Walking school bus

Coordinators' guide

Full print version: The walking school bus (PDF, 636 KB, 24 pages)

3. Getting started

As with all new initiatives, somebody has to take the lead in getting things started. In your school community, it could be a parent, teacher, principal, school board trustee or the local road safety coordinator.

Whoever makes the first move, their key role is to enlist support. If you're a parent, talk to your school's principal and your local council's road safety coordinator about the idea. If you're a teacher, you'll need to enthuse and involve parents from the beginning to get their support before you can set up a successful walking school bus. A partnership between the school, parents and the local council makes the set-up process easier.

The approach that will work best for your school will depend on the level of support in your community.

Ways to set up walking school buses

1. Neighbourhood

Find a group of families living close to each other and work with them to organise a walking school bus. Hopefully, other families will see the idea in action, think it's great and start up their own bus.

2. Meeting

Organise a meeting, advertised in the school newsletter, for families who might be interested in joining. At the meeting, sort out potential routes, schedules and volunteer drivers using the forms provided with this booklet. Your nearest Land Transport NZ regional office can provide you with an electronic version. See our website for more details.

A different approach may be needed if your school has many people for whom English is not a first language. Talking to people at the school gate, using word of mouth to spread the news or translating notices into different languages may work better than the usual written communications, newsletters or meetings.

3. Network

Survey the school community to gauge interest.

Sort the responses into potential routes.

Organise a meeting so families on each potential route can meet and set the schedule, driver roster and bus coordinator. New people wanting to join the walking school bus should contact the bus coordinator who will respond to any queries about how the walking school bus operates in their neighbourhood.

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Page created: 8 July 2008