We'd love every member of our school community to get involved in encouraging healthy, environmentally friendly and community friendly travel to Bridgewater. It's important now but it will become even more important over the coming years as the school fills up - when we have 460+ children there certainly won't be space for everyone to bring a car!

Travel Matters @ Bridgewater is the campaign of our Travel Group. We have an active school travel policy to encourage everyone - including pupils, parents, childminders, grandparents, staff and local residents - to get involved in sustaining and improving how we all travel to and around the school. We're proud to have been awarded our Gold Modeshift Star (Modeshift is a national travel to school campaign) for our active travel plan.

We have lots of events and campaigns to encourage pupils and staff to walk, scoot or cycle whenever possible - our banners on the school gates remind everyone to "fill your lungs, not your tank". Where that is not possible, we encourage families to "park and stride", car share and park considerately - importantly, Don't be a Road Monster! 

There are some fantastic photos of how we travel to school here and some photos of our travel events, including Wheelie Week and BikeFest, here and here. Below you'll find our school travel rules and the handy map we've prepared to show you our one-way system, the "park and stride" zones and areas where you definitely cannot park or drop-off. Some games to play on the walk to school are in the pdf below. If you are planning to buy a MicroScooter: did you know that if you enter the URN code 117541 at checkout (there is an option to "apply school code") then Bridgewater receives a 10% donation (without it costing you a penny)? 

If you'd like to know more or might be interested in helping to run our travel events (such as Bike Week or Walk to School week), please email us at travel@bridgewater.herts.sch.uk. You can also follow the Travel Group on Twitter @BWTravelGroup. Our Travel Group is responsible for delivering the travel plan. Members of the group have specific responsibilities as follows: 

Walking Week: TBC

Walking Bus: Esther Stewart, Jules McEachran 

Bike Week: Esther Stewart, Fran Cerda, Emma Bradbury

Newsletters (parents and residents): Emma Bradbury 

Junior Travel Ambassador patrol rota: Alex Haeri 

Governor representative: Imogen Wagstaff

Resident representative: Rosemary North 

Staff representative: Caren Doodson (Headteacher) & Mrs Brown

Pupil representatives: Junior Travel Ambassadors (two from each year group, Year 1 upwards)

Please:

BUT please:

What is a Walking Bus and how does it work?

A Walking Bus is a supervised group of children walking to school. It is made up of at least two adult volunteers, who are DBS checked and act as a ‘driver’ and a ‘conductor’ to escort the children. The ratio of adults to children is 1:6, so we have a maximum of 12 pupils per bus route. All children from Reception to Year 6 can join the Walking Bus (children in Nursery must be accompanied by a parent or carer). All children must sign up to the Walking Bus in advance - you can't just turn up on the day. Adults and children all wear high-visibility waistcoats. The Bus follows a set route (approved by Hertfordshire County Council – we cannot deviate from the agreed routes) and ‘walks’ to a published timetable.

Why join the Walking Bus?

We hope that the Walking Bus will benefit children, parents and the local community by:

• Improving pedestrian and road safety skills

• Promoting healthy exercise

• Saving time and fuel costs for parents

• Developing children’s independence and social skills

• Reducing traffic congestion and parking issues around schools

What are the routes?

Full details of our timetable and routes are on the Walking Bus map but in summary we have three routes:

1. Red route: From the train station down Bridgewater Road, up the footpath before Normandy Drive, across Meadow Road, into the back entrance to the school field. 

2. Green route: From the Lagley Meadow playground, down across the high street zebra crossing, up Billet Lane, across the pelican crossing, up Bridle Way to school. We split this into Green Route A and Green Route B because it is very popular but our maximum group size is 12 pupils. 

3. Blue route: From Cowslip Meadow, up St Katherine's Way, via the footpath to Hill Top / Sayers Gardens, up Haynes Mead to school. Please note that we will only run this route from September 2017 if there are enough pupils and volunteers signed up - please complete the forms if you are interested.

Where can I find more information and how do I sign up?

Please read the letter to parents below and take a look at our Walking Bus route map and timetable. If your child / children want to join the Walking Bus, please complete the two consent forms (you need a copy of each form for each child). If you need further information about how the Walking Bus works, please email travel@bridgewater.herts.sch.uk.