Host a Talk N Walk to School Event
Resources to help you organise a Talk N Walk to School Day event for student wellbeing!
What is Talk N Walk?
Talk N Walk is an award-winning wellbeing program facilitated through the free Talk N Walk app and a series of supporting resources. It was co-designed with the assistance of 100+ ten-to-fifteen year olds.
The program aims to encourage children and teens to spend time outside walking and talking with their peers or families as a way to be more physically active and mentally healthy.
Conversation typically flows more freely when you’re walking and being active outdoors has many powerful and wide-ranging health benefits!
Anyone can take a Talk N Walk anywhere – in and around the neighbourhood, a park or local bushland, or to/from school!
What is a Talk N Walk to School Event?
We believe schools are in a wonderful position to encourage families to try a Talk N Walk and so we’ve teamed with the Department of Transport’s Your Move program to bring schools a collection of useful resources for use when hosting a Talk N Walk to School Day.
By organising a Talk N Walk to School event you can highlight the wellbeing benefits associated with walking and talking to and from school to your whole school community.
Families participating are encouraged to give the Talk N Walk app a go and have some fun completing the walking challenges as they make their way to school.
How to Host a Talk N Walk to School Event
- Register your school: Fill in this form to let us know you are hosting a Talk N Walk event. This way we can keep an eye out for photos and share your story.
- Download the Talk N Walk to School Event Toolkit: It contains everything you need to plan a successful event including;
– an event planning guide,
– an informational flyer for parents,
– an event poster,
– a printable deck of Talk N Walk cards featuring conversation starters and nature-based challenges. - Get planning a fun morning for all involved, inviting the wider school community to get behind this positive health initiative. Use our complimentary social media tiles and text to share on your social media.
Talk N Walk to School Stories
There are lots of ways schools can encourage participation with Talk N Walk and below you will find some great examples of Talk N Walk to School Day events and activities from schools across Western Australia.
Coolbinia Primary School
Our Year 4 Your Move team organised a Talk N Walk event and prepared various forms of promotion – feet posters, feet stencils, PA announcements, items in the School Bulletin for parents and a staff PL. On the event day they greeted students at the school gates with giveaways promoting Talk N Walk.
One parent commented as she left the school, “The Talk N Walk app was a great success. It stimulated conversation all the way to school this morning.”
Cue Primary School
Walking around the entire town to collect our students is such a positive start to the day. Best things as a teacher, is the chance to find out my student’s mindset and debrief them or make considerations for them to get through their day.
Eden Hill OSHC
We are an OSHC located close to a primary school so we chose to walk in groups to school that day rather than taking our usual buses. Before leaving we got the chalk out and had a discussion about how we were feeling that day and drew pictures to express these feelings.
On our walk we chatted about what we were most looking forward to that day, how our morning was and our current feelings.
Tuart Hill Primary School
We held a Student Leader led Talk N Walk. We designated four destination points to start from, and gave out Your Move slap bands to anyone that participated. The turn out was amazing, and the feedback was very positive too.
The turnout was so impressive from the Northside that our amazing lollypop man, Lester, stopped traffic on an adjacent intersection, to help the kids across.
Bramfield Park Primary School
Our first Talk N Walk event was a huge success. Our reflection meeting highlighted that it was well received especially from families who provided positive feedback about the conversation starters on the footpath to schoo.
A big number of our student walkers said that being with their friends walking to school, made them smile. This popular message [written on the footpath in chalk] had our walkers talking non-stop, “Look up! Can you spot the birds nest?”
Eneabba Primary School
The Chaplain and the school principal walked laps of the oval in two separate groups, inviting all students to join. We then read the cards and scaffolded conversation around these ideas.
More Ways to Use Talk N Walk in Schools
Want to know more about how to use the Talk N Walk resources in your school or classroom? They are a great tool for orientation plans, school buddy programs, behaviour management practices and more, and we have a Talk N Walk for Schools Toolkit available now.
