The Healthy Active School Travel Program

The Healthy Active School Travel Program

The Healthy Active School Travel (HAST) program is offered to a select number of schools in the Ipswich region each year.

The program provides funding and assistance for a 2 year period to the chosen schools. This funding includes the opportunity for the schools to offer a variety of activities to their children to enable a healthier and physically active culture to develop within the school community. The activities may include ‘Bike skills and safety’ education, Bus travel safety, and road safety education. Each school has the ability to tailor their year with the opportunity to select training and activities that best suit the needs of the school and its students.

The program offers fun and exciting challenges with individual, class and school competition. Each student will receive an ‘Active Travel Passport’ to record their progress in active travel and participation in school events. They will accumulate points toward incentive prizes each time they actively travel or participate in HAST events. The Schools are also encouraged to choose their own internal competitions with an additional range of prizes supplied by Council as incentives. Teachers also benefit, with the opportunity to complete Professional Development relating to healthy and active education/behaviour change that comprises the teachings in HAST. The concepts of HAST directly align to the school curriculum, providing teachers with valuable assistance in meeting curriculum requirements.

Each School in the program will be in the running for substantial end of year prizes to allocate back to their in-house active travel incentives for their school or to fund needed equipment for their Health and Physical Education Programs.

What does your School need? Perhaps a bike cage to safely store bicycles during the day for students riding to school or a bike/Scooter bank to provide the opportunity for students to ride/learn to ride at school. Perhaps a friendly undercover area for parents who have chosen to ‘park and walk’; so they can meet and socialise at the school waiting for their children at the end of the day.

What is on offer as part of the program?

Each school participating in the program is provided with the following;

Incentives (for distribution to children when milestones of the travel passport are completed or for in-class competitions/participation relating to the HAST program)

Pencils, balls, yo yo’s etc (prizes may vary).

School Prizes for ‘whole of school’ organised competitions

1 ‘Bicycle and helmet’ prize per year (for school level competition)
1 ‘Scooter and safety wear’ prize per year (for school level competition)

Incentives for distribution to parents (e.g. first 20 respondents to parent surveys, raffles) These will be distributed as part of the Council organised parental surveys)

Incentives may include Car Sun Visors, umbrellas, Tote Bags, pedometers

School Prizes for Inter-school HAST competition

The end of year prizes each school will be competing for are as follows;

The participating school with the highest percentage of active travel at the end of the school year (as determined by hands up monthly results and parent surveys) receives $2500 toward Active Transport/HPE initiatives
The participating school with the greatest improvement in active travel (as determined by the ‘hands up’ monthly results and parental surveys) receives $2000 toward Active Transport/HPE initiatives.
The participating school with the most innovative or successful activity/event (as determined by Council based on data/evidence provided by the school) receives $1500 toward active transport/HPE initiatives.

Schools can compete for all categories. Categories are assessed independently and a school may be successful in more than one category. Category winners are chosen based on a documented assessment criteria. Schools are scored on a combination of their funding application and the data analysis of their performance over the year. No dispute will be entered into. The ‘prize’ is in the form of approved funding toward active transport/Health and Physical Education (HPE) nominated by the school. The school must make application for the funding by 30 December of that year. Invitations to submit the applications will be forwarded to schools in Term 4. The winners will be announced by 1 March the following year and funds distributed. The funds must be acquitted within 6 months as per Ipswich City Council funding requirements. Please visit the council website for more information.

For more information on Healthy Active School Travel please go to

PART A

Please complete the following pages as required. Prompts are highlighted in yellow. (delete the wording and replace with your information as required)

About our School

Share your school’s history and growth.

When the school was established and how the school has grown over the years
Physical surroundings of the school
Current traffic congestion problems / access issues at school frontage
Socio-economic description of families
Any relevant cultural information

Our School Vision

Focus your school’s vision in relation to being a healthy active school

How will the School Travel Plan support the school’s future vision in relation to education, environment and community?

Our Commitment

Insert your Principal’s comments supporting the development of a School Travel Plan and commitment to achieving outcomes from the plan.

