HPS Park and Walk Initiative

At Harrisdale Primary School we want to to improve the health and positive wellbeing of all of our students, whether they are in Kindy, Year 6 or the in between. In order to do this we have implemented a Park and Walk Scheme. This is an initiative that links in with the Your Move Activities and works successfully for HPS as we are a local intake school with over 1000 students.

First, we conducted a survey to ask parents how important they thought being healthy and partaking in physical activity was for them and their children. From here, we found that parents would be more inclined to walk to school with their children. We decided that we could aid this process through initiating a Park and Walk.

We kicked off the Park and Walk on Monday with the assistance of the Heron Park Satterley office. They provided free coffees, hot chocolates and fresh fruit to all participants who parked at their office during the first week. We had a significant amount of parents come through and leave with not only a free coffee in hand, but also a grin on their faces.

The average drive to and from school releases approximately 800g of CO2 into the air, which is enough to inflate 60 balloons! Walking to and from school on the other hand reaps many benefits that ensure students are ready and raring to begin their big day of learning.

Satterley have allowed us to utilise their car park from now on for parents to park and walk to school with their children. Who could say no to that when the walk is only 800 metres! We will continue to promote the Park and Walk Scheme and hope that more people from our school community utilise the car park throughout the rest of the year.