December
2011
Special edition
Sc
ing
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Th e S
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chool Travel Magazine for H
ls
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What’s inside
Page 2
Update from Councillor Tebbutt
Olympic Relay in Havering
Page 3, 4 & 5
The Big WoW 2011 WoW what a great day!
Page 6
Olympic Torch and Vest Winners!
STAR Accreditation Congratulations
Page 7
What’s new on the School
Travel Bulletin Board
Page 8
Updates from
Havering’s schools
Comment from
Councillor
Torch Relay Starts at Whybridge
Tebbutt
Councillor Barry Tebbutt,
the Cabinet Member for
Environment, is fully
behind both the School
Travel Plan programme
and Taking Steps
magazine, he commented:
“I am delighted to see the superb results
our schools are continuing to achieve
with their travel plans. The health and
fitness benefits of an active School
Travel Plan are really positive as is the
reduction in congestion and pollution
around our schools.
Record levels of reduction in car use at
nearly 14% in the Borough are excellent
and the second highest in all London
Boroughs, the London average is 6%. We
have more pupils cycling than ever before,
up by 3%. This is the third best in London,
and lots of cycle storage in our schools to
encourage more bike use by all.
The Big WOW 2011 was a cross London Olympic walking
relay that involved all 33 Boroughs, an idea that started
here in Havering two years ago. This is the fifth
consecutive year we have held an event in October and the
level of support from schools was huge again!
The Olympic torches from London 1948 and Melbourne
1956 were passed through every Borough over nearly five
weeks finishing their journey in Greenwich.
The torches arrived in Havering on Tuesday 4 October when
pupils from the London Borough of Barking & Dagenham
delivered them to Whybridge Infants School. The Mayors of
both Boroughs were present at the handover.
We had 52 schools take part in the Big WoW
in October and I was delighted to attend and
enjoy the day with you. The WoW scheme
itself is enjoyed by 15000 pupils each
month in Havering and 54 primary schools
take part throughout the academic year.
There is so much going on and lots of
opportunities where schools can make an
impact as you will read in Taking Steps.
Please get in touch with the Smarter Travel
Team if you have any ideas or questions.
It’s clear you are really making the
changes that the School Travel
Programme is all about and I thank you
for all the hard work you are putting in to
deliver those changes.
Finally, may I wish you all a Happy
Christmas and a peaceful and
successful New Year.”
Produced by the Regeneration, Policy & Planning
Service of the London Borough of Havering.
Taking Steps Special / December 2011
Job no: D353
The Torches Visit Crowlands Primary
The two Olympic torches called in at Crowlands Primary early on Wednesday
5 October 2011 en route to the Big WoW event. John Greatrex, Martin Day, and
Councillor Tebbutt spoke to the pupils in a full school assembly about the
importance of the Olympic torches through history and the Olympic Games
coming to London next year which will be such a special occasion for the whole
country, particularly London.
The torches toured the school with lots of children and teachers getting to see
them close up. The younger pupils formed a guard of honour and lined the
route as the lit torches and school representatives left the school for the short
journey along London Road to St Edwards school, the venue for the Big WoW
2011 – it was quite a sight as the group headed to the venue and it was a day
the school will never forget!
Taking Steps
On Wednesday 5 October 2011
it was Havering’s turn to
celebrate The Big WoW, and
this time at a new venue for
the event at St Edwards CofE
School & Sixth Form College and
Westlands Pavilion & Playing
Fields in London Road, Romford.
Nearly 300 pupils from 52
schools made their way to the
venue either walking all the way
or by part bus, part walking.
Special issue November 2011
Page 3
Did you know…
The Olympic Motto
In 1921, Pierre de Coubertin,
founder of the modern Olympic
Games, borrowed a Latin phrase
from his friend, Father Henri
Didon, for the Olympic motto:
Citius, Altius, Fortius (“Swifter,
Higher, Stronger”).
Continued...
