Let’s work together to make the journey to school safer and more fun!
WOW Week is Green-Schools Travel’s newest inclusive, active and sustainable travel call-to-action week. We’re asking schools to take part in WOW Week to raise awareness and take action to promote active and sustainable travel on the school run, helping to make the journey to school a safer and more enjoyable experience for everyone.
With fewer vehicles at the school gates, we can reduce air pollution and traffic congestion, while creating more space for children, families and school communities to connect in a safer, more welcoming environment. Whether you choose to walk or wheel, cycle, scoot, park ‘n’ stride, carpool, take the bus or use public transport, let’s all do our best to choose an active or sustainable way to get to school during WOW Week.
There are lots of ways for schools to get involved. Throughout the week, we’ll have interactive and fun webinars on active and sustainable travel topics, a national school-based competition, and national individual-based competitions, all with great prizes to be won. There’s something for everyone and every school, no matter how big or small, rural or urban. Join the call to action to walk or wheel during WOW week.
Have a look below to see which activities suit your school, students, and families best.
All schools are invited to take part in the National WOW week competition. During WOW week, schools are invited to promote all modes of active or sustainable travel to school. Some schools may already have a large proportion of the schools travelling sustainably, or this might be the first time for some. Either way, the goal is to get as many people involved as possible. Think of all the fun ways to get everyone involved.
Schools will be asked to submit how they participated in WOW week as well as their number of participants who chose active or sustainable travel on their most successful day of WOW week. Schools can conduct surveys or keep a tally at the school gate on all 5 days of the week or just the best action day of the week. Log the school’s details, results, and how you participated in WOW week and the school will be in to win some great prizes!
If your school is currently working on the Travel or GC Travel themes, please be sure to submit your participant information as part of your ongoing actions to achieve your next Green Flag for Travel or GC Travel.
Details required for submission are listed here.
Prizes for schools are: Smoothie bike, ice cream truck, scooter library, cash, etc.
WOW Week Journal Competition
Let’s celebrate how we get to school! WOW Week is all about making the extra effort to travel actively and sustainably. This year, we want to see WOW Week from your point of view; the journeys you make, the people you travel with, the things you notice and how travelling actively makes you feel.
WOW Week Journal
Keep a WOW Week Journal showing how you travelled to school during all 5 days of WOW Week. It’s not only about what mode of transport you used; it’s about the journey.
Get creative! You can use drawings, photos, maps, words, stories, comics or anything else that helps bring your journeys to life.
For each day of the week, tell or show us:
How you travelled to and from school. Who travelled with you, if anyone. What you noticed or experienced along the way. How your journey made you feel — were you happy, excited, energised, relaxed, proud or something else? Did anything special happen?
Tell us about it, we want to see what makes your journey to school special.
Your journal can look however you want. You could create:
A traditional diary or journal,
- A comic strip,
- A collection of drawings,
- A photo story,
- A map of your journeys,
- A scrapbook,
- A combination of words, pictures and photos
There are no rules about how your journal should look or what travel modes you use — we want to see your personality and creativity!
You’ll have 3 weeks after WOW Week to finish and submit your journal. Submit your finished journal by 13th November 2026.
Once it’s ready, send in your completed journal for your chance to win some great prizes!
Individuals can send entries in themselves, or entries can be grouped and sent in by the school to:
Green-Schools Travel
C/O Ciara O’Sullivan
5 Foster Place
Dublin 2, D02 V0P9
Ireland
Or email: travel@greenschoolsireland.org
What makes a great entry?
We’ll be looking for entries that show:
Creativity – an imaginative and interesting way of telling your story.
Reflection – what you noticed, experienced and how your journeys made you feel.
Your WOW Week – we want to see your own experiences, ideas and personality come through.
Most importantly, have fun and enjoy your journeys!
For Primary Schools:
Choose any or all the topics to engage with during WOW week. Webinars will be fun and interactive with related resources for Primary school students. These sessions are aimed to be shown to classrooms, rather than assemblies. They will be only 30 minutes, designed to fit into your day and relevant to curriculum. Each day we will run a raffle for all schools in attendance to be in for a chance to win €100, awarded live on the call.
For Secondary Schools:
Choose 1 or both topics to engage with during WOW week. Webinars will be fun and interactive with related resources for Secondary school students. These sessions are aimed to be shown to classrooms, rather than assemblies. They will be only 30 minutes, designed to fit into your day and relevant to curriculum. Each day we will run a raffle for all schools in attendance to be in for a chance to win €100, awarded live on the call.
School’s currently working toward the Travel and Global Citizenship Travel themes, are assigned a Travel Officer who provides local, on the ground expertise and support. The Travel Officer is one of the school’s greatest assets (besides you and the students, of course).
Travel Officers can offer a range of FREE workshops to all schools working on their Travel or GC Travel flags. Workshops can be tailored to every school environment and all abilities.
Why not book in a workshop with your Travel Officer during WOW week to further support your efforts to increase active and sustainable transport to school?
If you would like to host a whole school action day as part of your Green-Schools work, here are some Travel related action day ideas and case studies for inspiration. Every action makes an impact, so tailor your action day to your school community, rather than feeling tied to any one idea.