Pupils in Aberdeen were joined by special guests on Monday to celebrate the strides they have been making to get more active on the school run and to launch the search for the UK’s best young designers.
Cllr Malik, the Education Convener joined pupils from St Joseph’s Catholic RC Primary School in Aberdeen to hear first-hand the benefits they have experienced from walking to school.
St Joseph’s RC Primary School takes part in WOW – the walk to school challenge from Living Streets Scotland, part of the UK charity for everyday walking.
WOW is a pupil-led initiative where children self-report how they get to school every day using the interactive WOW Travel Tracker. Pupils who walk, wheel, cycle or scoot at least once a week for a month are rewarded with a badge.
Cllr Malik joined Living Streets’ mascot, Strider, to hand out WOW badges to pupils who had travelled actively this month.
Councillor M Tauqeer Malik, Aberdeen City Council’s Education Operational Delivery Convener, said: “It is wonderful to be here today to celebrate the great work that the St Joseph’s pupils and staff are doing in partnership with Living Streets and which really ties in with our priorities as a Council.
“The health and wellbeing of our children and young people is at the heart of everything we do as can be seen from our progress towards becoming a Unicef -recognised Child Friendly City and last year’s unprecedented Summer of Play which saw us provide over 15000 free bookable activity sessions as we celebrated coming out of lockdown.
“Congratulations to everyone involved in making St Joseph’s an even healthier and happier school”.
The school event also marked the launch of Living Streets’ WOW Badge Design Competition 2022. The charity is on the hunt for the UK’s best young designers and is asking children to design the 11 badges to be awarded to pupils next academic year. This year’s theme is ‘Walk Through Time’.
Chris Thompson, School Manager, Living Streets Scotland said: “From Aberdeen to Aberystwyth, the hunt is on for the UK’s best young designers. Winners will have the pride of seeing their creations worn by pupils across Scotland, England and Wales.
“We’re encouraging pupils to stretch their imaginations and depict something from the past that they find really interesting and inspiring. This is an opportunity for originality and diversity to shine.”
To find out more about the WOW Badge Design Competition and how to enter, visit: livingstreets.org.uk/badgecomp2022