Walk to School Conference: Andrew Fielding and Colleagues

New Tools from the Walk to School Campaign,
Andrew Fielding, Walk to School Campaign, Living Streets
Tracey McBride, Walk to School Scotland Campaigner
Sam Potter, Walk to School (Secondary Engagement)

So then we came to my session. I started by thanking everyone for the huge effort they put into Walk to School in 2007 - it was our most successful year to date, but so much of this is down to the people on the ground doing the promotion locally. Thank you all again!

I then told the story of when I was "spotted" walking in Victoria, London, and heard two children muttering "he's wearing a Walk to School T-shirt!" - great moment! Oh and I mentioned Tony Blair and Arnie being fans...

The key thrust of my presentation was about our new Walk to School strategy, and the tools available to local authorities and schools. It is all about our keeping our profile higher during the year - currently Walk to School week and Walk to School month are the biggies, and then people forget about us during the rest of the year (particularly in local authorities that don't do WoW).

When I started there was just me - and I was stretched in what I could do - now we have four members of staff working on the Walk to School campaign and a whole suite of ideas for useful tools. Already Strider (the primary campaign mascot) is available for visiting schools, and we are adding new ideas far more often than we used to when it was just me!

Tracey, our Walk to School Coordinator working specifically in Scotland, also introduced herself and the work she is doing north of the border. Where we get new ideas or create new resources these will be shared across the rest of the campaign.

Finally, Sam Potter and I talked about the new Secondary School campaign. This is funded by the BIG Lottery fund, but is so new that there is not a great deal we can announce yet. Rest assured, as our ideas crystalize, and the campaigns develop, we will be announcing our plans through this blog.