Step Out

Jeremy Fiske

School Health Promotions Nurse 

Results revealed from The Australian Heart Foundation’s Live Lighter survey show that more than two thirds (2 out of 3) Australian teenagers are being driven to school which makes us amongst the most chauffeured nations in the world. Interestingly this number corresponds closely with the two thirds of Australian Children who are not getting the recommended 1 hour of moderate to vigorous exercise per day. 

So long as they are able, ensuring that your children walk or ride a bicycle to school has multiple benefits. If you think how hard it is to get a tired child out of the house (perhaps that’s why it just seems easier to give up and drive them) just imagine how hard it is for teachers to motivate them to learn when they arrive still half asleep. Walking or riding a bicycle to school oxygenates the blood, encourages the digestion of their breakfast (please ensure they have a good breakfast before leaving the house) and sends positive, feel good, wakeful hormones to the brain which contributes to a higher level of retained learning. Encouraging them to make their own way to school also builds confidence and nurtures the ability to observe, concentrate and adjust.  Minimal risk, everyday situations such as crossing the road demand an increase in awareness in order to be navigated safely. Consider the implications of chauffeuring them to school and depriving them of spatial awareness brain growth and then plonking them behind the wheel of a car once they turn 18. 

 If you think about it, except from when it’s truly awful ‘cats and dogs’ weather, there’s seldom any good reason why your child should not make their own way to school. 

A moderate walking pace for a teenager or young adult should see them able to cover 1 kilometre in approximately 10 minutes (even less by bicycle) which could easily be less time than it takes you to push them out the door and into the car, argue, deal with other chauffer parents, stop lights and intersections, argue some more and then unload them at the other end. You then have to get yourself home again or off to where ever else. But here’s something worth taking note of… according to the 2023 (Yr 7 enrolment) school zoning map, the majority of BSC students will be living well within a half hour walking distance from school, while those on the outer edges of the zone may need 40 mins. There’s your recommended hour of exercise right there. If you don’t believe me, check it out yourself…  https://www.schoolcatchment.com.au/?p=14060   and then cross reference with Google maps walking routes.  

If you’ve allowed lazy habits to develop and the exception has now become the norm, prepare yourself for a whole lot of resistance. But remember who holds the driver’s license and who’s a teenager in need of exercise in order to start their educational day on the right foot.  

If you have a child starting at BSC next year you could walk the route(s) together during the holidays so that everyone has a fair idea of the lay of the land and how long it should take.

To make it entertaining, why not try this little seek and find ‘bingo’ exercise I developed during lockdown:  click on the document below.