To meet this criteria include the following in your service’s practice and policy:

• At least twice per year arrange and promote an age-appropriate pedalling, riding or walking activity within the service community, with a focus on road and pedestrian safety (e.g. to the shops, around the block, to a park or vacant block) and/or on the service premises  (establish a circuit ‘walkathon’, bike/pedal track).
• Road safety education is supported and conducted at the service as part of the program.
  Active transport such as walking or riding bikes as a form of travel is positively promoted in the service to children, families, educators and support staff.
• Families, educators and support staff have access to up-to-date road safety information. (e.g. pamphlets, newsletter articles, family information evenings).

Quick tip: It is OK to copy and paste the above dot points into your policy if it is happening in practice.

Add your ‘Stride and Ride’ progress sticker to your Member Certificate when all relevant criteria are happening in practice and written into policy.

• For traffic and road safety education for babies and children up to five years, the focus should   be on using safety restraints in cars and being a safe pedestrian link to info. Families, educators and support staff are the key people to help children learn road safety skills and attitudes. It is important for children to have road safety knowledge and skills so they can negotiate roads and traffic confidently as they grow up.
• Services should ensure there is consistency between families and early childhood education and care services when promoting safe pedestrian and passenger messages. Understanding child development and what children are able to do at a particular age is vital.
• Active transport to get to places contributes to children’s overall physical activity levels. Encouraging safe walking or riding increases road safety skills and creates a sense of belonging in the neighbourhood. Active transport also reduces traffic congestion, decreases fuel costs and improves air quality.

• There has been a significant worldwide decline in the rate of children’s, use of active transport (ie walking and cycling) over the past 30-40 years. 1
• The use of active transport to and from school has declined by 42% between 1971 and 2013 Active transport, such as walking and riding to get to places, can contribute to the recommended levels of physical activity for children. 2
• It is important to encourage road safety attitudes and skills in young children to ensure their safety as they get older. Educators, support staff and families can begin traffic safety education from an early age.

Australia’s 24-Hour Movement Guidelines for the Early Years (birth to 5 years) recommend that children aged 1-5 years spend three hours per day being physically active. This can be accumulated as adult-guided play, child-initiated play, active transport and everyday physical tasks. 1

Excursions

• Use active transport and public transport wherever possible for excursions.
• When going on excursions educators, support staff and families should talk about the importance of holding hands, looking out for cars when crossing the road, looking left and right, getting out of the car on the pavement side, using seat belts and staying inside the service’s fence. It is important for even very young children to start to develop their traffic safety awareness.
• Visit the local police station or have a police officer visit the service to talk about traffic safety.
• Visit an educational bike track such as the Tynwald Park Bike Track (New Norfolk), Dru Point Bicentennial Park (Margate), the Derwent Valley Educational Bike Track, or the Transport and Road Safety Centre, Launceston.

Games

Games can be a useful way for children to understand traffic and safety issues. Some suggestions include:

• Use a traffic floor mat or road setups with cars and blocks. Display pictures of streets, traffic and people crossing roads and playing safely.
• Make cars out of boxes and put in safety belts using crepe paper, thick elastic, black ribbon or material.
• Make traffic lights from cardboard and paint them to represent red, amber and green, or make wooden traffic lights in a carpentry session.
• Have seatbelts in the home corner so dolls can be buckled into seats.
• Have discussions with children about pedestrian crossings, what the traffic lights mean and about the importance of holding hands when crossing the road.
• Make up stories about children in the service going out for a walk or going to the shops and what they need to think about when they go.
• Use transport rhymes to promote active transport or traffic and safety issues.
• Find more Road Safety Activity Ideas and Walking and Riding Activities on the Move Well Eat Well website.

Facilities

• Provide space for parents to leave their pram or stroller during the day to enable them to walk to the centre and then use public transport.
• Consider providing bicycle racks at the centre.
  Share Newsletter Inserts in your service’s newsletter or display them as posters.

Walking challenges

• This can be for educators, support staff and families. Use pedometers to see who can walk the furthest in a given day or week.
• Create your own traffic school using chalk and boxes to create pedestrian crossings and lights. Use this to teach children about road safety traffic rules. Children could also be drivers in ‘cars’ and stop at the crossing or lights.

Wider service activities

• Take part in national, state and local activities such as ‘Walk Safely to School Day’ or ‘Ride 2 School or Work Day’.
• Host a bike and scooter day at the centre or local park.
• Develop a travel plan for the service.

Local community walks

Educators and children at the Ulverstone Stepping Stones Service regularly visit the Community Garden that is located next door to the service. Children walk to and around the garden and help with weeding, planting, watering and harvesting. Often vegetables and fruit collected from the garden are eaten back at the service or taken home by children for their families to enjoy.

Practising bike skills

The outdoor space at Rainbow Child Care Centre provides children with a space to practise their bike riding. A bike track with painted line markings and a bridge allows children to practise their riding skills, challenge themselves and learn road rules.

Service community spirited walking

At ABC Hobart Central, educators have been training for the Mother’s Day Classic Fun Run, which is held in May. Many educators have been attending regular gym sessions and walking to work as part of their training for the event. Children have also been encouraged to get active. Aerobic sessions, running races, balloon dancing and yoga activities are being offered. Other ABC centres and families are participating in the event, which raises money to support breast cancer.

Read about the great strategies early childhood services are using to encourage children to drink water on the Success Stories page.

The following sections of Move Well Eat Well website can help provide support and useful tools to help you with the ‘Stride and Ride’ message and criteria:

• Stride and Ride ‘Early Childhood Services’ section
• Stride and Ride ‘Families’ section

1. Active Healthy Kids Australia (2014). Is Sport Enough? The 2014 Active Healthy Kids Australia Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Young People. Adelaide, South Australia: Active Healthy Kids Australia

2. Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing (2017). Australian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines for the Early Years (birth to 5 years): An Integration of Physical Activity, Sedentary Behaviour, and Sleep.