All roads may have led to Rome in its heyday, but at Mernda, new pathways lead to school.
Mernda Primary School has marked out three well-used tracks to its classrooms as “active paths”, each extending about a kilometre from the school gates, as part of its Ride2School program.
Routes are named and tracked by special markers with road safety messages and phrases in English and Mandarin to entice pupils through the school gates.
Last Friday, shadow health promotion minister Danielle Green, along with Bicycle Network members, took to the tracks with pupils, teachers and families to ‘test drive’ their new pathways to learning.
“This initiative is a win-win for Mernda Primary as it can deliver healthier and more active students and a community freed up from road congestion at school time,” Ms Green said.
Mernda Primary School vice-principal Janet Hamer is hoping the initiative will boost the number of children walking or riding to and from school.
“Currently the student participation rate of walking to school each day is about 30 per cent,” Ms Hamer said.
“It would be great if we could raise these numbers.”
Ms Hamer said the school was promoting the new pathways for weekend riding and walking as well.
Each pathway is named to make navigation easier.
