Message from the Mayor Video
2 minute read + 2 minute videos
No that’s not a light sabre! Children are often intrigued by the regalia of our local civic traditions. So involving your local dignatories such as your mayor in active travel celebratory events is a good way of not only raising the profile of walking and cycling amongst local decision makers, but also helps engage pupils, making them feel special and increase their understanding of civics and local democracy.
Mayor of Kettering Congratulates Modeshift STARS Accredited Schools
Here at Brightkidz we have been working with several local schools and four of them have gained Modeshift STARS accreditations over the last year – Grange Primary Academy, Compass Primary Academy, St Andrew’s C of E Primary and Southfield (secondary) School. Due to lockdown we were unable to arrange for any celebratory events in person so instead we collaborated with our local mayor to produce some celebratory videos. These are for showing in assemblies but are also available for parents, governors and anyone else to see.
Supporting Climate Emergency Declarations
These videos are primarily a congratulatory message to the pupils and teachers from our mayor but are also a chance to highlight the local council’s support for the STARS initiative and how it links in to the Council’s decisions such as their Climate Emergency Declaration.
We also hope they will inspire the schools to continue their efforts and show other schools what can be achieved as they demonstrate practical, local actions that have been a success engaging pupils.
So why not try this in your own area? It doesn’t cost anything and it helps build support for your schemes.
How To Involve Your Local Mayor
First of all make sure you mayor does actually support the concept of enabling and encouraging more children to walk or cycle to school! If your council has declared a Climate Emergency this clearly demonstrates this and any actions the council may have done too could be mentioned. Contact your local council to find out how to ‘book’ the mayor and make your request. It’s a good idea to help your mayor with drafting an overall message and adapting for the different schools so each is personalised – they wont necessarily know what the schools have done or the importance of their achievements. The recording can be done with simple equipment – just an iphone or equivalent is enough. Ideally use a separate microphone for best sound quality if you have one. Share the final video with the school (publishing via Youtube or Vimeo makes it more easily shareable). Then share further with your social media. You can integrate your video into an assembly plan too (watch this space as we will be publishing an example soon).
A final tip when planning this – make sure the mayor has all the regalia – turning up in everyday clothes just won’t have the same impact. After all light sabres are pretty powerful!