“Tenby Family” of Schools’ Travel Plan 2007
(Apologies -the tabulated information has been affected by transferring to this format)
Tenby Junior School
School MISSION statement: To be a community where the values of caring and sharing are encouraged; where individuals are challenged and supported to achieve their potential through their learning experiences.
Our SCHOOL MOTTO - We Care ~ We Share ~We Learn Together
Tenby Infant School
School MISSION statement: As an under Fives and Infant School, we are concerned with the early and delicate stages of development of the children in our care. At this stage, we are laying the foundation for the growth of life-long skills, attitudes and values. The environment we provide, and the activities and experiences enjoyed by the children, are based on sound educational practices and principles. We are concerned with the development of the ‘whole child’ – social, emotional intellectual, spiritual and physical – and for the provision of experiences, which promote growth and understanding in all these areas.
The education of the children in our care is a shared process within the family, the community and our school. Young children, like all living things, need a suitable environment in which they can grow and develop.
In Tenby Infant School, within an attractive and caring environment, every child is encouraged to fulfil their own potential and develop attitudes of mutual respect and responsibility.
Tenby Secondary School
Greenhill School - OUR MISSION is to raise achievement by putting the education of students first, striving for continual improvement, valuing the best in every member of the school and create a school all can be proud of.
OUR VISION is to be a school, which, provides the best quality education, realises the potential of all its members, has the complete confidence of the community it serves and meets the needs of the 21st Century.
In the last few years it has become clear that more children are being driven to school. This increase in school trips by car has led to more pollution, congestion and safety issues around our schools as well as health related problems for our students. With this in mind, the family of Tenby schools has embarked on several initiatives to encourage more sustainable travel modes like walking, cycling and public transport.
Cars can encourage people to lead more sedentary lifestyles, which pose long-term health risks, particularly from heart disease and strokes. At our schools we believe establishing a pattern of regular exercise is important from an early age and we hope our students will carry this through into adulthood
It is our intention that our Family of Schools’ Travel Plan will improve conditions so that all students will have the opportunity to walk, cycle or catch a bus to school. Such initiatives would include installation of sheltered cycle parking as a first step. We look forward to working with our partners, parents and most importantly the students in developing this project.
Contents of Travel Plan
1.Introduction/description of all schools
2.Consultation
3.Benefits of our ‘family’of schools travel plan
4.Aims and objectives of our school travel plan and key information
5.Current travel patterns, travel issues and site assessment
6.Plans for evaluation, monitoring and review
7.Steering group
8.Appendices
Introduction/ School Description
In Tenby we have a unique situation where all three schools are situated very close together. This means at key times during early morning and late afternoons we have in total 2,000 (two thousand) children (Tenby Infants – 230, Tenby Juniors 247 and Tenby Secondary 1400 pupils). The access and egress routes around the three schools are the same - there is only one main road called Heywood Lane, where ALL children will access the three schools. In many ways it creates a great ‘family’ and community arrangement, but logistically we experience many difficulties from a practical view point and the safety of our children is often a major concern to all of us. These very serious concerns are the motivation for the schools’ involvement in the ‘Safe Routes to School’ initiative
We are also in a situation where the children will be attending the school from a number of communities from the surrounding areas. School buses are utilised for the secondary school children (60%) of who attend school by bus. This means we can have up to 14 individual buses and numerous cars all trying to access and leave on the one main road.
We feel a significant amount of work needs to be completed to improve the situation. All three schools have conducted surveys to examine the methods and modes of transport that all the children use. The school travel plan is designed to offer a solution to improving the overall safety of the children attending the three schools. The plan is laid out to give evidence of all the aspects we have considered in terms of our current situation, and effectively what we feel can be done to improve our children’s travel arrangements each day. Our plan will promote general awareness by the children, parents, all school staff in terms of them having the best option for attending school.
We aim to promote and introduce a framework that will encourage walking, cycling, car sharing, the use of public transport and flexible opening and closing times for school.
Each individual school has nominated a school travel plan champion, at Tenby Juniors it will be Mr Andy Williams, Tenby Infants will be Mrs Lesley Spankie and for Tenby Secondary School will be Mr Ralph Nicholls. The individual sites are situated very close together with limited space around the whole sites.
