Notre Dame students have been getting very excited about Ride2school day for a while now so it was great that the day finally arrived. Throughout the week we let parents and students know that we had arranged a meeting point at Centenary Park for students and parents to ride to school with staff. This seemed to be a big hit with more than 40 students, along with some very helpful parents, joining the convoy to school. Many thanks to the faction captains, staff and parent helpers who joined us from Centenary Park. This provided a fun and safe route to school together. Our very own Principal & School Bursar even joined us for their Friday morning walk.

Back at school, we had a group of parents and staff who had set up meeting points to greet students who chose an active mode of transport for the day. All students received a raffle ticket for our prize draw, as well as a sticker, a piece of fruit and some other prizes. Many thanks to the City of Belmont who donated the school some of the prizes on the day (bells, wristbands and helmets) as well as $50 worth of fruit. This is a very kind gesture and all of our parents and students really appreciated it. We also had some fantastic parents who organised and donated fruit to the school for the day.

With so many students choosing active travel, our bike racks were not enough to cater for all our students that we had to make an 'overflow parking' area. This is definitely a first for the school!

Throughout the day all classes completed their Active Travel Footprints, along with another Hands Up survey to see how many students chose to ride or walk to school. Below is some information regarding the survey results as well as examples of the activities completed by the classes. We also had some students also write a short paragraph about Ride2school day.

Do you ride to school? Well you should. It’s good for your body and can make you healthy. Riding to school is so much fun and it makes you more aware of what you are doing. So you should get on your bike or scoot. Lainie (6M)

Ride2School Day - We believe it's best to ride or walk to school because it gets you moving and gives you much more health and exercise than driving. You get healthier and stronger and burn a lot of calories. Walking is better for the world because when you drive you leave a carbon footprint. It also helps you get fitter everyday and we love the world so much! Mila & Daniella (4M)

At the end of the day our Year 6 Faction Captains pulled names out of the raffle box for our prize giveaway. Our top 2 prize winners received a brand new helmet, courtesy of the City of Belmont. Our next two prize winners received a brand new vortex howler. Our last 6 prize winners received either a Your Move drink bottle or a giant tap ball.

Our next step now will be reviewing the parent survey data with the Your Move committee and seeing if parents would be interested in initiatives, like a ‘Walking School Bus’. We will also look at targeting one day a week to be our main active travel day where we can roster parents and staff to assist. Well done to all involved and we look forward to continuing our focus of active travel in 2021!

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James (Your Move)

What a day Brett! And what a result - 109% increase in walking and 359% increase in cycle! That is excellent news as it means that there is a huge of amount of potential for people to change to active travel on a more regular basis. I love that you had to install on overflow bike parking area - maybe valet parking next year! You have earned 40 points for your R2SD celebration, 25 points for your Active Travel Footprint activity and an "outstanding" bonus of 20 points for all the other add-ons that made it such a festive day, including your Park & Walk and raffle.

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