National STARS School Travel Awards 2021/22: South West and Midlands Regions Winners Announced

We’re delighted to announce that Moseley School and Sixth Form (Birmingham), Chew Stoke Church School (Bath and North East Somerset) and Heath Hayes Primary Academy (Staffordshire) have been named as the STARS South West and Midlands Schools of the Region for 2021/22.

Moseley School and Sixth Form, Birmingham City Council, STARS Midlands Secondary School of the Region 2021/22

The school champion has worked hard over the years to implement activities that promote sustainable travel. They are always looking for new ways to convey this message and like to include the pupils as much as possible. Following Bikeability training, the school applied for funding to implement a pool bike scheme for those pupils that wish to cycle to school. It’s great to see the champion continuing to be creative in how they promote their messages and by involving the pupils means they are pitching their message correctly.

Chew Stoke Church School, Bath and North East Somerset Council, STARS South West Primary School of the Region 2021/22

Chew Stoke Church School have been striving to promote cycling and scooting across the whole school. With the help of the PE Council, their mission has been to educate the children and families of the school about the benefits of travelling to and from school in this way. They have highlighted the benefits to their health and wellbeing and how we can be doing our bit to help save the planet. Their PE Council have also led their own project to increase the number of children cycling and scooting to school and as a result, more than tripled the number of children actively travelling to school in both EYFS/ KS1 and KS2 . It has been a whole school effort to improve the number of children taking part in active travel to and from school and they are very proud of their results. We are especially proud of all the work which has taken place since March despite a global pandemic!

Heath Hayes Primary Academy, Staffordshire County Council, STARS Midlands Primary School of the Region 2021/22

This school began their Active Travel journey almost four years ago, and what a journey it has been! The school understood the gravity of our impact on the environment once their Local Authority Officer made them aware of the issues surrounding their Air Quality Management Area. Along the way they have introduced many initiatives, including bike and scooter club, awareness days/weeks, competitions and appointed their very own Active Travel Ambassadors. These initiatives have now been embedded in the school ethos and their parents are very supportive of this. The children understand what it means to be an ‘Active Travel School’ and they celebrate this by sharing with prospective new parents during our open evenings and induction meetings. Their next aim is to develop a walking bus for the school, they have had some interest and hope to get this up and running in the next 6 months. The school will continue to educate the next generation of the importance of sustainable travel and looking after our environment, and know they are making a huge difference.

Here’s a full list of the South West and Midlands Region awards winners:

STARS Local Authority Secondary Schools of the Year 2021/22