Twenty two York schools including 6,900 pupils are set to take part in walk to school week from Monday (22 -26 May), which aims to encourage even more children to walk, cycle or scoot to school.

The campaign  is targeted at families who normally take the car and encourages them to consider walking or cycling to school instead.

Andrew Bradley, sustainable transport manager at City of York Council, said: “Walk to school week is always a popular campaign. It provides a great opportunity for pupils, parents and teachers to look at how they travel to school and the benefits that walking can bring, such as pupils being more alert in the classroom. This also helps towards the sixty minutes of recommended daily exercise.

It is recommended that children aged five to sixteen do at least sixty minutes of physical activity that gets their heart beating faster than usual and they need to do it everyday to burn off calories and prevent them storing up excess fat in the body.

Regular activity is also important for adults and it is recommended that adults make sure they’re active for just 30 minutes each day, or 150 minutes a week.

Find out more about changing the way you travel in York at: www.itravelyork.info