Chelsea Primary School walks the talk

Chelsea Primary School gives children an opportunity to engage in regular physical activity. It has 3 Walking School Buses (WSB), which run all year round walking children safely to school each morning and has over 70 registered children and 24 parent volunteers.

From week 2-week 5, WSB organised a Walkers Tree campaign to encourage walkers and parents to walk to school. Each WSB walker is issued a leaf after they have walked to school. Collected leaves are named and placed onto the tree by the school foyer. When 5 leaves are collected, the walker is issued an “Awesome Apple” for the tree as well. “Blossoms” are given to the parents who walk with the students.

Last week, the Lucky Draw Prizes went to Isobel Chilberto, Varya Milkova, and Catherine Franicevic and the parent winners were Kevin Alexander, Rosemary Kirby and Marian Stansfield.

This week’s Lucky Draw prizes for walkers with 2 apples for each WSB route are Lucia Kamphuis, Casey Israelson and Stina Ellis. The winning WSB drivers are parents Camilla Ellis, Ingrid van Rijn and Kim Leybourne.

Lucy Chilberto, one of our organisers of WSB once attended a University of Auckland environmental talk regarding ‘what happens to WSB kids once they graduate’. The research findings outlined the benefits walkers get from the growing independence of being able to walk without their parents in a safe manner, walking with friends or walking alone as part of a WSB.

These ‘buses’ have become a very positive part of Chelsea School and community life and offer numerous health, environmental and safety benefits.

Thanks to the organisers of the WSB – Jenny Henderson, Lucy Chilberto, Nikki Goldsworthy and Simon Franicevic.

                  Walking is the best possible exercise. Habituate yourself to walk very fast. Thomas Jefferson