2018 - 2019 with Brightkidz
Have you become part of the Brightkidz story yet? We take a look at some of the exciting initiatives and activities we have been up to over the past academic year and some of the great schools and other partners we have worked with. Then we’ll take a peek at what’s planned for the year ahead… will you be joining us?
In the words of Abba “I can still recall our last summer…” so let’s start there.
August
Our new logo – Brightkidz: inspiring active travel – is launched. That sums us up! Busy preparing orders ready to support our customers’ autumn active travel campaigns…proving popular are these printed bags Off to Birmingham for a great brainstorming session with PwC volunteers as part of their Social Entrepreneurs Club.
September
Launch of our ST:EPS project pilot – Safe Travel: Enabling Pupils and Schools supported by Central England Co-operative. ‘Brighten Your Bag’ workshop in Bristol for school travel professionals from the south west… here with Adam from Modeshift.
October
International Walk to School Month is always a great excuse to promote walking and our walk to school scheme info and resources was handy for organisers. We paired up with the Child Brain Injury Trust to support their GloWeek campaign and competition. Helping our customers get ready for when the clocks go back and the nights get longer… our Reflector Shop Packs for schools are always a hit.
November
‘Individual Contribution to Sustainable Travel’ award presented to Alison, Brightkidz founder by Kevin of Living Streets at Modeshift’s conference. Took part in Social Enterprise Day 15 Nov. We love this way of doing business! Met these winning pupils at Modeshift STARS Midlands regional awards which we supported.
December
Comedian James Acaster is patron of Youth Works, a local community college which we welcomed to ST:EPS this month. It’s live! Our new, mobile-friendly website was launched with active travel info and products.
January
Fiona our educational specialist joined us and popped in on our friends at Teamwork Trust to see them at work with cording our reflectors. We hosted Road Safety GB’s course for road safety practitioners at our offices in Kettering.
February
Apprentice Eryn joined us and took a trip to meet sustainable travel professionals in York with #bunnytravels, our mascot to promote public transport. Alison teamed up with officers and parents from Bath and North East Somerset to work on a walking bus video.
March
March British Science Week saw us working with 90 pupils from South End Infants School, Rushden to make their own upcycled high vis bag tags. Scoot scoot! A day of scooter fun at Grange Primary Academy as part of our ST:EPS project.
April
We’re in it! Brightkidz is officially one of the UK’s top 100 social enterprises and listed in the NatWest SE100 index. Going global. We joined other road safety NGOs from across the world in Greece to share ideas and learn from each other.. and bunny came too.
May
Look there’s a bear! Our local park mascot Wicky Bear joined us for local Walk to School Week activities. ‘Brand My Thingy’ our new range for general custom printed promotional products was launched providing a new income to support our projects.
June
Our first ST:EPS school was presented the DfT-backed award for sustainable travel – Modeshift STARS. Very proud of Grange Primary Academy. For Clean Air Day on 20 June we took pupils from Hawthorn Primary School, Kettering out to study lichen, route plan and count traffic.
July
Our info guide ‘How Will You Get to School?’ is published in plenty of time for families to plan good ways of getting to school next school year. Free to download! ‘’Cars are hard and we are soft” is the key message at our first pre-school road safety session at Queen Eleanor Pre-School, Geddington. Thanks to our friends at road safety charity Brake for their fab teaching resources.
The Year Ahead – Look Out for:
- Launch of our Brightwayz ST:EPS project for secondary schools – we’ve just received funding from Northamptonshire Police and Crime Commissioner.
- Walking bus video resource (with BANES council)
- New partnership projects in the pipeline with businesses both locally and across the UK.
- Lots and lots of great new products and information to support active travel campaigns