School Travel Plans

The school run affects everyone in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead. As many as 1 in 5 cars on the road in the morning rush hour is involved in taking children to school, contributing to local traffic congestion and air quality problems. The number of children travelling to school by car has increased significantly in recent years. We want to try and reverse this trend so that walking and cycling become the main means of travel to school.

School Travel Plans identify the issues that affect how children travel to and from school, as well as looking at how the wider community is affected by current travel behaviour. They also include an action plan of measures aimed at addressing these issues, enabling and encouraging more pupils to travel sustainably. Developing a successful School Travel Plan requires all affected parties to be involved, including: pupils, parents, schools staff, local residents, transport operators, council representatives, etc.

The council can provide advice and support to schools looking to develop and implement School Travel Plans. We have developed a template to help ensure that your School Travel Plan satisfies government criteria. This is available to download via the link at the bottom of this page.

The most effective School Travel Plans are those where there is whole-school involvement, and where pupils have a major input to the development of the plan and the preparation of the documents. Examples of School Travel Plans that demonstrate this approach can be viewed or downloaded via the links at the bottom of this page.

The Government provides one-off grant funding to help schools to deliver their school travel plans. This grant funding is available to all mainstream schools with an approved School Travel Plan, including nursery schools, special schools and pupil referral units. Unfortunately, funding is not available for independent schools and further education colleges.

Also, schools with approved School Travel Plans are given priority in the Council's Safer Routes to Schools programme. This seeks to make physical improvements to routes used by children to walk and cycle to school to improve safety and security. Measures are designed to address issues identified within School Travel Plans. Both mainstream and independent schools are included in the Safer Routes to Schools programme.

Once School Travel Plans have been approved, schools are encouraged to implement them and to seek accreditation through the Berkshire School Travel Excellence Programme (STEP). This asseses schools against a set of agreed criteria and schools can achieve gold, silver or bronze certificates. There are also a set of annual awards, which recognise best practice and the contributions made by both schools and individuals in tackling school travel issues. See the Berkshire STEP web page for further information.

For further information on School Travel Plans, contact the Borough's Travel Plans Officer (tel 01628 796943 or email imogen.leonard@rbwm.gov.uk)

Example Travel Plans

•   Hilltop School Travel Plan (734KB)

•   School Travel Plan Template (pdf 109KB)

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