Ride or Walk to School – Primary School
The Ride or Walk to School program supports schools to increase walking and riding to school. It provides strategies to build awareness and participation in active travel and is aligned to the Australian curriculum.
Walking or riding to school is an easy way to a establish a healthy routine and is good for the environment by helping to reduce emissions. It also helps build self-confidence and independence as well as improved concentration.
The program includes:
- dedicated support from a Program Manager to assist with program delivery and active travel events for your school
- access to free bike and helmet hire delivered to and from your school to facilitate program delivery
- access to curriculum aligned program Safe Cycle education kit, lesson plans and resources
- interactive professional learning workshops for staff
- walking and riding maps showing safe routes and part-way drop-off points
- the program's merchandise and marketing materials
- risk assessment tools, parent consent forms and associated resources for student activities.
2025 ACT Active School Travel Artwork Competition
In 2025, we ran the ACT Active School Travel Artwork Competition, inviting students to create artworks that celebrated active travel. We received many creative and thoughtful entries showing how walking, riding, scooting and wheeling can be a fun and healthy way to get around.
Thank you to all the talented students who took part and submitted their creative entries.
Here are last years winning pieces:
Free bike bookings
There are sets of loan bikes available for schools to borrow through the Ride or Walk to School and It's Your Move Safe Cycle programs. Bikes are available for both primary and high schools to support the delivery of the Safe Cycle curriculum and they are free and easy to book.
Contact the School Safety Program team with your preferred booking dates and they will manage the booking for you, including the delivery and collection of the bikes.
Free banner bookings
The School Safety Program have vinyl banners available for schools to borrow for free, leading up to active travel events. Banners are 122 cm high x 244 cm wide.
School Safety Program vinyl banners
National Ride2School Day
Ride Safely to School Week
Winter Walk to School Week
Walk Safely to School Day
Email the School Safety Program with your preferred booking dates and they will manage the booking for you, including the delivery and collection of the banners.
Downloadable material
The online course Safe Cycle Ride or Walk to School – Primary teacher is available for teachers online. The course prepares teachers to lead students through the Safe Cycle curriculum.
The following curriculum resources are available for printing, or you can contact the program officer for hard copies:
The RWTS program is aligned with the Australian Curriculum for Health and Physical Education for K-6 and has been endorsed by Access Canberra as complying with National and ACT road rules. This unit of work can also be delivered to other year levels.
Events
This Ride or Walk to School program provides ACT schools with access to Australian curriculum aligned resources to teach safe cycling, teacher training and student and parental materials to encourage school communities to embrace active travel options. Programs are available for both primary and high schools.
National Ride2School Day
National Ride2School Day
National Ride2School Day is Australia’s biggest celebration of active travel and a highlight of the school year. The day encourages students, teachers and parents to enjoy riding together and supports the development of healthy, long term habits.
Run by the Bicycle Network of Australia, National Ride2School Day invites children to ride to school and experience the benefits of starting their day with active travel. The event is held nationally in Term 1 each year and is a fun, colourful way to promote safer, healthier and more sustainable travel choices within school communities.
The School Safety Program works to support the Bicycle Network by promoting and coordinating events with schools in the ACT.
Promotional material and support resources are available from the Bicycle Network webpage:
National Ride2School Day | Bicycle Network.
For more information, contact the School Safety Program.
National Walk Safely to School Day
Walk Safely to School Day – Friday 22 May 2026
Walk Safely to School Day is a day to encourage students and their parents/carers to walk safely to school. It is an opportunity to teach children valuable road safety skills and embrace active travel.
Walk Safely to School Day is an initiative of the Pedestrian Council of Australia (PCA) and occurs in school term 2 each year.
The School Safety Program works to support the PCA by promoting and coordinating events with schools in the ACT.
Promotional materials and resources are available from the PEC and schools are encouraged to contact them via their webpage Walk Safely to School Day.
Learn more about travelling safely to school.
Winter Walk to School Week
Winter Walk to School Week – 3 to 7 August 2026
Winter Walk to School Week is an ACT Government initiative to encourage school students to walk safely to school during the cooler months. It occurs in term 3 each school year and is promoted by the School Safety Program.
Throughout the week, schools are encouraged to promote active travel. This might include promotion of Active Travel Tracker cards, which can be used to entice students to walk more regularly by stamping their tracker card each time they use active travel for their journey to and from school. This is a good way schools can track and acknowledge students who regularly use active travel. The School Safety Program is available to provide resources, logistical assistance and support to schools in the ACT.
For more information, contact the School Safety Program.
Learn more about travelling safely to school.
Ride Safely to School Week
Ride Safely to School Week – 26 to 30 October 2026
Ride Safely to School Week is an ACT Government initiative to encourage primary school students to ride, scoot or walk safely to school. It occurs in term 4 of the school year and is promoted by the School Safety Program.
Leading up to the week, schools are encouraged to ramp up bike safety and skills by implementing the Ride or Walk to School program and resources.
Throughout the week, students are encouraged to ride or use active travel to get to and from school each day. During the week, schools are encouraged to host an event for students, parents, carers and the community, to promote riding safely to school.
The School Safety Program can assist in providing promotional materials, resources and coordinating an event to meet the needs of each school.
Some ideas schools may wish to consider include:
- Engaging an ACT Cycling peak body to run an activity/station workshop for kids on bikes who ride to school.
- Working with the Parents and Citizens to host an egg and bacon sausage sizzle fundraiser.
- Organising a coffee cart to be at school on arrival for parents and carers.
- Using the school PA system to play music and give out ‘bubble’ wands to kids arriving to school on foot or wheels.
- Requesting a fruit donation from the local grocery store for a healthy breakfast.
- Running a competition – bike decoration/helmet decoration.
- Running a raffle with prizes donated by TCCS or local bike shops.
- Asking ACT Police/Constable Kenny to attend and speak with kids and parents about road safety.
- Engaging a local bike shop to set up a space and talk to interested kids and parents about bike maintenance.
- Setting up witches hats on the playground to invite kids who rode to school to cycle through the course.
- Inviting a cycling ‘personality’ to attend the morning and engage with the community.
For more information, contact the School Safety Program.
Learn more about travelling safely to school.
Videos
Below are links to some useful videos you may wish to share with your students.
Contact us
Contact School Safety Program for more information and resources.
