Pupils in South Ayrshire are enjoying the benefits of walking to school thanks to a new community project. 

Holmston Primary in Ayr and Culzean Primary in Maybole recently launched WOW – the walk to school challenge from Living Streets Scotland, which rewards those who walk, wheel, cycle, scoot or ‘Park and Stride’ to school with a WOW badge.   

In Scotland, over 150 primary schools take part in WOW, which sees pupils record their journey to school on the interactive WOW Travel Tracker.

The Advertiser recently reported on the three schools in Troon - Strutherhill Primary, Troon Primary and St Patrick's Primary - who have also signed up for the scheme.

WOW schools see on average a 5-10 per cent increase in pupils walking to school with a corresponding drop in car use, helping to reduce congestion and improve safety outside the school gates. 

The schools are taking part in WOW as part of Living Streets Scotland’s Walking Places project, which is funded through the Active Nation Fund from Paths for All.

It takes an intergenerational approach in South Ayrshire, working with five schools and the communities around them to understand how people move about and to support them to choose to walk or wheel more of their local journeys. 

Culzean Primary pupils took part in a new interactive school workshop looking at how people move around their local streets and communities and which improvements could be made to help support people to walk move. 

The pupils then undertook a short street audit, looking at the barriers to walking for people in Maybole, where they were joined by Barbara Rae, road safety officers from Ayrshire Roads Alliance. 

Following this workshop, Living Streets is hoping to undertake a community workshop in January to find out the views and experiences of people of all ages and abilities; about able walking or wheeling in the area.

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Mrs Malcolm, principal teacher at Holmston Primary School, said: “Holmston Primary’s junior road safety officers have now also completed their WOW Ambassador training.

"They are encouraging and supporting the rest of the school to travel more actively. Well done to all four of them”. 

Anne Docherty, project manager at Living Streets Scotland, said:  “We are delighted to be working with pupils at Culzean Primary School and the wider community to gather their views and expertise on how accessible the streets in Maybole are.

"By gathering the opinions of people who use these streets every day, we can start to identify improvements that can be made to encourage people to walk and wheel more of their everyday journeys.”  

Barbara Rae, road safety officer at the Ayrshire Roads Alliance, said: “I had a very enjoyable morning listening to the pupils’ opinions on active travel and ways to improve the local streets.

"The junior road safety officers are keen to promote WOW throughout the school, which is fantastic!” 

The information the pupils gathered will be fed into a wider intergenerational community action plan.