Waiting for them at the venue were two Olympic torches, real pieces of
Olympic history. As well as the torches there was a central marquee for
reception and speeches and three activities for all pupils to enjoy,
something for mind, body and soul!
The first activity was an Olympic quiz in St
Edwards School where schools were paired
together to work out the answers as well as an
Olympic based sports activity, which was held on
the playing fields and a dance workshop in the
Westlands Pavilion. Sainsbury’s kindly provided
bottles of water and fruit. Nearly 50 Olympic vest
and torch designs came with the schools and
were stored for judging after the event – what an
incredibly high standard they were too!
Did you know…
The Olympic Oath
Pierre de Coubertin wrote an oath for
the athletes to recite at each Olympic
Games. During the opening ceremonies,
one athlete recites the oath on behalf of
all the athletes. The Olympic oath was
first taken during the 1920 Olympic
Games by Belgian fencer Victor Boin.
The Olympic Oath states, “In the name
of all competitors, I promise that we
shall take part in these Olympic Games,
respecting and abiding by the rules that
govern them, in the true spirit of
sportsmanship, for the glory of sport
and the honour of our teams.”
Page 4
During the lunch break when everybody was
seated in the main marquee there were speeches
by The Mayor of Havering, Transport for London’s
Chris Mather and John Greatrex (the man who
kindly brought along the torches). Following that
there were two inspirational interviews between
Lloyd Scott MBE and the local International
athlete Victoria Ohurougu and Olympic Gold
Medal rower Mark Hunter MBE. All three having
strong links with the Borough and all went to
school in Havering. It was great to have three ex
pupils of Havering together who have achieved so
much in their different fields.
Mark Hunter then spent the afternoon talking to
pupils and adults, signing autographs and
allowing people to get a close up look at a real
Olympic gold medal!
It was great to see the pupils enjoying the three
activities and getting so much from the day. On
departure they were each given a Big WOW t shirt
from TFL as a lasting memory of the day.
I would like to sincerely thank everyone for
coming to the event with such enthusiasm and all
those (and there were many) that helped make it
possible, it was a great day and we hope you all
enjoyed it.
Martin Day - Smarter Travel Officer
Did you know…
The Official Olympic Flag
Created by Pierre de Coubertin in 1914, the
Olympic flag contains five interconnected rings
on a white background. The five rings symbolise
the five significant continents and are
interconnected to symbolize the friendship to
be gained from these international
competitions. The rings, from left to right, are
blue, yellow, black, green, and red. The colours
were chosen because at least one of them
appeared on the flag of every country in the
world. The Olympic flag was first flown during
the 1920 Olympic Games.
Quiz winners:
Congratulations to the following schools for reaching the Big WoW 2011 Olympic Quiz Final!
•
•
•
•
•
•
The Albany School / Benhurst Primary School
Langtons Junior School / Squirrels Heath Infants School
St Peter’s Catholic Primary School / Gidea Park Primary School
St Ursula’s Catholic Infant School / Hall Mead School
St Patricks Catholic Primary School / Hilldene Primary School
The Frances Bardsley School for Girls
The final will take place on Friday 20 January 2012 at the Council Chamber in the Town
Hall, Romford – if you haven’t already done so, please confirm your attendance.
Special issue December 2011
Page 5
CONGRATULATIONS
Olympic Torch/Vest Competition
A
R
S T
accreditation
The STAR accreditation scheme is a reward for your school
for the excellent work you do. We have 30 schools that are
accredited and it would be great to have even more, it’s a
great scheme as those who attended the recent awards day
would testify, check it out at www.staccreditation.org.uk – if
you are accredited already then why not go to the next
level, we’ll help you get there, just get in touch.
Gold Outstanding Standard
Towers Junior School
First of all, we would like to say
THANK YOU for all your amazing
entries. The standard of the
torches and vest was extremely
high and it was clear a lot of
energy, enthusiasm and thought
had gone into them.
We received a spectacular 47
entries, which were judged on their
creativity, craftsmanship and how
well the continent was conveyed.