Our School Travel Plan has been prepared over a long period of time. We have all become very passionate about the improvements we wish to introduce, and can only hope they it will be taken very seriously.
We recognise the importance and practical realities of the seasons. We have identified in our surveys that during the winter periods travel arrangements change. Even this consideration still allows us to encourage alternative transport methods during a third of the academic year.
At all three schools we take pride in our enthusiastic commitment to building strong bonds with the local community. The School Travel Plan can play an important part in this aim by encouraging discussion and activating involvement in local environmental concerns. We are in a unique situation due to the location and proximity of all three schools. We aim to develop values and attitudes that will provide a foundation for each stage of a child’s life. We recognise that the success of our School Travel Plan depends on a sea change of attitudes to the school car journey. This will not happen overnight and it will take considerable time and effort by all associated within our three schools.
The School Travel Plan is the next step on the long road to safer, greener and healthier ways to travel to school. In partnership with transport agencies, parents and pupils, all three schools hope to create the conditions that will encourage students to walk, cycle or use public transport. The School Travel Plan aims to address the issues, which currently prevent pupils and staff alike from taking the cleaner and greener options on the school journey.
2. CONSULTATION
In the development of our school travel plan, we have consulted with the following people and groups:
•Governors – from all three schools as we recognise the need for their commitment to the overall plan
•Parents and children
•Staff through staff meetings and discussion groups
•Children – through student council arrangements
•Pembrokeshire County Council
•Community Police – termly meetings
•Tenby Town Council
•Tenby Police
•Pupils in each school through school and class councils
•Local residents
•Parents
•The Silcox Coach Company
We have enclosed in the appendix copies of correspondence that has already taken place. This communication enclosed is between the local police authority, Tenby Town Council and local residents. We have always recognised the importance of communication and regular feedback with all relevant parties. The items enclosed provide clear explanation to show some of the difficulties that we experience everyday in our three schools.
3.Benefits of our ‘Family of Schools’ Travel Plan
The benefits for the children:
•Improving pupils’ behaviours in school and on the journey to school
•Keep children safe on the way to and from school
•Reduce the dependency on the car transport by pupils
•Healthier pupils by encouraging more physical exercise reducing obesity
•Reduce the risk of accidents
•Improve the development of social and spatial skills
•Improved opportunity for communication with children walking to school
•Improve social awareness of the ‘world at large’ as time will be spent out of doors leading to greater responsibility to each other
•Develop a basic life skill – preparing pupils for the future
•Empowerment – learning about decision making and taking responsibility for actions
•Imagination and exploration – enjoying the outdoor world, seeking fun promoting play
•Promoting well being and confidence – mental and physical health benefits
•Freedom of play – letting children be children
Benefits to Parents and Carers
•Reduce the cost associated with car transport
•Allow the parents or carers more time if children walked in organised groups, such as the walking bus scheme
•Reduce the risk of a road traffic accident
•Feel healthier with them walking with their children, or in the knowledge that their children are walking and having exercise
•Allow for more interaction with other parents and other children
•Allow the parent to spend more time with their children
•With improved communication facilities children can communicate with school and parents at any time (mobile phone texting for example)
Benefits for the community and social gains
•Reduced number of vehicles on the road reducing congestion and pressure
•Reducing environment impact with car emissions
•Improved community spirit
•Reduce the need to continually review the road systems, thus saving time, effort and need for further upgrading of the road systems
Benefits for all three schools
•Greater control of the overall school environment
•Improved efficiency and harmony between all three schools
•Improved communications and cooperation and relationship between schools
•Simply a safer school environment bringing further satisfaction to cause of improved children welfare and their overall safety
•Reduce the cost of traffic management in school (this money will be spent elsewhere to benefit all schools)
•Strengthen the school systems, management control techniques and assist with the school improvement plans
•Improve children’s health and fitness through walking and cycling
•Equip children with better road awareness and give them familiarity with public transport
4. Aims Of our School Travel Plan
•To encourage pupils to walk/cycle to school.
•To improve the safety of our journeys to and from school.
