Writing a School Travel Plan need not be a difficult or time-consuming process.
The best Travel Plans are those that are completed in partnership with teachers, parents, guardians, pupils and the local community – this allows the effort to be shared and the potential for positive results to be maximised.
As a guide, we would recommend that you follow the 10 steps below – this will ensure that your Travel Plan is successful and approved by TfL. Click on the links for further information on each step, or use the tabs above.
- Inform governors and staff of the School Travel Plan and its objectives. Appoint your School Travel Plan ‘Champion’.
- Write Introduction and brief description of school to start Travel Plan.This includes information about you site and school ethos (see STP Intro section).
- Inform students and parents through a newsletter/assembly etc. Decide on membership of a Steering Group to lead on producing the plan and organise termly meetings to monitor progress.
- Establish links with the curriculum – e.g. PSHE, geography, citizenship etc. Also with any Healthy or Eco Schools work you are doing.
- Complete your whole school travel Survey in order to get an idea of the travel patterns affecting your school. You must survey a representative sample of your pupils, their parents and the staff. You may also want to conduct further surveys – for example route mapping, traffic counts, local resident surveys etc.
- Present your evidence at an initial Consultation meeting(s) with the Steering Group and any other stakeholders that are involved with the problems you have identified and maybe effected by your recommendations – for example:
- Council officers – School Travel Advisor (STA) or traffic engineers for example;
- Residents association;
- Local landowners;
- Councillor;
- Transport operators.
- Develop your Action Plan:
- Propose the overall aims of your STP; ·
- Set out the initiatives that will help you achieve these; ·
- Detail the targets you have chosen to measure your success.
- Set out how and when you plan to monitor and review the progress of your plan.
- Submit your Travel Plan to the School Travel Advisor at the
council (subject to approval by Assistant Director of Street Management and CS&LL). - Travel Plan to form part of School Development/Improvement Plan and be explained in School’s Prospectus. Promote the plan throughout the year!
