The TravelSmart Sunshine Coast Schools program is a fun and engaging program to get more families walking, cycling, using public transport and carpooling to school.  TravelSmart Sunshine Coast works closely with each school to develop a Green Travel Plan full of activities and initiatives to encourage greater use of sustainable transport options to school. The program is currently underway in ten local schools with more on the horizon for 2012.

The current TravelSmart Sunshine Coast schools are:

Buderim Mountain State School Chancellor State College Coolum State School Cooroy State School Currimundi State School Good Shepherd Lutheran College Kawana Waters State College Noosaville State School Pacific Lutheran College Pacific Paradise State School St Andrews Anglican College St Thomas More Primary School Sunshine Beach State School Talara Primary College Tewantin State School

Axel & Bell go cycling

 Why a Schools Program ?

Traffic around schools is one of the main causes of congestion. If more families were able to walk, cycle or carpool with their children, there would be less traffic around the school gate making it safer for everyone. 

Schools which participate in a TravelSmart program see the following benefits:

• Reduction in traffic congestion and parking problems around the school gate.
• Reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.
• Increase in health and fitness for students who walk or cycle to school.
• Increase in social interaction for families who carpool, walk or cycle with their children to school.

TravelSmart Sunshine Coast School Activities

A few of the TravelSmart Sunshine Coast Schools activities are listed below:

TravelSmart Stars Classroom Challenge
Students are encouraged to TravelSmart to school and the class with the highest percentage of students walking, cycling, car pooling and catching the bus to school wins a healthy lunch.
"Class 76S from Sunshine Beach State School were champions with 99% TravelSmart Stars in their 2010 challenge - wow!"

Cycle Skills Training
Students are taught basic bike handling skills and safe practices for riding on cycle paths during a 3hr program run by accredited Cycle Skills coaches. Cycle Skills training helps boost students confidence and skills for safely riding a bicycle.

Hands Up! Surveys
Students put their hand up if they walked, cycled, used public transport, carpooled or were driven to school. The class with the highest number of TravelSmart students wins a small prize. These surveys are a quick and easy way to monitor travel behaviour change at the school.

Park and Walk/Ride days
Families are encouraged to park the car a short distance away from the school gate and walk/ride to school with their children. TravelSmart Sunshine Coast identifies three or four specific locations to meet and everyone enjoys a pleasant walk/ride together.

TravelSmART Calendar Competition
Students are encouraged to get creative by designing a poster showing what TravelSmart means to them. There were over 500 excellent entries for the 2011 calendar comp. The Prep to 3 winner was Bou Sissons, age 6, from Currimundi State School and the Years 4 to 7 winner was Joel Tobin, age 10, from Good Shepherd Lutheran College. Their beautiful pictures are now on the covers of the 2011 TravelSmart Sunshine Coast calendars. You can download each calendar by clicking on the image below.
(note: each downland is 5MB)

Artwork from P-3 winner Bou Sissons	Artwork from Years 4-7 winner Joel Tobin

Past activities

TravelSmart song competition
In June 2007, budding music composers at St Thomas More School participated in the TravelSmart Music Competition.  The competition was open to solo artists and small groups to create, compose and perform a TravelSmart jingle, reflecting what TravelSmart is about. 

Click here to listen to the winning entries

Resources

TravelSmart Sunshine Coast has compiled some great resources for parents and children to assist in raising awareness of sustaonable transport. Visit the Schools Resources page to access this information.