Walk to School Week - 2025

Dated: 19 May, 2025

This year’s Walk to School Week challenge has children taking on ‘The Great Space Walk,’ encouraging more young people to opt to walking rather than travelling by car. With more children likely to be on the streets on foot, riding scooters or cycling during school hours, drivers need to make sure they give driving 100% of their concentration to keep everybody safe.

Figures from 2023 identified that there were 19,263 pedestrian, and 14,999 cyclist casualties on British roads, so drivers should take care, especially around schools this week.

Be aware that pedestrians can be unpredictable, especially young ones. Children are especially hard to see. Take extra care when reversing and when traveling along roads where there are many parked cars.

More children may also travel on scooters this week, be careful around them as they may be going at a speed that is too fast for them to stop in time.

Be considerate of vulnerable road users, and follow the rules of the road.

When approaching any pedestrian or zebra crossing be prepared to slow down and stop.

Children are more likely to move quickly and run into the road from nowhere. Pre-adolescent children won't have developed the ability to judge speed accurately and may think they have plenty of time to cross the road when they do not.

Children can be unpredictable and may only focus on what they are doing.

Remain alert even in stationary traffic. Both pedestrians and cyclists may walk and ride through queues of traffic, potentially hidden by your blind spots.

Younger cyclists may not be as skilled, allow them extra time and room should they begin to struggle or fall off.

Be extra careful around children that are cycling.

Indicate in good time before a junction, or when changing lanes. This ensures all other road users know your intentions - and have time to make any adjustments.