Byron Wood Academy Astrea Academy Trust
Our current situation
Byron Wood is actively encouraging children and parents to use active methods to come to school. At the moment, a large number of parents drop their children off from a car by driving up Earldom Road and parking close to the school. This is despite the fact that the majority of families that attend Byron Wood live in the local area, within a 10 minute walk.
This creates two main concerns:
1. Fitness – walking, cycling or scooting to school on a daily basis means that children will be getting daily exercise, in line with public health guidance, which will impact their long term health and their cognitive development;
2. Safety – as children are being dropped off, the cars are stopping in unsafe places, leading to a traffic jam leading down Earldom Road. Children are forced to cross between stationary cars, leading to many near misses.
Our targets:
1. To increase the percentage of children walking to school from 61% to 65%;
2. To increase the percentage of children using “Park And Stride” to school (parking away from school and walking in) from 2.5% to 10%
Our work as a school
In school, we are regularly engaging in Road Safety awareness initiatives and encouraging Active Travel. We invite in outside agencies to deliver Pedestrian Safety workshops and Road Cycle Safety lessons. We take part in national and local competitions, such as Walk To School Week, and the 10 Day Active Travel Challenge. We use public transport for our Educational Visits where possible, and teach about road safety in our curriculum.
We have installed a bike and scooter shelter in which children can safely store their equipment during the school day.
We have engaged with the Modeshift STARs initiative, developing a School Travel Plan. We are please to say that we have already achieved Bronze accreditation. We are on-track to achieve Silver during the 2021-2022 academic year.
Road Closure
We have been accepted as part of Sheffield City Council’s School Streets programme. This means that we have been permitted to close the road marked in red below during drop-off and pick-up times. Children are now able to cross the road outside the school safely, cars are not able to block the road, and cars can no longer pass the school at speed during busy periods.
The road is closed during the following times:
8.00am – 9.00am
2.45pm – 3.45pm
Residents, or holders of a blue disability badge, will be allowed to drive up the road on showing a permit or badge. These were distributed to residents in January. If residents have more than one car needing a permit, please contact the school.
What can parents do?
We ask all parents to encourage their children to come to school in an active way – walking, cycling or scooting.
If this is not possible, we ask that parents do not drive to school on the roads marked below in red, but instead park outside this area. The children can then walk to school for the remaining distance.
