School “champions” from Barnet and Haringey have been recognised for their work to promote safe travel in their schools.

STARS (Sustainable Travel: Active, Responsible, Safe) is a TfL programme that supports schools with school travel plan activities that help young people adopt safer and sustainable ways of travelling.

Vanessa Wishart of Dollis Infants School in Barnet, Azra Nath of Moss Hall Infant School, also in Barnet, and Simon Pollard and Sarah Doyle of Haringey’s Riverside School were all awarded for promoting safe travel.

Ms Wishart used innovative projects including planning and running scooting lessons with her Year Two pupils, and has encouraged sustainable travel through the programme since 2007. Her hard work has helped achieve a 12 per cent reduction in car use, according to TfL.

Ms Nath has used a creative approach at Moss Hall Infant School, such as her pupil scooter dance that was performed at the Annual Barnet Dance Festival. She also led a successful campaign including pupils, councillors, governors and parents to get a new zebra crossing installed and a 20 mph zone outside the school.

Mr Pollard and Ms Doyle have taught young people in Haringey with very little confidence to become totally independent travellers, understanding the different bus numbers and reading a timetable.

Chris Mather, TfL‘s head of behaviour change in surface transport, said: “School Travel Champions play such an important role as front line agents of travel behaviour change in schools.

“We are delighted to recognise their fantastic work and hope it will inspire others to come-up with more initiatives to promote active and safe travel.

“Through the STARS programme, we are committed to empower pupils and improve the safety and wellbeing of the community, complementing our other work to make London a better place to live, work and travel.”