Active travel - walking, wheeling, and cycling - offers a dynamic and inclusive way to support the wellbeing of young people across Scotland. It’s more than just a way to get around: it promotes health, independence, sustainability, and community connection.
Active travel makes a big difference to the lives of school children. Credit: Andy Catlin/Sustrans.
Health & Wellbeing
Daily movement strengthens the body, sharpens the mind, and reduces stress, creating happier and healthier lives for young people.
Freedom & Safety
By improving road safety and promoting independent travel, young people gain greater confidence and life skills.
Climate Action
Every active journey helps reduce traffic, improve air quality, and contribute to Scotland’s net-zero ambitions. It's a simple yet powerful way for young people to be part of the solution.
Learning for Sustainability
Encouraging active travel is a practical, visible, and inclusive way to integrate learning for sustainability and outdoor learning into everyday school life.
Walking and Cycling Index
We published our first ever Children's Walking and Cycling Index for Scotland in 2025.
The report reveals the travel behaviours, attitudes and experiences of children across Scotland aged 6 to 15.
Support & Curriculum Resources
Through engaging events and accessible resources, we provide schools and communities with the tools needed to create real opportunities for active travel. We’re here to guide, support, and inspire positive change.
Our resources will help you:
- Tackle school traffic and road safety
- Help young people thrive
- Link learning to action
- Find Career-Long Professional Learning opportunities
- Build inclusive school communities
The Big Street Survey
Designed for curious minds in P5–P6, this hands-on resource sparks investigation and imagination. Pupils explore the area around their school, uncovering what works—and what doesn’t—on their local streets.
With curiosity as their compass and teamwork at the core, they’ll research, observe, and debate to create their very own Street Manifesto. It’s a bold vision for safer, greener spaces, powered by pupil voice and a passion for change.
Find the Big Street Survey here.
The Big Spin Business Challenge
Calling all future changemakers! This imaginative course empowers S1–S3 pupils to become social entrepreneurs by designing a business that promotes active travel within their school and community.
Through hands-on projects and creative problem-solving, pupils explore how enterprise can inspire healthier lifestyles, safer streets, and stronger connections—all while sharpening their teamwork, critical thinking, and leadership skills.
Find the Big Spin Business Challenge here.
Suss It Out Activity Sheets
Suss It Out is made up of five themed sheets with 10, 20 and 30-minute simple, snappy activities to inspire active travel.
Active Travel to School Guide
Our Active Travel to School Guide is a step-by-step 6-week guide to increase walking, cycling and scootering on the school journey.
#AndSheCycles
Inspired by the Green Schools Ireland campaign of the same name, the #AndSheCycles campaign aims to encourage more teenage girls to cycle for everyday journeys.
While cycling provides clear advantages, teenage girls have reported they choose not to cycle because of negative stereotypes, a lack of role models and low levels of confidence.
The campaign is designed to create an online community for teenage girls, thereby boosting their confidence. The @and_she_cycles Instagram account empowers followers to share their experiences of cycling and relate to like-minded individuals.
Available resources include:
- Teacher and youth leader pack: We have developed an interactive workshop for teachers and youth group leaders. This will help to guide teenage girls and young women to shape and influence their own local #AndSheCycles campaign. They'll develop their own action plans to encourage more young women to cycle.
- #AndSheCycles ambassador pack: We're encouraging senior school pupils to become #AndSheCycles ambassadors. This pack contains tips on how to empower more girls to cycle in their school and ways to set up #AndSheCycles groups. Plus, there are opportunities for training and guidance on how to run or support cycle sessions. Download the pack to get started and let us know how your school ambassador gets on.
#AndSheCycles addresses the barriers faced by teenage girls and young women when cycling.
I Bike
I Bike is an innovative school project encouraging pupils to walk, wheel and cycle to school.
By empowering children, parents and teachers to travel actively, safely and confidently to school, I Bike encourages exercise and reduces traffic congestion, resulting in safer, happier and healthier communities.
Our I Bike resources include:
Air Quality Explorers & Clean Air Schools provides accessible lesson worksheets for P2-7, alongside an in-depth and comprehensive teacher's toolkit, suitable for upper and lower primary.
My Journey is a 3 part series that prompts learners to think about a journey they'd like to make. It then steps through a literacy task to write an email or postcard to someone back home, a maths task on speed/distance/time calculations for different modes of transport and a final activity to design a mode of transport.
Visit our I Bike website for more resources, including assemblies and award schemes.
Learn more about our I Bike programme here.
School Streets
A School Street is what we call it when you restrict access to certain types of vehicles to make the road outside your school a walking, wheeling, and cycling zone.
Sometimes called ‘Healthy School Streets’, ‘School Exclusion Zones’ or ‘Car-Free School Streets’, they lead to more children walking and cycling to school.
The result is a happier, safer and healthier street environment for everyone.
School Travel Planning toolkit
Our School Travel Planning toolkit has been designed based on the experiences of teachers, pupils, parents and school travel professionals across Scotland.
The toolkit includes templates, curricular links, teacher guides and case studies, and is linked to our Healthier Routes films that provide a step-by-step approach to pupils developing a school travel plan.
School travel plans can simply be a list of actions that a school agrees and commits to run as part of a whole-school approach.
Writing one should not be an onerous task and working together to put the plan into action can be fun and a great learning experience.
Many schools see their travel plan as an important component of becoming an excellent school, by supporting pupil’s health, wellbeing and safety.
Others develop School Travel Plans to address specific issues, such as a traffic problem or because of an incident, while others are working towards accreditations such as Eco-School’s Green Flag or the Cycle Friendly School Award.
Whatever the reason, the benefits of encouraging active travel are clear and a school travel plan can ensure you have a long-term vision for support at your school.
Hands Up Scotland Survey
Our Hands Up Scotland Survey has been providing an insight into journeys to school for more than a decade and is the largest national dataset on school travel.
Events
The Big Walk and Wheel
Get ready to move! The Big Walk and Wheel is the UK’s biggest annual school challenge celebrating walking, wheeling, and scootering.
Schools compete nationwide to see who can notch up the highest participation—every journey counts!
It’s all about swapping car rides for active travel, boosting wellbeing, and sparking some friendly competition.
With rewards for top-performing schools and the joy of joining a nationwide movement, it’s a celebration of small steps that lead to big change.
Find out how to get your school involved in the Sustrans Big Walk and Wheel 2025.
Sustrans Big Walk and Wheel inspires pupils to make active journeys to school, improve air quality in their neighbourhood and discover how these changes benefit their world. Credit: Michael Kelly/Sustrans.
FRideDays Bike Bus
FRideDays is our new initiative to help school children cycle to school every Friday.
If you’re thinking of setting up a bike bus for your school, then download our toolkit. It’s filled with all the information and support you’ll need to get going.
It’s great for all levels of experience, whether you’re a confident rider who’s done similar things or you’re completely new to bike buses.
We offer free training to anyone wanting to set up a FRideDays Bike Bus. And if you take our training and choose to become a Sustrans volunteer, your bike bus is automatically insured.
Mental Health Week
Children's Mental Health Week takes place between 3 - 9 February 2025.
Sustrans has put together an activity pack designed to help pupils slow down, take notice and connect to the world around them.
Download the activity pack here.
Find lesson materials for a Mindfulness Walk, alongside other health and wellbeing resources on our I Bike website.
Get in touch
Looking for support to increase active travel in your school? Get in touch with us today.
