The young Zero Heroes travelled to school via foot, bike, scooter, or public transport on Friday, July 1, with Red Kite schools participating on June 30 due to a staff training day.
St Peter’s C of E Primary School pupils met the local celebrity on the Stray before continuing their journey to the school gate with enthusiasm.
Mr Griffiths, Headteacher at St Peter’s, said: “I would like to say a huge thank you to the Harrogate Town AFC team and the Zero Carbon Walk to School event team.
“It was a pleasure to see many children and their families support our walking bus from the Stray to school in the company of Harry Gator.
“The numbers supporting this event goes to show how much our children and their families support this important initiative and are doing all they can to find sustainable and healthy ways to travel to school.”
Tom Blackburn, PE and School Sport Manager at Harrogate Town AFC Community Foundation, added: “The turnout from all of the pupils, parents and staff from St Peters C of E Primary School was fantastic to see. It is really important we all keep raising awareness regarding the impact of carbon emissions on our local environment to the next generation.”
The event, which is sponsored by Your Harrogate and backed by Harrogate Borough Council and the Harrogate District Climate Change Coalition, has seen 57 schools participate over the past 12 months.
The initiative is organised by volunteer-led charity Zero Carbon Harrogate with the aim of incentivising sustainable travel.
Car-sharing is also welcomed, and a ‘park and stride’ option sees families parking further from the school gate than usual and then walking the rest of the journey.
Sarah Bissett, event coordinator at Zero Carbon Harrogate, said: “We want to thank every young person, family and school who has participated in Walk to School Day and helped to make the initiative such a success over these past 12-months. Every mile covered by sustainable transport methods really does count so we hope our area’s Zero Heroes are proud of their efforts. We now hope to continue the fight against transport emissions over the next school year. Our goal is to not only increase the number of schools joining in but to normalise sustainable transport methods beyond event days.”
The district’s primary school winners were Willow Tree Community Primary School with an outstanding 91% of pupils taking part. Holy Trinity CofE Infant and Junior Schools was runner-up with a commendable 84% , and St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School was the most improved school, seeing a fantastic 18%
increase in uptake.
Walk to School Day will return on Friday, October 7.
