Father Christmas Joins Walk to School

By Alison Holland

Published: December 13, 2019

Father Christmas Joins Walk to School.

(2 minute read)

Father Christmas has been out and about without his sleigh this week… and instead has been joining children, parents and teachers from two of our local primary schools to make their walk to school extra special.

Great Start to the Day

Early morning commuters in our Northamptonshire town centre on Wednesday had a surprise when they saw a long trail of around 70 pupils and 30 parents and teachers heading towards St Andrew’s CE Primary School led by Father Christmas.

This morning, pupils from Grange Primary Academy, Kettering had the same treat as he led them from the local Co-op store to the school. The turnout was great here too – 68 pupils, including all breakfast club members, and 18 adults. Children taking part were rewarded with a ‘Walk with Santa’ sticker and a photo op for their parents to take a picture of them meeting him. Older pupils were helpers and donned high vis jackets so the others could see who to get their stickers from.

Sharing Ideas

Both of these events were organised by us as part of our ST:EPS programme – Safe Travel: Enabling Pupils and Schools. Best part of our job!!! Here at Brightkidz we help schools across the UK to promote active travel and road safety through our products and information. We love to get out and work with schools nearby to support them in person through our projects. We can develop our initiative ideas… which we then like to share further afield.

No English? No Problem

This event idea was easy for any children or parents to join and a really positive, fun thing to do.  It didn’t matter that some of the parents couldn’t speak English – they still understood, smiled and joined in… making it a great community initiative.  The only cost was a few stickers which the children loved – as it gives recognition for children who take part.

Father Christmas stickers.

Radio Show

These were also really good opportunities to raise the profile of walking to school, not just during the walk but afterwards too. For the St Andrew’s School walk, we were joined by Simon from local community radio Shire Sounds who interviewed teachers, Brightkidz team members and the big man himself… Santa. The interviews were broadcast as part of the early evening hour programme – which was a great way to promote walking to school to a wider audience.

Great Partners

We are very grateful for the support we had from other local social enterprises – the Green Patch/Groundworks Northamptonshire and Youth Works CIC – as well as from all the staff and pupils at both schools. Merry Christmas everyone!

Brightkidz are Here to Help You Too

We’ll be working on some new active travel shareable ideas for the new year so watch this space. If you need any products – such as stickers with your campaign design – to support your walk to school, active travel or road safety initiatives get in touch or check out our products section for ideas. 100% of profits from sales are ploughed back to support active travel and road safety.

#walktoschool #modeshiftstars #schooltravelplan #santawalk #activetravel #communityengagement