Trading sleigh bells for bike bells

Date Added: 03/12/2019

Our lower and primary school pupils are taking part in a Christmas challenge by counting up their walking, scooting and cycling journeys to school to see if they can travel virtually to visit Santa in Lapland.

We organise the challenge in partnership with sustainable transport charity Sustrans. It will take place between Monday 2 December and Friday 13 December and aims to decrease the number of cars used on the school run.

Almost 40 schools have already signed up to take part in this year’s challenge, which also gives pupils the opportunity to learn about the towns, cities, cultures and Christmas traditions of the countries they visit along the way.

Using a record card, pupils and their teachers will monitor active travel trips to school. All journeys will then be combined with the goal of achieving 2,000 miles, the equivalent distance from Central Bedfordshire to Lapland. One lucky child will be drawn at random to win a brand-new lightweight Frog bike.

The challenge has been running for six years now and every year there has been an increase in the number of schools taking part. During the challenge last year, 1,789 pupils in Central Bedfordshire completed all 10-days of the challenge, with schools collectively travelling 99,370 active travel miles, which is the equivalent of over four times around the world.