The latest STARS Education local authority league tables are in, reflecting achievements from the March 2025 round of applications. In this update, we reveal the current leaderboard and hear from some of the schools taking part in Modeshift STARS.
Small Local Authorities (less than 100 schools)
| Approved | Excellent | Good | Outstanding | Very Good | Total Sum of Count | % Accredited | |
| Southampton | 11 | 1 | 7 | 1 | 2 | 57 | 38.60% |
| Thurrock | 4 | 1 | 8 | 2 | 1 | 58 | 27.59% |
| Barnsley | 10 | 1 | 9 | 2 | 81 | 27.16% | |
| Kingston upon Hull
City of |
17 | 2 | 71 | 26.76% | |||
| Isle of Wight | 11 | 46 | 23.91% | ||||
| Solihull | 13 | 4 | 86 | 19.77% | |||
| Wokingham | 5 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 79 | 13.92% | |
| Rutland | 4 |
Large local authorities (more than 100 schools)
| Approved | Excellent | Good | Outstanding | Very Good | Total Count | % Accredited | |
| South Gloucestershire | 2 | 4 | 24 | 2 | 10 | 120 | 35.00% |
| Sheffield | 17 | 3 | 24 | 9 | 7 | 197 | 30.46% |
| Wirral | 8 | 1 | 21 | 5 | 120 | 29.17% | |
| Buckinghamshire | 19 | 3 | 37 | 3 | 11 | 292 | 25.00% |
| Hertfordshire | 11 | 4 | 90 | 15 | 15 | 591 | 22.84% |
| Hampshire | 61 | 5 | 59 | 5 | 13 | 660 | 21.67% |
| Kirklees | 12 | 4 | 10 | 7 | 10 | 206 | 20.87% |
| Birmingham | 79 | 1 | 12 | 3 | 4 | 547 | 18.10% |
| Cambridgeshire | 31 | 2 | 19 | 1 | 4 | 326 | 17.48% |
| Surrey | 25 | 2 | 52 | 1 | 476 | 16.81% |
Catherine McCoy, Lead Road Safety Officer at South Gloucestershire Council said:
‘We are delighted to be at the top of the leaderboard for the % of accredited schools and being 9th for the total number of schools with accreditation. Key to this success is our relationship and offer to schools. Schools have many conflicting priorities, so we try and make it as simple and easy for schools to start and to progress their Modeshift STARS journey. This includes providing training on the Modeshift platform, which we break down into 2 sessions for the active travel champion, templates for schools to use for example website copy and an active travel policy, we also have a range of free resources that assist schools in gaining accreditation from Burst the Bubble to Golden Lock initiatives and online workshops for primary schools, as well as being part of the ATA programme for our secondary schools.
We have made links across several key South Glos departments including Highways, Education, Public Health, Climate Emergency and Planning, with all new schools and additional development to current schools required to attain Modeshift STARS accreditation. Our links with the Climate Emergency team led to Modeshift STARS being embedded in the council’s Climate Emergency Action Plan, which in turn led to funding from CIL being offered to schools that attain and then gain subsequent higher levels of accreditation Modeshift STARS. The funding must be spent on physical infrastructure that aides active/sustainable travel such as scooter and cycle storage, lockers, benches, waiting shelters, changes to fences, new path for scooters, which in turn encourages more active travel. In addition, the council prioritises schools with Modeshift accreditation for requests for changes to highway infrastructure outside the school.’
Hertfordshire rank 5th on our leader board, schools within the region continue to strive to reach higher levels of accreditation.
Congratulations to Oakleaf Primary school, based in Hemel Hempstead. This school was formed from a collaboration of an infants and junior school, and renamed in September 2024.
Everyone at the school has worked hard to gain accreditation, and successfully submitted theirs in March 2025.
Headteacher, Anjali Majithia wrote:
‘Thank you so much for all your support with this! We are very excited for Modeshift to be our very first Oakleaf Award! Very special! Look forward to receiving the certificate!
Bishop Wood Junior School, Tring
This school started on their Modeshift journey in 2015. Since then, they have successfully submitted their plans earning their first Outstanding accreditation in 2022 and sustaining that accreditation through to 2025.
Bishop Wood carries out lots of initiatives, include Bling Your Bike Day and Bikers Breakfast. In the past their ATA’s appeared on local radio explaining why they enjoy travelling to school actively. This year the ATA’s and ECO warriors even did a presentation to a local school on why they should have a travel plan.
The school embraces everything sustainable and the travel plan works extremely well with their ethos.
Congratulations to everyone who reached accreditation this spring, remember the next accreditation window closes on 31 July but you don’t need to wait for the deadline to make your submission!
