[T]wo winning schools have been selected from this year’s competition entries and will each receive a live drama performance from David Eliot Cooper of national historical entertainment company Histrionics.
‘Feet First’ is a walking, cycling and scooting initiative, run by Cumbria County Council’s Active Travel team. In October 2017, 50 schools across the county signed up for Feet First, with over 7,000 children taking part.
Each year, the council’s Active Travel team runs a competition as part of the Feet First project, and this year it was to design a banner to promote active ways to travel to school, or to create a pavement sign to discourage inconsiderate parking outside school entrances.
Both the banner and pavement sign entries were judged by a panel of Active Travel officers and there were two categories – one for infant, and one for junior schools. Pupils from each of the winning schools will enjoy a fun-filled historical drama performance by David Eliot Cooper from ‘Histrionics, A Present from the Past,’ on 21 and 22 May. Histrionics is the national award winning historical entertainment company, delivering a variety of performance events for museums, schools, visitor attractions and TV all over the UK.
After careful deliberation by the judging panel, the winners are: Kingmoor Nursery and Infant School in Carlisle (Infant category), for their very colourful and imaginative design ‘Be Super Cool, Walk to School’, and Heron Hill Primary School in Kendal (Junior category) with their fun filled design of children walking, cycling, skipping and scooting to school.
Pupils from Hayton Primary School near Brampton also designed a series of posters for pavement signs which are currently being developed in to proper signs – these will be placed at a number of schools across the county that have experienced parking issues.
Nancy Sloan, School Travel Officer at Cumbria County Council, said: “The aim of this competition was to raise awareness that schools actively want to tackle issues around parking and congestion outside their premises. This has been achieved by encouraging children to walk, cycle and scoot to school safely.
“This has been further helped by the recent Walk to School Week and The Big Pedal events, which saw thousands of children from schools all over Cumbria walking, cycling and scooting to school.
“This is a fantastic way to get children thinking about their physical health and wellbeing and results in fitter and healthier children, and is also great for the environment!