Free travel tracker on offer to Shropshire primary schools

School pupils using the travel tracker

Shropshire primary schools are being invited to apply for a special travel tracker to help  increase the number of pupils that walk or wheel to school.

Thanks to funding from Active Travel England, the Living Streets WOW Travel Trackers are available to all primary schools in the Shropshire Council area from September 2025.

The travel trackers enable children to digitally log how they travel to school each day, with a reward of monthly badges and a trophy for class winners.

Last year 17 schools became the first in the county to use a tracker and all have reported an increase in the number of pupils walking, cycling or scooting to school.

Heather Kidd, Leader-elect of Shropshire Council, said:

“Walking or wheeling to school is a great way for children to keep fit and stay healthy. Research has shown that travelling to school by active means is linked to improved mood and concentration. It also helps to reduce the number of vehicles on the roads near schools, so helps to keep children safe too. It’s win-win.

“The latest figures show that in the schools using the travel tracker the number of journeys to school using active travel rose by more than 23% between January and March 2025.. In the same period, the number of journeys to school by car fell by the same amount.

“We’ve seen that the scheme is really popular with the children. This is a simple and effective way this is to encourage more children to walk, cycle or scoot to school, and I encourage primary schools to contact the council to request one.”

The Head of West Felton Primary said:

“The travel tracker has also helped with our community relations, as we can show residents that complain about parking outside the school that this is one way we are demonstrating that we are encouraging our children to walk/wheel to school.”

Any primary school that wishes to use Living Streets Wow Travel Trackers to increase their walking and wheeling to school should contact [email protected] for more information by 18 June 2025.

How the Living Streets Wow Travel Trackers works

By recording all modes of travel, the WOW Travel Tracker is a comprehensive method of gaining valuable insights into school travel habits at schools, local authorities or academy trust level.

The system can be used on classroom interactive whiteboards, PCs and iPads for pupils and teachers to input their journeys each day.

The WOW Travel Tracker uses icons instead of pupil’s names, but classrooms have the option to display name tags should they wish to. At the end of the month pupils who have walked (wheeling, cycling, scooting and Park and Stride count too) to school at least once per week for a whole month can receive their WOW badge.

We support pupils with special educational needs and disabilities to enjoy walking, including travel by wheelchair or mobility scooter. Our ‘Walk/ Wheel’ icon on Travel Tracker counts as an active journey. This icon includes pupils walking with the use of mobility aids, including wheelchairs or wheeled walkers.