We are delighted to be participating in East Ayrshire Council’s Active Travel initiative Mission to the Moon. The aim of this project is to get young people walking to school in a bid to further reduce our carbon emissions here in East Ayrshire, while also reducing congestion at our school gates and promoting Active Travel.
Earning S-Miles (‘School Miles’)
Each time our young people travel to/from school by walking, scooting/cycling, they will earn an S-mile for their class.
Park & Stride – pupils will earn an S-Mile even if they walk part of the journey to/from school. Bonus S-Miles can be earned by parents/siblings/staff walking the journey to school too!
A walking circuit will be available in the playground for pupils who travel to school by taxi/bus and for any pupil who wishes to gather bonus S-miles for their class during break/lunchtime. Class walks, outings and Daily Mile time also earn S-Miles for classes.
Our Eco Committee will collate our S-Miles each week in school and send our totals to the Climate Change Team at East Ayrshire Council each month.
Our S-Mile Journeys
In Mount Carmel we have agreed that our first target will be to walk the length of the Zambezi River. This links to our Lenten SCIAF appeal, which this year is focused on supporting families in Zambia. Many children there walk up to 10 miles a day to get to school. The length of the river is 1599 miles and we hope to accrue the equivalent miles in 3 weeks.
We will try our best to collect the miles we need within the timescale we have set. Once we have reached our target destination, we will decide on our next destination and time scale.
The Launch!
We will begin collecting S-Miles week commencing Monday 20th February and continue on our travels during the rest of Term 3 and 4. Once all participating schools across East Ayrshire have banked 238,855 S-Miles, we can launch our EAC Clean Green rocket, sending it all the way to the moon!
We look forward to keeping you updated on our progress via our school app and blog throughout the year.
Mrs McGahon
Depute Head Teacher