We are pleased to announce
the winners are:
INFANT - Scargill Infant School
PRIMARY - Vest
Rainham Village Primary School
PRIMARY - Torch
Hylands Primary School
Silver - Higher Standard
Brady Primary School
Engayne Primary School
Parklands Junior School
Rainham Village Primary School
Ravensbourne School
Squirrels Heath Infant School
SECONDARY Hall Mead School
The winners are invited back to the Town Hall, together
with the Quiz finalists on 20 January 2012 where the
overall winner will be announced.
A Great Honour….
In 2008, Sophie Lewis’s letter was chosen
out of thousands to take part in the Beijing
Olympic torch relay. She carried the
Olympic torch from the Minories in London
across Tower Bridge. Sophie said “It was a
great experience where I got to meet a lot
of famous people, but it was also very
scary as I had to carry it through a lot of
rioters. I was lucky enough to be one of the
only people who got to keep the torch. I am
also going to be carrying the Olympic torch
in the London 2012 relay which will be a
great privilege.”
Bronze Sustainable Standard
Abbs Cross Academy
Branfil Primary School
Clockhouse Primary School
Crowlands Primary School
Gidea Park Primary School
Goodrington School
Harold Court Primary School
Harold Wood Primary School
La Salette Catholic Primary School
Langtons Junior School
Mead Primary School
Parklands Infant School
Rise Park Infant School
Scargill Infant School
Scotts Primary School
St Mary’s Catholic Primary School
St Mary’s Hare Park School
St Patrick’s Catholic Primary School
Suttons Primary School
The Coopers’ Company
and Coborn School
The James Oglethorpe Primary School
The Mawney Foundation School
Upminster Infant School
Did you know… The Medals
The Olympic medals are designed especially for each individual
Olympic Games by the host city’s organising committee. Each medal
must be at least three millimetres thick and 60 millimetres in
diameter. Also, the gold and silver Olympic medals must be made
out of 92.5 percent silver, with the gold medal covered in six grams
of gold. The last Olympic gold medals that were made entirely out of
gold were awarded in 1912.
Page 6
Taking Steps
ool Travel Bulletin…
h
c
S
School
Save
the
date
Travel Plans
As we approach the end of 2011,
I thought it timely to let you have
the headline news on various STP
matters for 2012 and beyond…
Transport for London have recently
rt your
announced an all new way to repo
editation
STP review and do the STAR accr
online
scheme at the same time! The new
Spring of
system will be available fully in the
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On 23 February 2012 you are invit
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shift etc; re.
what measures are needed in futu
Small Grant Funding
All those schools that complete an
annual review can
apply for Small Grant funding in the
Autumn. This
Capital funding helps with projects
you have identified in
your annual reviews, such as pedestria
n waiting areas,
cycle or mini pods storage, controlle
d access barriers,
new signage etc. The money must be
spent in the
financial year it is awarded and has
proven to be a
great help to so many schools.
Introducing Amandeep Kellay
As a Biking Borough we have been
My name’s Amandeep and I am the
given extra money for Bikeability
‘Biking
a
As
borough’s Cycling Officer.
training! We want to encourage
Borough’ we are trying to encourage all
families and adults to realise how
school.
to
able pupils in Havering to cycle
enjoyable and safe cycling can be! So
Travelling to school by bicycle is good
get in touch if you want to book yourself
for both parents/guardians and
or your family on a free course.
children because:
“Not only is physical activity crucial to
the added exercise will improve your
children’s health but it also directly
health, stamina and energy and
benefits academic performance.”
reduce the risk of health problems
ee
it teaches pupils to travel safely and House of Commons Select Committ
2004
Obesity,
on
Report
Health,
on
independently, and
the more people walking and cycling
[email protected]
means fewer cars on the road and
therefore a less polluted environment. t: 01708 432960
Walk on Wednesdays - WOW
Cycling
The WOW badges and programme continues to go from strength
to strength and just about every Primary school in Havering is
signed up. If you aren’t but would like to have this very flexible and
effective scheme to encourage walking in your school please
contact us in the Smarter Travel Team. These materials are
provided free to your school.
