Ealing Council's school travel team has won a Team Modeshift National Travel Award for A Breath of Fresh Air, its air quality lessons for Year 2 pupils in nearly 20 schools.

Ealing Council’s school travel team has won a national award for teaching young children about air pollution. Its programme, A Breath of Fresh Air, took the Education Engagement Project of the Year award for projects working across several schools.

The Team Modeshift National Travel Awards were presented at the National Modeshift Convention, held at Old Trafford in Manchester on 11 and 12 November. Modeshift is a national membership organisation for people who work on sustainable travel.

What the programme does

Modeshift’s citation describes A Breath of Fresh Air as an air quality programme for Year 2 pupils, aged six and seven. The children:

  • make pollution catchers
  • investigate particulate matter, the tiny particles in polluted air
  • learn what causes air pollution and how it affects health
  • learn how walking and wheeling to school can help

Modeshift says the lessons have been delivered in nearly 20 schools, with “consistently positive feedback”. The programme now uses real-time readings from local air quality monitors. Modeshift says there are plans to reach more schools and to help teachers run the sessions themselves.

Who else was in the running

Four other projects were finalists in the same category, according to Modeshift’s finalists list:

  • Living Streets, for its Walk to School Outreach programme
  • Sheffield City Council’s school engagement team, with PWLC Projects
  • Hampshire County Council, for Transition Time
  • Stoke-on-Trent City Council, for Santa, Bunny and the Frog

The same team’s other work this autumn

The school travel team also ran the children’s stage of the council’s new kerbside strategy. More than 1,400 pupils from 24 schools shared ideas for their streets. Their answers shaped the questions in the Your Street, Your Space survey, which is open to adults until 20 December.

What it means for you

If your child is at an Ealing primary school, the programme is offered to schools through the council’s school travel team, so ask the school whether it takes part. Modeshift says the team plans to bring it to more schools.

If you have a view on how your own street is used, the same team’s work with children has fed into the council’s kerbside survey, open until 20 December.

Sources