Children encouraged to adopt ‘healthy walking habits’ through Welsh Government scheme

Children and young people are being encouraged to adopt healthy walking habits through schemes across Wales introduced by the Welsh Government.

The organisation Living Streets has delivered a travel tracker with a reward system to encourage children to travel to school by active and sustainable travel.

Between 2023 and 2025 the organisation worked with over 55,800 pupils in 189 primary schools and 7,700 pupils in 42 secondary schools, logging over 5.4 million journeys as part of the Welsh Government funded Walk to School programme.

Three Welsh Schools featured in the UK wide Top Ten ‘WoW tracker’ schools’ leaderboard.

The programme will expand in 2025 – 2026 into early years settings under the Little Feet programme for 2 – 5 year olds.

Little Feet introduces the benefits of walking to young children and their families, encouraging them to adopt healthy walking habits through topics linked to the Early Learning Goals.

Funding of over £400,000 has been made available for the next financial year in the draft budget to build on this success, and deliver Little Feet alongside the wider programme in primary and secondary schools.

Sarah Rowlands, Manager of Derw Bach, a pre-school playgroup at Ysgol Calon y Dderwen in Newtown, said: “We have encouraged pupils and their parents to walk a little further each day. We have been doing some walking here with children and feeding back to parents about the benefits.”

Cabinet Secretary for Transport and North Wales Ken Skates said: “We want all forms of travel to be accessible for everyone. This includes providing opportunities to walk, wheel and cycle safely.

“Encouraging children and young people to take up healthy walking habits which they can then continue throughout their lives is important. Both children and adults tell us how much they value this time where they walk and chat together.

“Little Feet is a great initiative which allows children to pick up the walking habit from the earliest opportunity.”

The support for Living Streets is part of a package of measures to encourage people to try making more journeys by walking, wheeling and cycling, and to help make roads and streets safer.