There are lots of exciting cycling based activities going on
across the Borough and cycling is more popular than ever
before especially the Cycle Awareness Days (CAD) and
Bikeability cycle training, if you would like to book these for your
school or simply want more information visit
www.cycletrainingeast.org.uk or call Jeff Wade at Cycle
Training East on 01376 346848. All these sessions are free as
is adult training for teachers and support staff.
Contact the Travel Team Officers:
[email protected]
01708 432869
[email protected]
01708 432875
Special issue December 2011
Page 7
Design a Banner Competition
- Squirrels Heath Infant
During the Summer term,
Squirrels Heath Infant
School’s Eco Council
decided that they wanted
to try and do something to
stop people from parking
on the yellow zig-zag lines
at the start and end of the
school day. We thought it
would be a great idea to
run a competition, asking
all the pupils to come up
with a brilliant design that
would be made into a
banner to be permanently
displayed along the school
gates and would help to
remind people that the
zig-zag lines are there to
keep everyone safe. We
contacted Martin at the
Havering School’s Travel
Team and he came along
to an assembly to launch
the competition. He also
provided us with 3 Vue
Cinema vouchers as prizes.
The response from the pupils
and the parents was fantastic
and after lots of hard decision
making a winner and 2 runnersup were chosen. Hannah, James
and Oliver received a Vue cinema
voucher each and James is also
having his design made into a
banner which will be displayed
on the school railings.
With such a clear message we
are sure that parents will find
safer places to park their cars
each day.
Ravensbourne’s
walk through the decades
Ravensbourne is a Special
School in Harold Hill.
Pupils are aged between
two and nineteen. As part
of the school’s 40th
birthday celebrations we
went on a virtual walk
through time.
Each
department
took a
decade from
the school’s
history as a
theme.
There was a great range of fancy
dress – from 70’s flares, Grange
Hill uniforms, Fame legwarmers,
Teletubbies, Shaun the Sheep,
the Spice Girls, through to
current day Royal Wedding
Guests.
There are many really good
reasons, here are some I have
thought of but you can probably
think of more…
• Because it keeps you fit and
active
• Because you can have a chat to
your parent or guardian on the
way to and from the school
• It means cars don’t cause
congestion on our roads at
school times
• You can see new and interesting
things on foot that you can’t see
in a car
• You can meet up with friends
• You get to know how to plan a
Page 8
We had independent verifiers (a
Governor and Martin Day from
the School Travel team) to
ensure that we met the rules of
the record attempt. Each class
visited the other classrooms in
the school, finding an activity
from that department’s decade.
They recorded how far they
travelled on each leg of the
journey.
The winners were Red Class, who
clocked up an incredible 434
virtual miles - this would get them
from Romford to beyond
Edinburgh. In real terms, the class
walked nearly half a kilometre.
We also linked the walk to
Brake’s Walking Bus world
record attempt. At 10am,
thousands of children across the
country, including other schools
Please Keep
WALKING…
In Havering we have achieved
very high levels of walking to
and from our schools for many
years and we hope that continues
with your help, so why should
you keep walking?
in Havering, marched in their
local areas campaigning against
speeding motorists. A march
through the streets would not
have been appropriate for us, so
we walked in school instead.
route and cross the roads in the
correct places
• Means you experience the
different seasons of the year
• You won’t be delayed because of
traffic jams so you get to school
on time and feeling ready to start
your day
• Walking doesn’t damage the
environment
• You can take part in the exciting
WOW badges reward scheme
• You can join a Walking Bus
• Its free!
• Its FUN!
Winter Wonderland
Photography Competition!!!
INal
W
A Digit
ra
Came
We are looking for the most creative or
interesting photo that shows what amazing
things you can see as you walk to school….
Take a picture of something that you see on your walk
to school.
Entries to be emailed to [email protected]
Deadline is Friday, 27 January 2012
Taking Steps