A reminder that Monday 15 January is the deadline for selecting your child’s primary school. Local air pollution awareness group Mums for Lungs are urging parents to consider the school run when choosing a school, to prioritise the physical and mental health of their families:
“Imagine something that exposes your child to five times more air pollution than any other time, makes you three times more stressed than a meeting with your boss, and it happens ten times a week, for seven years. What is this evil entity? A supervillain? Your nemesis?
No. It’s the school run.
Rather than let the school run become the most stressful part of the day, parents should treat it as their superpower. A school that is within an easy walk or cycle from home means the school run can make a huge difference to a family’s physical and mental health.
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NHS guidelines say physical activity improves children’s behaviour, self-confidence and social skills as well as attention levels and performance at school.
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The average walk to the closest primary school in London is just under 10 minutes, that’s equal to 2,000 steps for an adult - and it’s not even 9am! It also contributes 20 minutes to the 60 minutes of exercise a child needs daily.
Whichever way you look at it, the school run will take up a significant amount of your life over the next seven years. It amounts to over 2700 journeys to school over 7 years! The way we choose to make those journeys has a knock-on effect in so many ways. When selecting your child’s school, we ask you to factor in the school run and prioritise the physical and mental health of your family by choosing a school that you can walk, cycle, wheel or scoot to.”
For more information, go here.
Claire McDonald
Schools Lead, Mums For Lungs
Who are Mums for Lungs?
Mums for Lungs are a network of people who care about air pollution. Mums for Lungs was established in Brixton, London in 2017, when a number of people were on parental leave together. They became aware of the toxic levels of air pollution on the UK’s streets while walking around with their babies, and decided they wanted to do something about it.
Read more about Mums for Lungs and their campaigns on their website: www.mumsforlungs.org/
