NHEHS Achieves Gold TfL Stars Award
We were delighted to receive our Gold TfL Stars award earlier this year and are now among the top 10% of London schools that have fulfilled the criteria of setting high standards to inspire others to transform travel habits, fully engage the wider community to promote best practices, and see a measurable reduction in the number of journeys made by car every day.
In addition to this, Mrs Henry, our Facilities Manager, was nominated for a Top Schools Award under the ‘Top Influencer’ category by Ealing Council for the work that she has done since 2018 in support of us getting this award.
This was Ealing Council’s nomination:
Bella Henry, Notting Hill and Ealing High School
“As part of the school’s building development programme they had produced a travel plan that required them to ensure sustainable transport was used as much as possible.
In 2018/19 Bella worked with the school’s Director of Finance and Operations to trial the use of mini-buses to transport some of the girls to and from school, form Central London. This helped to reduce the number of journeys made by private car.
They started this route with a 25 seater and had to increase to a 50 seater coach due to the high demand for places.
In September 2020 they conducted a survey to determine the level of interest for an additional bus route, from South West London. Once again this started as a 25 seater mini-bus and has increased to 50 seater coach. Another mini-bus provides transport for girls living in the Harrow area.
Very few girls travelled by bus prior to the introduction of this initiative. Survey data for 2012/13 shows 527 (55%) pupils travelled by car and 97 (10%) travelled by bus. The school now has 146 (16%) of pupils travelling by bus and only 249 (28%) by car.
Pupils across the whole school use the bus, from Reception up to Sixth Form. The school ensure staff are available to meet the young children and escort them into school. It has become a preferred method of transport for many girls and their parents are happy for them to travel independently. This has helped to develop their independent travel skills and could influence their travel behaviour throughout their school life and beyond.”
To achieve the Gold Award, we took part in a number of activities to promote active travel at school in 2022-23, including carrying out audits and research on pupils’ and staff travel choices at school, getting students involved in encouraging others to travel on foot, or by bike or by public transport, a toad safety assembly for Junior School (KS2) as well as communications with parents/carers around safe driving. We are very keen to maintain our Gold Award and to do so we will have to complete 10 further activities towards it in 2023, starting with our “Walk to School Week” at Senior School after half term, while the Junior School held their own very successful week last week (see below). Thanks to Mrs Henry’s award nomination by Ealing Council, Miss Cassar and the Year 6 Eco Councillors were able to attend the Livestream Event for the TfL STARS Top Schools Awards earlier this week. In addition, as part of achieving the award, we have been given some funding by TfL which we hope to use on additional bike storage at school.
Miss Lindsay said, “it has been absolutely fantastic to finally receive the TfL Gold award after many years working towards achieving it. So many people have been involved in this with Eco Reps from Year 10-13 and students who have already left contributing to the activities that have helped us to gain the award! Now we will be working to maintain the award and continue in the success that has been achieved. Thank you so much to all the students who have engaged with the award and for their passion for promoting a more active and sustainable school!”
This is a fantastic achievement with initiatives dating back over five years, so it is wonderful to finally receive the award. Congratulations to all our Eco Reps, past and present and Mrs Henry, Miss Lindsay, Mr Piesse and Miss Cassar.
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