Active School Travel – School Case Studies
About the case studies
Active travel means getting around using your own body, including walking, using a wheelchair, or scooter or riding a bike.
Active Travel England (ATE) has asked the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) to evaluate ways to help children travel actively to school.
The research will focus on a small number of primary schools (‘case studies’) to explore how initiatives that support active school travel, like Bikeability, the WOW Walk to School Challenge and School Streets, have been implemented. We will also look at what makes active school travel successful, what challenges schools face, and how improvements can be made. Your input will help shape future policies and programmes that encourage healthier, safer, and more sustainable travel for children.
We are inviting parents/carers, school staff, and local stakeholders to take part in a short interview about experiences of children’s travel behavior and attitudes. We will also be analysing any available active school travel data (e.g. school travel plans, monitoring information).
Information for school staff and delivery staff
Your school has been invited to take part in an important government evaluation on active school travel. As part of each case study, we would like to carry out the following activities:
- School staff interviews: We will carry out a small number of interviews with school staff (e.g. school leaders, governors, or staff delivering activities). The interviews will last around 30 minutes and can take place during our school visit or online at a day of interviewees’ choosing. Participation is voluntary.
- Observation of the environment around the school: During our visit to the school, the researcher will carry out a light-touch observation at the end of the school day to understand how pupils travel, what the surrounding streets look like, and how the local context shapes travel choices. This is not an inspection.
- Delivery staff and stakeholder interviews: As well as interviewing school staff, we’ll aim to conduct online interviews with those involved in delivering active school travel interventions at the school and with local stakeholders supporting schools with the agenda, such as local authority officers.
Information for parents
Your child’s school has been selected to take part in an important government evaluation on active school travel. As part of this research, we want to speak to parents and carers about their experiences, and their children’s experiences of travelling to school.
The interview will last 30 minutes and will cover the following topics:
- How children usually travel to school and the reasons for their preferred approach
- What helps or makes it hard to walk, wheel or cycle
- Your experiences of any active travel initiatives or activities (e.g., Bikeability, School Streets)
Taking part is voluntary. All parents who take part in an interview will receive a £40 shopping voucher as a thank you for taking part.
Who is carrying out the case studies?
NatCen is an independent organisation that carries out research studies to find out about what people think, feel and do. This information is used by the government and others to make better decisions and policies. You can find out more about NatCen on natcen.ac.uk.
Sheffield Hallam University is a public research university that will be working alongside NatCen throughout the evaluation.
What will happen to the information I give?
The information collected in this evaluation will only be used for this evaluation.
No pupil, school or parent or carer will be named or identified in any reports from this research. Individual comments or insights will never be attributed to you personally.
The information you give will be treated as confidential, as directed by the Code of Practice for Statistics. Data collected will be stored securely on the NatCen computer in line with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) 2018. Only the NatCen research team will have access to the data in its raw and aggregate form.
You can read more about how we collect, share, and store data, and how you can withdraw from the evaluation, in the project’s privacy notice.
NatCen will permanently delete any personal details within 12 months after the final stage of the evaluation project (no later than December 2027).