Greater Dandenong City Council: Walk to School month 2014 comes to Greater Dandenong

The Community Sport and Recreation Team at Greater Dandenong City Council worked with Athol Road Primary School and Keysborough Primary School to develop a promotional video for Walk to School 2014.

This case study addresses Requirement 1: Promote Walk to School to the local community and encourage primary schools to register to participate

The Community Sport and Recreation Team at Greater Dandenong City Council worked with Athol Road Primary School and Keysborough Primary School to develop a promotional video for Walk to School 2014. The video aimed to raise awareness of the Walk to School campaign in the local area, and encourage students, teachers, parents and carers to walk to school throughout October.

The fun and engaging video captures the enthusiasm shared by local students, teachers and parents, and highlights the benefits of walking to school – from improved health and wellbeing among students to reduced traffic congestion around local schools.

The video was created in a short time frame with support from a media company and cooperation with local schools and parents. Schools that had signed up for Walk to School 2014 were approached to take part in the video. Once school participation was confirmed Council met with a couple of teachers and parents to discuss the video and to make sure everyone was prepared. During filming, all the comments were unscripted, and parents and teachers simply responded to questions about walking and the Walk to School program.

The short video was published on the Greater Dandenong City Council YouTube channel, displayed on the big screen at the City of Greater Dandenong’s Civic Square, and shared through social media. The response from the schools and community was positive, and everyone really liked the video.

There weren’t too many challenges; it was hard at first to get schools to buy in and have time to let students out of class to film, and permissions needed to be signed, but the teachers were very helpful in getting it all set up.

One of the key benefits of this Walk to School activity was the opportunity to talk to the students and parents directly about their thoughts and views, and why they like walking to school. They provided information and ideas on how Council can improve things and what could be done to encourage more people to walk to school.

In 2014, students from five local primary schools participated in Walk to School – a significant increase compared to students at just one school participating the previous year.

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