Our HAST Project Working Group

Dedicated to our Children’s future by creating healthy active kids today (note; Bold roles are mandatory, minimum of 3 staff on group, AND one representative from P&C/P&F)

Name / Role / Organisation / Phone / e-mail
Pleasecomplete / School Principal / Dept of Education / Pleasecomplete / Pleasecomplete
Pleasecomplete / School HAST Champion / Please Complete / Pleasecomplete / Pleasecomplete
Pleasecomplete / P&C member / Parents and Citizens Association / Pleasecomplete / Pleasecomplete
Pleasecomplete / Please Complete (school staff member) / Pleasecomplete / Pleasecomplete / Pleasecomplete
Pleasecomplete / Other representatives / Pleasecomplete / Pleasecomplete / Pleasecomplete
Pleasecomplete / Other representatives / Pleasecomplete / Pleasecomplete / Pleasecomplete
Pleasecomplete / Other representatives / Pleasecomplete / Pleasecomplete / Pleasecomplete

School profile

School Type, e.g. public, private / Please complete
Number of Students (total) / Please complete
Number of Families / Please complete
Grades, e.g. P-6, P-8 / Please complete
School Bell Times / Please complete
Number of parking spaces, staff/visitor / Please complete
Is the school in a Neighbourhood Watch Community? / Please complete
Types of school/parent/committee communications used/available (i.e. newsletter, website, facebook page) and frequency / Please complete
Other Information / Please complete

Site Assessment

An evaluation of the area surrounding the School has been conducted to explore opportunities and inhibitors to the use of sustainable transport. A full report is available however findings that had particular relevance to the development of this School Travel Plan include:

Insert information on key issues at school frontage, school zone, school crossings and signals
Insert information on key infrastructure issues
Insert information on key public transport issues
Insert information on key cycling issues
Insert information on key passenger loading zone issues
Insert information on key behaviour and skills issues

Parent Behaviours

Insert a summary of the trends observed, presenting local information where possible

Site map

Include a map of the site, indicating areas of issue, public transport points, walking and cycling paths.

Distribution of staff/students/community

(Dept. of Education can supply this through the Queensland Government Statistician’s Office)

PART B

School Travel Plan Actions

The Schools active travel plan is the most important component of the program. It lists the due dates for mandatory actions, such as data collection, to assist the school with meeting their requirements to be in the running for the end of year prizes. It also provides the timetable for activities for the school year. The school can select their own competitions and education activities from the toolkit, other resources or come up with their own initiatives to be in the running for the ‘best initiative award’.

Please provide specific dates for your activities where possible.

The Draft school travel plan is to be submitted to Council for review prior to finalisation and signing of the Memorandum of Understanding.

IMPORTANT

In the table below;*Coloured strategies are mandatory activities/events required for that term

In addition to mandatory activities, at least 2 optional strategies/activities must be chosen and completed per term (For 2018 – Mandatory Activities for Term 1 to be completed in Term 2, replacing Term 2)

Council will contribute $250 to your launch event. (A coffee van to supply coffee to parents is always popular). You can have the coffee van operator invoice Council. Just make sure you don’t go over your budget. Perhaps have an agreed ‘cap’ with the van operator)

Council will contribute up to $200 for three more events (total of $600) throughout the year. You can make a request to invest this money in one active transport activity, such as bike education lessons during one term, or teacher Professional Development. This would count as one activity for the term it is allocated to. You would still be required to have your minimum 2 optional strategies per term.

Below is an example of how to complete the Travel Plan (School entries are in blue)

Strategy / Incentives/
Resources / Brief overview activities/details (a more detailed action plan may be required by the working group to plan for the activity/event as it approaches) / Date
*Promote/advertise School involvement in HAST / Use template wording as per toolkit / Admin officer to Notify in School newsletter, online.
Champion to email evidence to Council HAST officer / Complete by 30 January for newsletter issue on 3 March
(January)
*Baseline hands-up survey. Must be conducted prior to Launch / Template in Toolkit / Principal to distribute at staff meeting on Monday of last week of month. (29 January)
Teachers to complete at role call for that week
Teachers to hand completed form to HAST champion on following Monday. Champion to email forms to Council HAST officer / (January/February)
29 January to 2 February
Conduct art competition for active travel. Competition at class level / Use template provided in Toolkit. / Teachers to advise students the winning artist in each class receives a prize. Tentative; Organise judges? Possibly Art for class 1 and 2 will be judged by our Adopt-a- cop. Art for classes 3 and 4 will be judged by the local Councillor.
Art for classes 5 and 6 judged by school principal. Principal to contact ‘judges’ or find alternatives if not available. HAST champion to get photos of winning students with art. Write up a story for facebook page. Winning students to describe their inspiration. / Competition to be conducted week 5.
Judging week 6 and 7
Assembly announcements Week 7

Note; the most innovative/successful activity for the year, as determined by Council, will provide the winning school with $1500 to be spent on Active Transport initiatives or your HPE program. Don’t forget to provide results and feedback on your activity to increase your chances of winning.

