Changeover of school staff can lead to a drop off in engagement over time, but it can also present an opportunity for new contact. This blog looks at how a rural Ceredigion school benefitted from coming back into the Active Journeys programme, funded by Welsh Government.
Rejoining the Active Journeys programme has helped spark a shift in how pupils travel to school. Credit: Sustrans.
Ysgol Penrhyn-coch, based in Ceredigion, recently rejoined the Welsh Government-funded Active Journeys programme and is now reaping the rewards.
The school had been on the programme before, with varying levels of success, but now has a new enthusiasm for the programme and there is a buzz for active travel in the area.
Starting fresh with a new beginning
Ysgol Penrhyn-coch is situated in a large village which has 20mph speed limits in place, and a choice of safe routes and crossing points.
Some children come from the wider rural area, but many live within the village itself.
Thanks to this, it has always had the capacity for behaviour change, it just needed someone to be the driving force – enter the new Active Travel Champion.
A lot of the success of the Active Journeys programme hinges on the energy of a school’s Active Travel Champion – a staff member who acts as the go-between the school and Sustrans.
If a school has a staff champion who is keen, proactive and enthusiastic, you can really start to see results.
New energy leading to a renewed appetite for change
The school re-engaged in the spring of 2024 and by the end of the summer term, the Active Journeys Officer had delivered scooter skills sessions and safer routes lessons to the entire school.
This academic year, the school has held a Dr Bike day with a local bike mechanic, there’s been cycle skills sessions at the upper school, and a Friday scooter club run by a combination of older pupils and staff has been started too.
Every week, the bike shelters are bursting at the seams with scooters, most of which have been ridden to school.
40% - 60%
Ysgol Penrhyn-coch's daily active journeys recorded on Tali Teithio
A new enthusiasm for travelling actively that’s creating results
“As an Eco school, we encourage our pupils to walk, cycle or scoot to school if it’s convenient to do so,” the school says on its website.
“A secure place is provided to keep bicycles and scooters on the school grounds.”
Infrastructure and an attitude for change can help create sustainable and long-lasting behaviour change, as evidenced by the school’s Big Walk and Wheel results.
During Big Walk and Wheel 2025, the school achieved nearly 60% active travel across the two weeks of the challenge.
That momentum has continued, with the school logging between 40% and 60% of journeys to school made actively on Tali Teithio, the journey tracker, every day.
Ysgol Penrhyn-coch’s staff champion also leads a ‘park and ride’ when she can, cycling the last few miles to the school with her own children, leading by example despite the barrier of distance.
With all of this renewed energy and appetite for healthier journeys to school, Ysgol Penrhyn-coch are on track to receive their Silver Active Travel School Award in June.
