Cornwall County Council School Travel Strategy

Cornwall County Council School Travel Strategy

• 1 Foreword

• 1 Scope of this Strategy
• 2 Introduction
• 3 Specific Objectives of this Strategy
• 4 Background
• 5 The Future of School Travel Plans in Cornwall
• 6 Implementing a Successful Strategy
• 7 Examples of Good Practice
• 8 Targets

• 1 Appendices

5 The Future of School Travel Plans in Cornwall

 From 2006, the School Travel Plan Team will fulfil two distinct functions:

1. Assisting as many new schools as possible to develop School Travel Plans to TTSI standards
2. Assisting schools with STP's to achieve modal shift

1. Assisting new schools to develop School Travel Plans to TTSI standards

In order to achieve our target of successfully supporting 40 schools per year with developing new STPs (in addition to monitoring, reviewing and further supporting existing STPs) we are streamlining our approach to data collection. In keeping with TTSI we are now placing more emphasis on school participation and development of STPs in school. Even more emphasis will now be on schools to take ownership of their own STP's in terms of collecting and analysing their own data and writing their own reports. This process will begin each summer term with the new round of schools being invited to an STP training day where the whole process, expectations and responsibilities will be explained. After this, advice and support is offered by a named STP Officer from our team as and when necessary. The first of these took place in June 2006 and proved very successful. It was also most useful as a consultation exercise and gave us reassurance that our new strategy was correct. A number of points raised also enabled us to modify some of our proposals.

Data collection and STP writing

The STP Team will offer a number of methods to schools to collect and analyse travel to school data themselves (rather than relying on our team to undertake this). These methods include:

• A CD-Rom of activities to be used in school with associated maps and lesson plans developed and provided free of charge by the STP Team. This allows data of unsafe areas to be discussed and collected through a classroom activity and the preferred modes of travel to be collected through a ‘hands up survey’.
• A paper survey template which can be used, or amended to the school’s needs, and filled in by younger pupils, staff and / or parents . This allows data to be collected by those unable to undertake a classroom activity.
• An Access template for data analysis of large data sets. This allows schools working with a large population to manage their data and create a report more easily
• Updating travel to school data on SIMS (School Information Management System) with the support of our Travel Awareness Survey Officer

Having collected and analysed the relevant data, schools will then be in a position to write an informed Travel Plan with realistic targets and objectives based on their own unique situation. A template is provided by the STP Team which can be used, or amended as the individual school requires. The STP Team provide advice and support throughout this process.

Once the STP has been signed off (by the Head teacher, Chair of Governors, School Council Representative, and CCC officials) the STP is rigorously checked by the STP Team to ensure it meets the TTSI criteria. If it does not, it is returned to the school so that they can amend their plans to the necessary standard.

The data gained from these exercises acts as baseline data for the STP Team to compare future data against and assess the success of schemes. Schools are required to provide the STP Team with travel to school data once a year, through SIMS at the annual School Census. This can be supplemented with information obtained by schools during Walk to Schools Weeks in May and October. All schools with STPs are strongly encouraged to participate in Walk to School Week and provide this data in order monitor seasonal variation. However, in line with the latest guidance, schools are made aware that this is not a mandatory requirement. For details on how data has been collected to date and actual data please refer to section 6.1.5 and Appendix 3. In view of the requirement for authorities to provide data for at least 50% of non STP schools - Cornwall has decided to request all schools to complete school travel fields in time for the School Census 2007.

2. Assisting schools with STP's to achieve modal shift

Principal Schools for Sustainable Travel (PSST)

There are 281 schools in Cornwall.  As of summer 2006, 124 of these have a School Travel Plan and associated grant awarded (see Appendix 5 for a full list).  By 2010 it is planned that all schools in the County will have a School Travel Plan. However, it is clear that they will not all  contribute equally to modal shift, because:

• Some schools cannot be persuaded to.
• Some schools will not be able to,
• Some very small schools, even if they are ‘willing and able,’ their contribution will be negligible when measured as a percentage of the whole.

As a result of this, the STP Strategy has prioritised work with 52 schools in terms of the following:

• Location, particularly with respect to LTP2s ‘main’ towns
• Potential for modal shift
• Potential for working with other schools in a cluster
• Potential for taking advantage of existing or proposed infrastructural improvements funded through SRTS or other.
• Road Casualty data

These 52 schools are categorised as Cornwall's  Principal Schools for Sustainable Travel (PSST). (It should be mentioned that, though these schools will be prioritised, other schools will also receive assistance with initiatives such as Walk to School Week etc.)

In May 2005 these schools (as listed in figure 2) met for the first time to share experiences and learn more about the specific support our STP Team could offer in further enhancing their Travel Plan aims and targets. These schools will participate in a programme of governor meetings/talks, educational activities and special initiatives, both individually and as clusters. Principal Schools will be monitored closely for each of the 5 years of the LTP and be contacted regularly to assess progress, support required and success of LTP2 targets.

Although there are only 52 Principal Schools, out of 281 schools in Cornwall, they represent a significant percentage of pupils (44%) and, perhaps more crucially, are located in the areas of most congestion and with the greatest potential for modal shift. Because of this we have committted to a separate Local Target for these schools of 5% decrease in pupils travelling to school over the course of LTP 2. (see also section 8, Targets)

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