Please complete the timetable below. Council’s HAST officer can assist with formulating your timetable of events. Please contact your HAST officer for a visit to your school to discuss and formulate a timetable if you need assistance.

Sometimes it can be hard to stick to the plan with the busy school calendar not always being flexible for weather events etc. New ideas or opportunities may arise through the year also. If you need to change the plan as the year progresses, just contact your Council HAST officer to discuss the changes.

ACTIVE TRAVEL PLAN

Term One

Strategy / Incentives/ Resources / Brief overview activities/details (a more detailed action plan may be required by the working group to plan for the activity/event as it approaches) / Date
*Promote/advertise School involvement in HAST / Use template wording as per toolkit / (January)
*Baseline hands-up survey. Must be conducted prior to Launch / Use chart provided in Toolkit / (January/February)
*Launch Event- (School to choose- walk to school event, school morning tea, multiple activities etc) / Council contribution to event Max $250
Refer toolkit for ideas / (February/March)
*Distribution of ‘Active Travel Passports’ to students / Active Travel Passports supplied by Council / Note; Should be distributed the same week as launch (can be at launch)
*Initiate system for stamping/signing of Active Travel Passports / Council supplied incentives when student targets met / (January)
*Parent survey (Baseline) / Council to supply survey template for school to distribute / (January/February)
*School Monthly ‘Hands Up’ survey / Template in toolkit / (February AND
March)
suggestion; National Ride to School Day
(23 March 2018) / 23 March 2018
Activity from Toolkit or school initiative idea(please describe/nominate)

REMEMBER: The School with highest percentage of active travel at the end of the year receives an incentive prize. Hands Up survey results need to be forwarded to Council by the first week of the next term to count toward your schools’ score. The School with the best score for the year wins $2500 toward their choice of Active Travel/HPE equipment.

Term Two

Strategy / Incentives / Activities / Date
*Parent survey / Council to supply survey template.
Incentive prizes to increase parent participation will be provided by Council / (Mid June with due date for response end of term 29 June)
*School Monthly ‘Hands Up’ survey / Template in toolkit
Class with highest active travel in school for term 2 receives incentive prize. / (May AND June)
*Promote/advertise School involvement in HAST / Use template wording as per toolkit
*HAST ‘Event’ / Council contribution to event Max $200
Use template for idea or maybe consider a walk to school event to coincide with Bike Week or Walk safety to school day
Suggestion; Bike Week Queensland (28 April- 7 May 2018) / 28 April- 7 May 2018
Suggestion; National Walk Safely to School Day
(18 May 2018) / 18 May 2018

REMEMBER: The School with the greatest improvement in active travel at the end of the year receives an incentive prize. Hands Up survey results need to be forwarded to Council by the first week of the next term to count toward your schools’ score. The School with the best improvement score for the year wins $2000 toward their choice of Active Travel/HPE equipment.

Remember your initial baseline data can help greatly toward this achievement.

Term Three

Strategy / Incentives / Activities / Date
Parent survey / Council to supply survey template. / (Distribute 3rd September with due by end of term 21 September.)
School Monthly ‘Hands Up’ survey / Template in toolkit
Suggestion-Consider Class with highest active travel in school for term 2 receives incentive prize. / (August AND September)
Promote/advertise School involvement in HAST / Use template wording as per toolkit
Selected Event/Activity from Toolkit or school initiative idea(please describe/nominate / Council contribution to event Max $200
Selected Activity from Toolkit or school initiative idea(please describe/nominate

Term Four

Strategy / incentives / Activities / Responsibility / Date
Parent survey / Council to supply survey template. / e.g promote at assemblies, school gate at the end of the day, distribute in newsletter/letter to parents. / Distribute 16 November with due by 3rd December.
School Monthly ‘Hands Up’ survey / Template in toolkit / e.g Each class teacher completes on last Thursday of month and forward to Admin. Admin to forward to Council by end of first week of following month / To be completed October and November
Promote/advertise School involvement in HAST / Use template wording as per toolkit / Notify in School newsletter, online.
email evidence to Council HAST officer
Selected Activity/event from Toolkit or school initiative idea(please describe/nominate / Council contribution to event Max $200
Selected Activity from Toolkit or school initiative idea(please describe/nominate

REMEMBER: The School with highest percentage of active travel at the end of each Term receives an incentive prize. Hands Up survey results need to be forwarded to Council by the first week of the next term to count toward your schools’ score. The School with the best score for the year wins $2500 toward their choice of Active Travel/HPE equipment.