•To have less traffic for the environment.
•To reducecongestion.
•To help parents keep healthy too!
•Increase awareness of safety, environmental, social, and health impacts of travel choices amongst parents, children and staff.
•Promote independence for the children coming to and from school.
•Provide mobility programmes and suitable aids to allow children to become more independent.
•To increase the numbers of children participating in road-safety awareness.
•Encourage more local parents to walk to school.
•To use the curriculum to provide experiences for children to learn about transport and travel issues.
Increase the number of children walking and cycling by 10% in the coming year.
To have successfully been awarded funding so that we can put in place the many ideas incorporated within school travel plans
Set up a car sharing scheme for all members of staff to start with at least one day per week – ‘Car Share Friday’ scheme
To monitor changes to reflect on the actions and decisions taken
To continually involve all associated parties, particularly the children of each school, the parents and the school governors
To raise awareness of healthy, eco-friendly possibilities.
We have completed a detailed survey of all our schools and key elements of our findings are as follows;
Age Range
Tenby Infant School
3 years4 years5 years6 years7 years
28 40 57 66 38
Tenby Junior School
8 years9 years10 years11 years
52 59 67 63
Greenhill Secondary School
12 years13 years14 years15 years16 years17 years18 years
212 192 302 432 391 261 11
Number of Pupils
Tenby Infant School –229
Tenby Junior School - 241
Greenhill Secondary School - 1,380
Catchment Area (% pupils)
School 1 mile 1-2 miles <2 miles 2-5 miles <5 miles Over 5miles
Tenby infants 71.9 % 8.7% 80.7% 16.2% 96.9% 3%
Tenby Juniors 67.2% 8.7% 80.7% 19.9% 95.8% 4.1%
GreenhillSecondary
School 26.9% 5.0% 32% 53.0% 85.1% 14.8%
Residential areas of pupils attending Tenby Infants and Tenby Juniors
Numbers acquired from pupil surveys
Settlement Number
Tenby north 23
Tenby south136
Penally 44
New Hedges 8
Manorbier 5
Manorbier Newton1
St Florence3
Pentlepoir3
Gumfreston3
Sageston 1
Jameston1
Lamphey 1
Cosheston1
Saundersfoot1
Stepaside 1
Ludchurch2
Jeffreyston1
Broadmoor1
Cresselly1
Wooden1
Begelly2
Killgety2
Population of Community
MalesFemalesTotal
0-15 466456922
16-19 127122249
20-24 131120251
25-29 127104231
30-34 141131272
35-39 149164313
40-44 171169340
45-49 118140258
50-54 182193375
55-59 137157294
60-64 153139292
65-74 261303564
75-79 101135236
80-84 50115165
85-89 1595110
90+ 154762
Total 2,3442,5904,935Current Travel Behaviour:
Tenby Infant School
Mode% to school% from school
Dry WeatherWet
WeatherDry WeatherWet
Weather
Car47%68%47%66%
Car Sharingn/an/an/an/a
Bus1%0%1%0%
Cycle0%1%0%0%
Walk 52%30%52%33%
Other (taxi)0%1%0%1%
Tenby Junior School
Mode% to school% from school
Dry WeatherWet
WeatherDry WeatherWet
Weather
Car41%60%40%55%
Car Sharingn/an/an/an/a
Bus3%5%5%6%
Cycle0%0%0%0%
Walk 55%34%55%39%
Other (taxi)1%1%0%0%
Greenhill Secondary School
Mode % to school% from school
Dry WeatherDry Weather
Car17.7%17.7%
Car Sharingn/an/a
Bus60%60%
Cycle0.3%0.3%
Walk 21.6%21.6%
Other (train)0.4%0.4%
Bus usage at Greenhill School
Bus number Village served Number of pupils
530Lawrenny, Martletwy,
Landshipping, Cross Hands, Loveston, Reynalton, Jeffreyston17
531Narberth,Kilgetty,Wooden49
532Pentlepoir Saundersfoot56
533Carew Sageston St Florence 56
534Pendine Marros Amroth Llanteg Stepaside Pleasant Valley Wisemans Bridge Sardis
Kilgetty28
535Pembroke Dock
Cresswell Quay Broad moor46
536Amroth, Summerhill,Kilgetty Moreton New Hedges45
537East Williamston Pentlepoir,Whitlow Saundersfoot76
538Martletwy Cresselly Yerbeston Reynalton
Jeffreyston Pentlepoir 45
539Milton Ridgeway Skrinkle
Manorbier 54
540Jameston Manorbier Lydstep Penally 44
541Tavernspite Ludchurch Cold Blow Templeton Thomas Chapel Begelly 58
542Kilgetty58
543Pembroke,(concession) West Williamston, Teague Cross, Carew,Sageston Redberth
96
