Supporting School Streets in Whalley Range

Over the last year, Walk Ride Whalley Range has been supporting schools in Whalley Range to find ways to reduce traffic outside the school gates as well as encourage parents and carers to walk, wheel or cycle to school, where they are able. This film shows our experience of supporting a School Street in Whalley Range, Manchester.

Both Manley Park Primary School (MPPS) and Our Lady’s RC Primary are part of the TfGM funded school street pilot, with MPPS running their School Street since January 2023 and Our Lady’s since April 2023.  

Ad hoc School Streets also take place at St Margarets CoE Primary and William Hulme’s Grammar School. We have supported all of these schools to get their School Streets up and running, helping them with the resources and confidence to run them independently.

We also developed training for School Street volunteers on behalf of Manchester City Council. You can watch the School Streets Marshall Training here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwKPCNFGK6g

Manley Park Primary School, Whalley Range

Since the MPPS School Street began, Walk Ride Whalley Range has organised the rota for volunteer marshalling, managing to cover the majority of mornings and afternoons.

We are there through rain and shine:

Seeing a School Street in action is a joy:

Harry made a short film:

We’ve carried out a bit of guerrilla action to make things more colourful:

 

Where we can, we encourage our local councillors to get involved:

We even had a visit from Dame Sarah Storey, who is the Active Travel Commissioner for Greater Manchester:

Volunteers can sometimes find enforcing the School Street is stressful and can be dangerous. We often have cars and sometime motorbikes mounting the pavement to get round the barriers:

However, doing a School Street can lead to behaviour changes:

But it’s not enough on its own without a comprehensive Active Travel plan for the school. From the data we are collecting about how children have travelled to school, there has not been a huge shift from those that are driven to walking, wheeling or cycling.

St Margarets Primary School, Whalley Range

St Margarets are restricted on the number of School Streets they can hold to 6 per year. We support them whenever we can:

They have now started to pilot their parent-led Walking Buses on their School Street days, leaving from 3 different locations to enable children and parents to walk together safely to school.

William Hulme’s Grammar School, Whalley Range

We have support WHGS to hold a number of ad hoc School Streets over the last year as well as getting involved with the TfGM funded Young Travel Ambassadors Programme:

 

Triple School Street Day

May 17th 2023 was a day for celebration with 3 School Streets happening on the same day in the same ward in Whalley Range, Manchester. This included Manley Park Primary School, Our Lady’s Primary School and St Margaret’s Primary School.

Walking buses and Bike trains

We have worked with parents at Manley Park Primary School to apply for active travel. They have now undertaken cycle leader training, with their first regular Bike Train which started  in June.