Guidance on how to fund Walking Training within your school
Feet First is a road safety and active travel skills awareness course that will be aimed at children ages 7 to 8 years old (Year 3). It will provide pupils with road safety skills to better enable them to safely walk to and from school with their parents and carers and prepare them for independent travel.
Find out more about the new Walking Training programme.
The cost of the course per pupil will be:
- Full cost per pupil: £6
- Pupil on free school meals: Free*
*Free School Meal (FSM) places are now free and funded for academic year 2024-25.
Parent contribution
You could also ask parents to contribute in full or part for their child's Walking Training costs. When booking onto the training there will be an option for schools to choose how to pay, one of which will be sending a payment link to parents directly.
If you decide to share the cost with the parents, we can create discount codes to send them when booking their child's spot and send you an invoice with the remainder to be paid.
PE and sport premium
The PE and sport premium can be used to fund your pupils Walking Training, giving them the essential road safety skills and life experience needed to travel safely and actively and to and from school with parents and carers as one of the objectives of sports premium money is to:
"Embed physical activity into the school day through encouraging active travel to and from school".
Walking to school is not only a great way to encourage pupils to do regular exercise and meet the recommended daily amount of physical activity of 30 minutes of exercise per day. It is also a great way to prevent pollution around you school gates and protect the planet from carbon emissions.
Local member allocation fund
Did you know that your local member can use their Community Partnership Fund to cover the course in full or part for your school? You can easily get in touch with your councillor by finding out who they are.
Find out more about your community fund and how to apply.
Fundraising event at school
Your school could arrange a local fundraiser for parents, carers, and the local community to raise funds to pay for your schools Walking Training. Whether that is in the form of a bake sale, raffle, fancy dress day where pupils donate a £1, or a sponsored walk to school. There are endless ideas of how your school can fundraise and have fun along the way.
Why not link your fundraising event with National Walking Month or Walk to School Week in May each year? You could also talk to your Parent–Teacher Association (PTA) and see if they could fund the training in full or part and maybe make it an annual commitment.
Local business sponsorship
Do you know a local business that may be looking for opportunities to make a positive impact in their local community? Then why not ask them to sponsor your school's Walking Training programme today.
Here are just some of the benefits local business sponsorship can provide:
- Businesses supporting their local schools are helping to ensure pupils are road aware and safe on their walk to school.
- With more families walking to and from school, businesses are helping to reduce the number of cars on the road, reducing congestion within the local area whilst helping to improve air quality and road safety.
- Businesses may see an increase in footfall around the local area, as more families are walking, which could lead to an increase in custom for those businesses.
- By supporting your school's Walking Training Programme businesses can meet their corporate social responsibility (CSR) aims in regard to health, wellbeing, active travel and their environmental impact.
Contact us
E-mail: WalkingTraining@surreycc.gov.uk
