Feet with flair

Fancy feet at Hutt Central School

Hundreds of feet of all shades, shapes and sizes took to the streets for Hutt Central School's inaugural Fancy Feet Friday in late October. The colourful event was a first for a school on Greater Wellington's school travel plan programme.

Sherie Wright, the Hutt City Council's school travel plan coordinator, says more than 300 children walked to school in shoes and socks they had decorated themselves. A fancy feet fashion parade was held and the class with the highest number of children who walked to school was treated to a DVD and popcorn session.

"Fancy Feet Friday is a fun way to encourage walking to school, especially as the weather gets warmer. We're hoping to generate interest in setting up walking school buses and also see more children walking regularly to school," says Sherie.

Hutt Central School will also be taking part in Feet First Walk to School Every Week next year. As in previous years, there will be a special Feet First week, from 2-6 March 2009, full of events and activities to celebrate walking to school.

For 2009, Feet First Walk to School Every Week will have new curriculum resources and a different theme for the four school terms. Schools that enter their walking totals online for each week will be in to win 10 $500 sports vouchers each term.

The major prize for the year is an opportunity for a school to become the authors of a professionally published and distributed picture book about active travel. Schools will be encouraged to use stories from their blog sites about walking to develop into the book.

Schools can join the programme at any time during the year. See the Feet First website to find out more and register for the programme.