How Healthy is Your School Run?

As our family inches towards a new life-stage with a school-aged child, I find myself preoccupied with questions that will determine the school we choose to send (or at least attempt to send) our children. It is only now that I’ve reached this life-stage that I can truly appreciate why people choose neighborhoods on the basis of nearby schools and the debates surrounding public, private and home school education.

Although a school’s reputation is at the forefront of my mind, I’m equally conscious of wanting our school to be within walking distance from home.

There are numerous health benefits associated with walking or cycling to school. In a study investigating active travel, Dr Georgina Trapp and colleagues cite research that suggests walking to school has been associated with higher overall levels of physical activity.¹ Furthermore, children who undertake regular physical activity are less likely to develop risk factors for chronic disease, and more likely to experience better mental health and remain active into adulthood.¹

Given rising childhood obesity levels are partly attributed to declining levels of physical activity and an increase in sedentary screen-based activities,² walking to school can provide an opportunity to incorporate incidental exercise into a child’s day while also discouraging a reliance on motor vehicles.

Connecting with neighbors and making local friends is another potential benefit of attending a nearby school. As someone who did not attend a local high school, I remember visits with school friends as day-long events that required hours of public transport. Although I made local friends through avenues outside of school, I often wished I lived closer to my schoolmates. Walking to school may even assist in friendship formation, with studies of adults showing that people who walk frequently within their neighborhood have more unplanned interactions with neighbors.³

Of course, for many people, the social and health benefits of walking to school cannot counteract parents’ time limitations and safety concerns. Both parents and children have identified traffic safety and fear of crime as barriers to children walking to school.¹ While these are particularly common concerns for younger children, another benefit of having local school friends is that older children can walk together and feel somewhat safer in the process.

As a working mother, I am also conscious that mothers’ employment status, car ownership and whether or not parents drive to work can influence their child’s mode of transport.^1,4 Similarly, activities performed before or after school can act as barriers to walking. For this reason, Dr Trapp and colleagues suggest that planners co-locate schools with after-school facilities (such as community centers or libraries) to increase the likelihood of walking and reduce demands on parents’ time.¹

Personally, I love the idea of the Walking School Bus, an initiative run in countries such as the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. As the name suggests, the Walking School Bus acts like a bus, picking up children at designated locations. One parent leads the walking group while another supervises at the rear. Notably however, this is not an option available to everyone as it generally relies on the interest and involvement of parents.

And so my investigation into nearby schools continues. While choosing the right school can feel like a weighty responsibility, I’m also conscious that my children’s outcomes will be largely influenced by their home environment, and that even the most reputable school may not suit their individual needs.

Wish us luck as we begin our school journey!

References

1. Trapp GS, Giles-Corti B, Christian HE, Bulsara MK, Timperio AF, McCormack GR, Villanueva KP. Increasing Children’s Physical Activity: Individual, Social, and Environmental Factors Associated With Walking to and From School. Health Education & Behavior. 2012; 39:172-182.
2. Prentice-Dunn H, Prentice-Dunn S. Physical activity, sedentary behavior, and childhood obesity: a review of cross-sectional studies. Psychology, Health and Medicine. 2012; 17(3): 255-73.
3. Lund H. Testing the claims of new urbanism: local access, pedestrian travel, and neighboring behaviors. Journal of the American Planning Association. 2003; 69(4):414–429.
4. DiGuiseppi C, Roberts I, Li L, Allen D. Determinants of car travel on daily journeys to school: Cross sectional survey of primary school children. British Medical Journal. 1998; 316(7142):1426.