All About School Travel Plans

So What Exactly is a School Travel Plan?

A school travel plan (STP)  is a document that lays out the current challenges and actions needed to encourage and enable pupils to have safer, more active and more sustainable journeys to and from school.

But it is much more than that…

It is not just about journeys to and from school - it’s about journey habits for life and includes activities such as cycle training and road safety education. This enables more active leisure time and gives pupils independent travel skills and confidence for the future.

It is not just for pupils

It’s for the whole school community which includes teachers, other school staff or volunteers, governors, families, neighbours and local community leaders. They can all be involved in providing valuable insights into what is needed, possible solutions and taking part in some of the practical actions. 

It is not just for mainstream schools

Even if journeys to school are all by taxi or minibus, there are a wide range of active and sustainable activities SEN school pupils can do to improve their travel skills, for example all-ability cycle activity sessions on adapted bikes. Every travel plan is built around each school’s specific situation.

It is not just about walking or cycling

It can cover a wide range of potential travel modes including using buses or trains, lift-sharing, ‘park and stride’ as well as other active travel modes such as scooting or ‘wheeling’ (eg mobility scooters or wheelchairs). 

It is not just a standard document

It is a well thought out plan guided by professionals based on the very specific needs, challenges, opportunities and features of the school community. It is a valuable living document which once established is constantly developed, reviewed, updated and improved. It acts as a blueprint for embedding a culture of excellence in safe, active, sustainable travel for the school. 

It is not something a school does on its own

Here in our county, North Northamptonshire Council are now working with Brightwayz social enterprise to provide dedicated support for schools starting out or already on their school travel plan journey. Combined with the local insights from schools - staff, pupils and other key people - Brightwayz provides the experience, some activities and the administrative support to make your travel plan a success. 

A Few More Questions and Answers About School Travel Plans

How is a school travel plan created?

To create school travel plans here in North Northants, at Brightwayz we use the national Modeshift STARS platform (Sustainable Travel Accredited and Recognised) in partnership with North Northamptonshire Council’s Highways team.

This is backed by the Department for Transport and provides a robust way to build and update an effective plan. We work with schools to understand their situation, issues, needs, and aspirations then we put the data into the system. Once all key information is in and the plan is approved by the school leadership, the detailed plan is automatically generated. 

What does an STP look like - can I see an example?

The detailed plan is accessible at any time by the school but is not the most engaging of documents! On completion of a school travel plan Brightwayz provides a colourful, engaging, easy-read  summary version to share with your school community. This helps everyone involved to know the issues, see past progress and get involved in future.

What is Modeshift STARS accreditation?

On completion of your travel plan Brightwayz will arrange for your plan to be submitted for Modeshift STARS accreditation. These range from ‘approved’  to ‘good’, ‘very good’, ‘excellent’ and ‘outstanding’. Schools usually aim for approved for their first one unless they have already achieved a lot of actions, then each year work towards the next level. 

What are the National School Travel Awards?

These are awarded annually by Modeshift at a  special awards ceremony in London each March. All schools achieving an accreditation in a county each year are judged and a ‘School of the County’ for primary, secondary and SEN is announced at an online event. From those a ‘School of the Region’ is announced -  for us this is ‘Midlands’. All regional winners from across the country are invited to attend the awards ceremony in London where the national winners are announced and presents their award by a minister from the Department for Transport.