Gibsons Elementary offers a Walking School Bus in the fall and spring Active Travel campaigns.

A walking school bus is a group of children walking to school with one or more adults.   The purpose is to support children in gaining the safety skills and confidence to travel the distance from home to school by their own power.  There are many benefits to active travel. 

Route:  For the Walking School Bus (WSB) – we provide Walking TO school only – Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.  Fridays we will not run the Walking School Bus.  Parents are responsible for arranging travel for students back home at end of the day.  It is open to students who attend Gibsons Elementary and live within 500 meters of the Walking Route.

The Walking School Bus starts in Lower Gibsons at Glassford at 8:10 am, the Walking School Bus follows the path up on Inglis Trail to Shaw Road at 8:30 am and onto Gibsons Elementary – see map. 

The two leaders are Crystal Boeur (SD46 teacher) and Johan Stroman (parent of 2 children at Gibsons Elementary) who both live near the travel route and have led student hikes, walks and field trips in the past.  Parents of students in the Walking School Bus are encouraged to join us part or the whole way.

We travel as a group and stay on marked sidewalks and trails.  Crosswalks are used where available.  All students are checked in by the leading adult.  On arrival at school students are released together at the GES front or side entrance by 8:45 am.   For younger children (K to 3), especially those without much walking experience, we encourage committing for 2 weeks to give them time to build their endurance. We will keep the pace of the youngest student in the group.

Expectations:

Please have your child at one of the 2 designated meeting points on time. To join the Walking School Bus, students must be able to follow the directions of supervising adults, walk in pairs and conduct themselves in a safe and appropriate manner.  We expect everyone to observe the rules of the road – staying on sidewalks and marked trails with the group.  Students must stay with the Walking School Bus from their starting point until the adult supervisor signals on arrival at the school grounds.  We will walk at a pace suitable for the youngest in the group.   

We will strive to maintain the schedule indicated below, but we cannot guarantee Walking School Bus for each day.  In the case of a short notice cancellation, we will message all registered families via SIGNAL and then E-mail.

Safety: 

We will review expectations and safety considerations with students as a group, and with new walkers when they join.  We will have a minimum ratio of one adult per 6 student walkers.  We invite other parents to join us for the walk to allow for a larger group.  Leaders have first aid training and will carry a cellular phone. 

To Register:

Please send a short email to walkingschoolbus@heartwoodsolutions.ca with:

• Student’s first and last name
• Age and grade
• Your name and phone number
• Weekdays your child will walk with us to school

We will follow up by email to confirm a spot. Please allow 24 hours for us to follow up. Please do not bring your child to the Walking School Bus until we have confirmed your spot in the program by phone.

You will also be invited to a group ‘Signal’ Chat (Smartphone App) – Gibsons Walking School Bus.  This will allow quick whole-group communication and a way for us to confirm all students have arrived at school.

We look forward to having your child join us!