MODESHIFT PLATINUM AWARD

We are committed to sustainable travel to school and we encourage as many of our staff and families to scoot, bike and walk to school. We are part of the Modeshift STARS scheme which allows us to plan, develop and deliver a range of initiatives to promote active and sustainable travel. Our School Travel Plan has been approved as outstanding and we have been awarded Platinum level accreditation.  Please click to view our Travel to School Policy.

Taking the bus

Porter Croft Church of England Academy is located close to the city centre and benefits from a range of bus lines.

The following transport lines have routes that pass near Porter Croft. 

map

Bus lines available are  65, 65a, 81, 82, 83, 88, 271, 785

Bus Timetable link

AIR POLLUTION

Our school continually works on a range of measure to help tackle air pollution in order to help protect our planet. We link air quality issues with modes of travel to school and involve parents, governors, pupils and staff in delivering our messages around active travel. We have taken part in clean air days and a clean air project run by SCCs Public Health Team. Our school was chosen as the pilot for the scheme. To further support these initiatives, we have launched a 5 minute walk zone and ask visitors and parents to Park and Stride where it is not possible to travel actively.

5 minute walk zone

The school council regularly work on the travel plan and have recently penned their own Children’s Charter. This represents the vision and aims that the children themselves have towards protecting the planet. Teaching around sustainability, including active and sustainable travel is embedded teaching, learning and curriculum. Regular assemblies and classroom lessons are held around road safety and the benefits of active travel.

We have worked in partnership with The University of Sheffield on two Air Quality Garden research projects, where children learned about the effects of pollution and the impact on our environment. Air pollution causes are linked to modes of travel and the school’s ethos and aims to reduce pollution by reducing car use. We received media coverage on the first project and started working on a further air quality project in 2019. Children have helped to put up bird boxes to protect local wildlife and have undertaken litter picks to make walking routes safe and clear to encourage people to walk more.

Over the last year, we have completely redesigned the whole school curriculum to become more globally conscious. Using the 17 United Nations Sustainability Development goals as a starting point, we have, each term, an overarching theme which directly teaches pupils about how our actions directly impact people in the locality and globally. For our spring term, the whole school theme is sustainable development. During this term, we will continue to work on projects which promote better air quality, as air pollution is one of the biggest environmental threats to human health, alongside climate change.

SCHOOL STREET

From all our efforts and initiative, we now have become a Sheffield School Street- Every day from 8:15 am to 9:15 am and 2:45 pm until 3:30 pm the road outside our school is closed to vehicle use. This is manned by members of staff and parent volunteers. As a result, the amount of traffic pollution around the school has been reduced significantly and parents are favouring to park and stride or walk to school. In order to capture the thoughts and views of parents and learn of any potential barriers to the project, parents have also been consulted. Their views have been surveyed on Google Forms- gaining the opinions of parents. The results show a positive response to the school road closure and a request for this to be made permanent. The results from the survey have also been shared with Sheffield City Council.

WALKING, BIKING & SCOOTING

Our school has taken part in South Yorkshire’s 10 Day Active Travel Challenge, promoting scooting, cycling and walking to school every year for the past four years with a high number of children completing the full two weeks. We regularly walk to venues around the city for activities and events such as the theatre and the children enjoy lots of educational walks in the local area, linking active travel to other issues such as conservation, pollution and biodiversity.

BEAT THE STREETS

In the summer, due to our ongoing efforts to promote active travel, our school was chosen to feature in the Beat the Streets promotional campaign, a fantastic initiative which children enjoyed taking part in.

CYCLING

Our school has a good number of children who cycle to school on a regular basis and the numbers have increased over the years. We have bikes at the school for children to use if they do not have their own and we fund cycling opportunities through the School Sports Premium. We ensure that children are given the best opportunity to develop their skills and confidence through regular Learn to Ride sessions, playground cycle skills and Bikeability training. We also ensure that the bikes children come to school on are safe to ride by providing regular free Dr Bike sessions. We hold lots of events to encourage children to cycle (and scoot) to school such as Biker Breakfasts, Bike It Weeks, Virtual Velodromes and Smoothie Bikes – linking active travel to nutrition and healthy lifestyles. Wheelie Wednesday this term has been a success with over half the school coming to school by bike, scooter or rollerblades. The initiative has had a long lasting effect on the pupils attitudes and who continue to find healthy and safe ways to come to school which is reflected in our latest hands us survey.

ROAD SAFETY

We recognised that some of our children lacked road safety awareness, potentially due to cultural and language barriers. We therefore focused on providing pedestrian training, street audits and practical road safety around the school. We have worked with our local PSCOs to tackle unsafe and problem parking around school and children have written to our local MP about their concerns about the volume of traffic on the main road close to school. The letters, led to the school being visited by Councillor Douglas Johnson, executive member for climate change, environment and transport, who discussed with the children ways in which the local council aims to reduce air pollution , during his visit he congratulated the children in their efforts in reducing air pollution and helped plant seeds in the school garden and inspected the Foundation Stage homemade bug hotel.

PROMOTION

Active travel messages and activities are regularly posted on our website, on social media and in newsletters, spreading the aims and ethos of the school. The school’s travel plan is part of policy documents, forming part of our Development Plan. We are currently setting up a coffee morning with parents to find out what views they have in relation to active travel and the possible barriers they may face that prevents them from doing this. We decided to hold a meeting as we are considerate to the language barriers that some of our parents and carers have. The results of the survey will feed into the school’s travel plan to help break down potential barriers to make active travel easier.We continue to create long lasting partnerships in the community to promote our commitment to sustainable development and air quality. In September, the children created art work which was exhibited in the Samuel Worth Chapel- General Cemetery. The exhibition aimed to raised awareness of climate change issues and pollution. The children’s work proved popular with members of public, resulting in, the school being asked to create an exhibition each year to raise awareness of waste and pollution in the locality.Our work in reducing air pollution gained the recognition and attention of the local media during Cop 26 Week. Each year group in school is continually working on an initiative to improve air pollution and the environment. During COP 26 week, the school was visited by ‘The Star Newspaper’ and ITV Calendar News which published an articles and broadcast celebrating the school’s efforts and initiatives in combating air pollution.