March 4th – March 15th, 2024
10 days of sustainable travel!
How will your school take part? Get involved from March 4th to March 15th by promoting sustainable modes of transport in innovative and creative ways in your school. If you’re up for the challenge, we want to hear from you!
What are we looking for?
Schools big and small, rural and urban, primary, secondary and education centres that will take on the challenge of achieving a measurable increase in one or more of the following sustainable modes of travel: walking, wheeling, cycling, scooting, park ‘n’ stride, carpooling, or public transport. We’re also looking for schools to create and raise awareness of the joys and impact of sustainable travel to school in creative and fun ways during the 10 days of the BTC.
Need some inspiration?
There are lots of ways to get involved – check out the list below with links to resources to help you make the most of these activities.
Some of the activies below have links… Check them out!
Group walk/cycle/scoot to school
Primary walking resource English and Irish
Traffic count/Speed survey
Letter from the future (Irish)
No Idling Survey/Clean Air Campaign
Peer to peer learning relating to Travel/GC Travel
Sustainable Development Goals lesson
Promotion of walking in school grounds, e.g., stepathon, daily step challenge, 1km a day, etc
Communications home relating to Travel/GC Travel theme
Promotion of cycling in school grounds, e.g., cycle skills lesson, bike maintenance lesson
Bicycle Treasure Hunt in English and Irish
Communications to wider community relating to Travel/GC Travel theme
Nature/Historical walk or cycle
Media coverage relating to Travel/GC Travel theme
Mapping exercise
Liaison with local groups/local council
Park and Stride promotion (English & Irish resource)
Visit from a Travel Officer or guest speaker related to the themes of Travel/GC Travels
Carpooling promotion
Promotion of out-of-school active travel
Any other ideas??
Is your school up for The BIG TRAVEL Challenge?
We’ve created a poster for you to display in your school where you can share your plans for the Big Travel Challenge. You can use your tracker to record the total number of students in your school travelling by your chosen mode/s on each day of the challenge and/or the ways you’re promoting awareness and action in your school community. Don’t be afraid to add your own ideas and activities to the tracker – we’d love to know about them!
At the end of the challenge, fill in the application form and tell us how you promoted your chosen mode/s and why your school deserves to win The Big Travel Challenge. You will need to let us know the number of students travelling by your chosen mode on an average day before the challenge started and on Day 1, Day 5 and Day 10 during the challenge.
The competition is open to all schools that have participated, or are participating, in the Green-Schools Travel and Global Citizenship Travel themes.
New this year!
This year we’re giving county-level awards! Do you have what it takes to be the Best Travel School in your county? County-level winners will win €200 towards a pizza party or ice cream van or other celebration as a reward for your efforts.
From the county winners we’ll select four regional winners to come to our award ceremony in late April where we’ll name one school Ireland’s Travel School of the Year! (It could be you!)
Back by popular demand!
This year we’re bringing back our Staffroom Challenge to encourage everyone in your school to take part in the Big Travel Challenge. Can more staff in your school carpool or walk/cycle to work each day?
How will your school be judged?
Your school will be judged on the innovation and creativity in promoting your chosen mode in your school and, where possible, the change in the number of students using the mode/s of travel you promote during the challenge; we’ll take everything into account.
What are the prizes?
The overall winning school will receive a total cash prize of €1000 to be used for their Green-Schools Travel programme, with regional winners (4) receiving a prize of €500.
The deadline for entry 4:00 p.m. on 10th April 2024
Click here for the full terms and conditions.
Please contact your Travel Officer or the Green-Schools Travel team at travel@greenschoolsireland.org if you have any questions.
Let us know how your school is getting on during the challenge by tagging us: @GreenSchoolsIre #BigTravelChallenge
Need some inspiration?
Download our social media graphics to motivate your community!
