The Big Travel Challenge 2019
The Green-Schools Travel team is inviting schools to take part in the big TRAVEL CHALLENGE 2019. This year the Travel competition is celebrating five years of successfully encouraging more students to enjoy the benefits of actively travelling to school in the month of February.
Walking, cycling or scooting to school can be an opportunity to increase physical activity in the darker winter months, when time spent outdoors is often reduced. The aim of the challenge is to promote a sustainable mode of transport of your choice for 10 days during the month of February. Last year St. Brigids National School, Limerick were awarded the title of ‘Ireland’s Travel School of the Year’ following their efforts to encourage more students to walk to school. 480 St. Brigids staff and students, who come from a wide catchment area, excelled and embraced the challenge. They concentrated on walking, beginning their challenge with 203 students and ending with an outstanding 351 students opting to travel to school on foot. The students were also particularly committed at promoting their activities through social media, which generated much community support.
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 of the following sustainable modes of travel: walking, cycling, scooting, carpooling, park ‘n’ stride or the bus.
We are asking schools to promote their chosen greener mode of travel for any 10-day period for the month of February 2019 (Friday 1st February and Thursday 28th February) and to record their results.
Is your school up for the BIG TRAVEL Challenge?
A poster and entry form has been posted to Green-Schools Travel and Global Citizenship Travel year 1 schools and will be emailed to all other schools eligible to take part*. A big TRAVEL CHALLENGE Tracker is provided below for helping to track your results. You can use your tracker to record the total number of students in your school travelling by your chosen mode on each day of the challenge. At the end of the challenge, fill in the entry form and tell us how you promoted your chosen mode 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 of the challenge. Awards may be made in each travel category (walking, cycling, scooting, carpooling, park ‘n’ stride and bus).
How will your school be judged?
Your schools will be judged based on the increase of students using the mode of travel you promote during the challenge and your innovation and creativity in promoting that mode in your school.
What are the prizes?
The overall winning school will receive a cash prize of €1000 to be used for their Green-Schools Travel programme, with four runners up each receiving prizes of €500.
Any other questions?
The deadline for entry is March 8th, 2019. Please contact your Travel Officer or the Green-Schools team at 01 400 2222 if you have any questions. Let us know how your school is getting on during the challenge by tagging us on social Instagram, Facebook or Twitter @GreenSchoolsIre #bigtravelchallenge
*The competition is open to all schools that have participated, or are participating, in the Green-Schools Travel theme. View photos from last year’s awards on our Flickr page.