Total number of bus passengers 728
Tenby Infant School - No targets have been set for cycling as it is felt unsafe to encourage cycling in the under 7 as no proficiency training is given to this group
Mode
Baseline 2007
AmTarget 2009
amBaseline 2007
pmTarget 2009
pm
Walk 52%57%52%57%
Tenby Junior School
Mode
Baseline 2007
amTarget 2009
amBaseline 2007
pmTarget 2009
pm
Walk 55%60%55%60%
Cycle0%5%0%5%
Greenhill Secondary School
Mode
Baseline 2007
amTarget 2009
amBaseline 2007
pmTarget 2009
pm
Walk 21.6%24%21.6%24%
Cycle0.3%1%0.3%1%
5. Current Travel Patterns, Travel Issues and Site Assessment.
Aerial photograph showing entrances to each school on Heywood Lane. No other pupil access for any of the schools.
The three schools – Greenhill Secondary, Tenby Junior and Tenby Infant School are all located with pupil access onto Heywood Lane (see plan).
As well as having joint issues, each site has their specific problems (see schools’ individuals sections).
15 Buses access Greenhill School via Heywood Lane every morning and every afternoon (8.15am to 8.40am and 3.00pm to 3.40pm).
If pupils wish to cycle to school they have to use main roads. No cycle paths currently
The pedestrian’s access along main roads, and pavements along Heywood Lane. Pavements are very narrow in places on Heywood Lane.
Public bus stops are on the corner of Heywood Court/Heywood Lane. Bus also stops outside Infant and Junior Schools (usually in road as pull in is blocked by cars).
Town bus service picks up for Junior School and brings pupils from Penally.
All three schools have staff parking within grounds. Risk assessments completed by each school
Parking congestion during peak times is real concern due to the close proximity of the three school entrances.
Parking on Heywood Land and Serpentine Road creates a dangerous bottle neck at the junction and makes both roads single lane (see photographs)
Access by emergency services at peak times to Greenhill School and Tenby Infants would be severely affected by congestion.
School Travel Plan - pupils in all schools undertook surveys.
Main travel issues are:
Car parking facilities – we have a large team of people who are in school each day; school events present additional difficulties (coffee mornings; parents’ evenings; Annual Review meetings; whole school assemblies).
Access into and out of the school gates due to members of the public parking on both sides of Heywood Lane, often very close to the school gates – visibility when driving out of the gates is very poor, particularly for the school minibuses and buses.
Pedestrian Access – currently there is a vehicle entrance and a pedestrian entrance to the premises, both at the front of the school on Heywood Lane.
Only staff vehicles are permitted on the premises although delivery vehicles do occasionally drive in. The current pedestrian entrance side down the right hand side of the school takes parents and pupils between staff cars and is not separated from the parking area by a barrier. (See photo).
Nursery pupils enter school grounds and walk through vehicular access to reach the nursery.
Table showing the methods of transport for Tenby Infants and Tenby Junior schools combined:
Tables here show the results; once again it is important to note that the weather conditions do affect the results directly.
Travel during dry conditions:
Mode of TravelPercentage
Walk to school54%
Car to school43%
Cycle to school0%
Bus to school2%
Taxi to school1%
Travel during wet conditions:
Mode of TravelPercentage
Walk to school34%
Car to school64%
Cycle to school0%
Bus to school1%
Taxi to school1%
Our aim is to encourage less reliability on the use of the car, which would mean the need for promoting walking to school or even the use of the town service bus. Our research of all three schools revealed that on any one school day we would have between 300 to 450 cars dropping children off in the morning and picking them up at the end of the day - both these times having a window of 20/30 minutes.
