Walking Champions!

Ms Lynch, Ms Farrell and members of the Green School Committee travelled to Dublin Zoo on the 11th April for The Big Travel Challenge awards ceremony 2019. We had high hopes that we would feature in the awards as our committee, pupils, staff and wider community put in a huge amount of effort to improve the number of children choosing to walk. We were delighted to win the Walking Challenge trophy. But there was more to come! They then announced the overall prize – Ireland’s School Travel of the Year 2019- us! We were absolutely thrilled that all our hard work paid off. 

When word came back to the school we decided there was only one way to celebrate, extra yard time in the sunshine! Click here to see the video.

The Green Schools Twitter feed captured some fantastic videos of the moment we found out that we had won. Click HERE and Here to view them!

There is also a segment on the Green Schools Blog, which you can see Here or read below.


Thursday, April 11 2019: St. Peter’s National School from Dromiskin in Louth was today named ‘Ireland’s Travel School of the Year’ at a ceremony in Dublin Zoo.

Green-Schools presented the school with their award at the event honouring the winners of this year’s Green-Schools Big Travel Challenge 2019. Ten other schools were also awarded on the day for their efforts promoting sustainable and active travel modes to school.

During February schools undertook the Big Travel Challenge, which asked them to concentrate on one sustainable transport mode for two weeks to see if they could achieve real, lasting change in the travel behaviour of their staff and students. The Challenge is an initiative of Green-Schools Travel, which is supported by the NTA and the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport.

St. Peter’s National School, whose 240 students and staff members come from the Dromiskin area, concentrated on walking, beginning their challenge with 100 students and ending with an outstanding 207 students opting to travel to school on foot. To spread the message of sustainable, active travel the Green-Schools committee visited each class in the school to the run up to the challenge, and used their Twitter account and good relationship with community groups like Tidy Towns to spread the word that they were focused on walking to school.

Congratulating St. Peter’s NS and the other schools on their achievements, Green-Schools Travel Manager Jane Hackett said: “Two weeks is a short space of time in the school calendar but this group really showed that a lot can change in a fortnight! This year has seen the rise of Ireland’s first scooter train in Harold’s Cross and a walking bus making a real difference in Corofin. Students and teachers are becoming more clever in how they make their journeys to school more environmentally friendly and active and nowhere is this more evident than in St. Peter’s and our other amazing schools.”

Ten other schools were awarded for their part in establishing green travel modes like cycling, scooting and using the park ‘n’ stride option to school as part of the BIG Travel Challenge today.

These are:

  • Cycling: St. Joseph’s Boys National School, Clondalkin
  • Cycling: St. Brigid’s NS, Singland, Limerick
  • Walking: St. Dominic’s NS, Kenagh, Co. Longford
  • Walking: Corofin NS, Corofin, Co. Clare
  • Scooting: St. Clare’s Primary School, Harold’s Cross, Dublin
  • Park ‘n’ Stride: Gaelscoil Osraí, Loch Buí, Co. Kilkenny
  • Park ‘n’ Stride: St. Oliver’s NS, Ballycasheen, Killarney, Kerry
  • Park ‘n’ Stride: Belcarra NS, Castlebar, Co. Mayo
  • Walking: St. Peter’s NS, Dromiskin, Louth
  • Carpooling: Ardscoil Phadraig, Granard, Co. Longford
  • Carpooling: Scoil Náisiúnta an Choimín, an Clochán, Co. Donegal