WOW

WOW stands for Walk Once a Week and is a way to encourage pupils and parents who usually come by car to regularly walk once a week

WOW – the walk to school challenge from Living Streets is a pupil-led initiative where children self-report how they get to school every day using the interactive WOW Travel Tracker.

WOW schools see 59% fewer car journeys to the school gates and 18% more journeys walking and wheeling all the way to school – plus a whole host of other benefits!

How Does it Work?

Pupils log their journey to school each day on the WOW Travel Tracker. If they walk/wheel at least once a week earn a WOW badge at the end of each month. Cycling, scooting, ‘Park and Stride’ and ‘hop off’ count, too!
WOW badges are designed by pupils in an annual badge design competition.
The WOW Travel Tracker provides a wealth of useful data to inform travel plans.
WOW is available in English and Welsh and counts towards Modeshift STARS accreditation.
Find out more information about WOW which is run by Living Streets, the UK charity for everyday walking.

Why this is a Good Idea

It's easier for people to break their drive-to-school habit if you can persuade them to walk just once a week, rather then trying to persuade them to walk every day. Once they get into the habit they often increase their walking days too.
This is a year round challenge – not just for a special week or month.
Any school can take part using their own resources or they can purchase special badges from Living Streets.

Challenges

Although pupils only walk once a week, hopefully this will give them the chance to feel the benefits of walking so they are then encouraged to walk every day.
You have to pay for the travel tracker and badges, however in England the Sports Premium funding can be used to fund this (and many other) walk to school schemes.
Teachers need to allocate some time first thing in the morning to log onto the Travel Tracker and arrange for all children to log their journeys.

Setting Up WOW

Find out more information on how to start WOW.
If you want to start on a smaller scale, buy your own incentives as rewards and set up a monitoring system for registration time.
Wow counts towards Modeshift STARS accreditation.