Belmayne students scoot to awards success 

NORTHSIDE students have been honoured for their work in promoting scooting to school. 

St Francis of Assisi National School, which is located in Belmayne, received the acknowledgement at the Green-Schools Travel Awards. 

An Taisce Green-Schools presented students and teachers with their award at the event honouring the winners of this year’s Green-Schools Big Travel Challenge 2017 at a ceremony held in the Hilton Hotel, Kilmainham. 

The event also saw the launch of National Walk to School Week 2017 which took place from May 15-19.

During February schools undertook the Big Travel Challenge, which asked them to concentrate on one sustainable transport mode for two weeks to see if they could achieve real, lasting change in the travel behaviour of their staff and students. 

The challenge is an initiative of the Green-Schools Travel theme, which is supported by the National Transport Authority (NTA) and the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport.

St Francis of Assisi National School will be awarded the Green Flag for their work on the Travel theme later this month. 

The Northside school has a population of 430 students and is located in an area of population growth and increased car traffic. 

However, through their work on the Travel theme those involved in the initiative have decreased car use by 10 per cent.

Also, they used the opportunity presented by the Big Travel Challenge to encourage more students to scoot to school, as they already enjoy large numbers of students walking and cycling. 

Their efforts for promoting this mode of transport paid off and the school saw a 300 per cent increase in the number of students scooting over the two weeks of the challenge.