Cars that are dropping/collecting children at the Tenby Infant School are often parked directly on Heywood Lane or Serpentine Road for up to 30 minutes, particularly for parents escorting the children into the school premises and classrooms. This, inevitably, causing considerable blockage, congestion and even ‘chaos’ in the area
Tenby Infant School
TARGETS: the aim of the targets is to promote walking and bicycling to school for safer and healthier children. The barriers that can prevent our plans include - lack of bike infrastructure, excessive traffic, aggressive driving, distance from school to home, convenience, time constraints, ‘stranger danger’.
The targets of our school travel plan are:
•Action Plan For Tenby V.C. Infant School
Target - To increase awareness amongst pupils, staff and parents about the environmental, safety, health and social consequences of their travel choices.
Target - To increase the number of pupils and staff walking to school from 52% to 57%
1.Promote the school travel plan place a copy in staff room area, make a formal presentation to all staff, include a periodical news letter on events that are taking place
2.Place a copy of the school travel plan on the school website
3.Give letters home to parents promoting the safety and clear benefits for their children and families to walk to school
Target - Introduce ‘Walk on Wednesdays’ every Wednesday from three main points around the town as per the attached Tenby Plan
1.Provide a letter to all parents explaining when and how this will work
2.Place regular adverts in all local press to make the community aware
3.Work closely with the local police to encourage their support and assistance every Wednesday
4.Request support from parents who will be able to regularly assist with marshalling at the three key locations
Target - To decrease the number of car journeys to school by 10%
1.Produce a series of posters that can be placed around the school, these posters will be set as part of the curriculum and will be prepared by the children
2.Liase with the local press to run ‘free’ environment publications to support our awareness campaign
3.Set up a regular monitoring programmes with the students, this will be incorporated within the curriculum arrangements, results will be published monthly within the local press and parents news letters
4.Discussions will take place between the pupils with the aim they will share this information with their parents and families
Other planned activities
1.Once the bicycle homes are in place set up a programme that will regularly publicise to all students it availability and monitor its use
2.To provide a structured programme of road safety awareness appropriate to age and ability of the children attending the school.
3.To introduce a staff car sharing scheme. In the first three months we would concentrate on ‘Car Share Friday’ only - the target is to have at least four car arrangements. In quarter 2 we would aim to increase this to six car share schemes. The longer term aim is to utilise this arrangement for more days of the week
4.To create a bank of resources to help the children to learn about transport and travel issues and health and safety awareness.
5.Include the travel plan in the school development plan
•ACTION PLAN – Tenby Junior School
Target - To increase awareness amongst pupils, staff and parents about the environmental, safety, health and social consequences of their travel choices.
1.Make the School Travel Plan available to staff, parents and pupils via the school website and library
2.Include information on sustainable school transport policy in the school prospectus and newsletters.
3.Identify opportunities through curricular and extra-curricular activities to educate pupils on the consequences of their and their parents’ travel decisions.
4.Involve pupils in the process of surveying and data collection,
5.Include the travel plan in the school development plan
Target - To increase the number of pupils and staff walking to school from 55% to 60%.
1.Work with the County Council to identify potential improvements to pedestrian links around the school and in the environment outside the school itself
2.Assess the rewarding of pupils who change say from car to walking through our school rewards system.
Target - To increase the number of pupils and staff cycling to school from 0% to 5%.
1.Provide secure and sheltered cycle parking.
2.Work with the County Council to identify potential improvements to cycle links around the school.
3.Look into the possibility of starting an after school cycling club with the help of Tenby Cycle Shop, for pupils to learn basic maintenance, learn road safety and enjoy safe cycling.
4.Investigate the possibility of a secure room to store wet coats and shoes during the day.
Target - To increase the number of pupils using public transport to school from 3% to 6%.
1.Provide information on school transport services through the school website and newsletters
Target - To decrease the number of car journeys to school by 15%.
2.Encourage ‘Park and Walk’ by identifying, with the help of Road Safety staff, dropping off points from which pupils can safely walk to school.
