduce the number of car journeys around school.

We recognise that active travel will not be possible every day for every family. However, if each family could replace even one car journey a week with a walk, scoot, cycle or Park and Stride, together we could make a real difference to traffic, air quality and the safety of our school environment. Please can I use this opportunity to highlight to parents that there are three local carparks, CO-OP, Proper Job and behind the health centre. By Parking in any of these and walking the last part of their journey to school, children would be able to log a Park and Stride journey.

Let's get active together!

We would love to see as many children as possible taking part. The challenge is designed to be inclusive, achievable and fun, giving every child the opportunity to collect badges throughout the year while helping create healthier travel habits for themselves and our wider community.

We look forward to seeing our children collecting their first WOW badges and celebrating their achievements in the months ahead.

Thank you for your support.

Kind regards,

Marie Berry
Mendip Green Primary School