3.To improve awareness of routes and times of school transport.
4.Promote ‘Car Share Friday’ to all staff.
•ACTION PLAN – Greenhill School
Include the travel plan in the school development plan – ensure all members of the leadership team offer their full and regular commitment to the scheme.
Target - By 2009 introduce the new car share ‘Friday’ scheme to achieve 8 separate car shares
1.Complete a survey of where staff live and the directions and routes they take to school understand their individual needs in terms of family commitments etc
2.Produce a news letter for all staff
3.Promote the benefits of the scheme with the use of posters in staff rooms, the weekly news bulletin news letter
4.Set aside ‘preferential’ car park arrangements by entrance and exit doors to offer a further benefit of the scheme
5.Look at incentive ways to encourage staff to communicate during their journey
6.Offer a monthly car clean arrangements by students to raise money for the scheme
7.Recognise all persons part-taking in the scheme
8.Set an arrangement at school where we would communicate with all members of staff if a car breaks down, illness etc.. this would be undertaken at school
Target – Reduce the number of car usage by 15%
1.Make the School Travel Plan available to staff, parents and pupils via the school website and staff notice boards
2.Re-iterate within all literature the effects on over dependence on cars
3.Include information on sustainable school transport policy in the school prospectus, newsletters and through our weekly bulletin
4.Identify opportunities through curricular and extra-curricular activities to educate pupils on the consequences of their and their parents’ travel decisions
5.Involve pupils in the process of surveying and data collection
6.Include the travel plan in the school development plan
Target – Increase the number of pupils cycling from .3% to 1%
1.Introduce a convenient, accessible, safe, exposed cycle rack/store
2.Introduce a ‘saver’ scheme where the school will contribute 10% of the cost of purchasing cycles
3.Monitor the usage of the cycle store with the aid of the environmental students club
4.Offer free ‘healthy snacks’ for students who cycle to school
5.Recognise students in assemblies etc who use their bike for school
6.Introduce a merit system for children who use their bike for school
7.Set up a ‘bike club’ where bikes can be serviced by the owner and parents for free especially during the spring and summer months, also review the possibility of having a once a week lunch time bike review
8.Provide a daily weather bulletin on the school website to allow quick and easy access for parents and pupils to monitor weather conditions
9.In very adverse weather conditions allow bikes to be stored ‘safely’ over night to give flexibility for pupils due the weather conditions
10.Ensure the store area is large enough to allow students to have the space to store items etc when they arrive at school
11.Engender a culture of ‘fun’ surrounding bikes
Target – Increase the number of pupils walking to school from 21.6% to 24% (increase of 40 pupils)
Target – To improve the movement of vehicles entering and leaving school, the aim to keep moving vehicles completely away from children walking to school
Target – To encourage 5 members of staff to cycle to school
To provide a cycle store for adults – we would like to see at least five members of staff using bicycles to attend school in year 1
Hard Measures: -
Increase staff parking area by removing some of the grassed area
Introduce disabled parking bay
Create a secure pathway from existing pedestrian entrance to playground entrance
Create new secure pedestrian entrance on left hand side of school leading to nursery entrance.
6. PLANS FOR EVALUATION, MONITORING, AND REVIEW
‘Family of Tenby Schools’ will monitor and review the travel plan, in line with each Schools Improvement Plan.
Senior Management Team of all 3 schools will:
•Meet in March each year to update the Action Plan
•Report to the Governing Body on the progress of the plan on a termly basis
•Provide an annual update through the termly school newsletter to parents and Governors
•Meet with the Link Governor for Road Safety in March each year to discuss progress of the Action Plan
Collect evidence of progress made towards the achievement of Action Plan targets – termly.
7. Steering group: Mr Ralph Nicholls (Greenhill Secondary School)
Mr Andy Williams (Tenby Junior School)
Mrs Leslie Spankie (Tenby Infant School)
Mrs Sue Lewis, Pembrokeshire County Council
Mr Paul Smith, Pembrokeshire County Council
Appendices
A Plan of site with three schools
B Location of the site
C Survey form
Data for the Tenby bid
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