Naas School Piper's Hill College Named Ireland's Walking School Of The Year

Eleven schools were awarded at the Green-Schools Travel ceremony

Naas school Piper’s Hill College was named one of Ireland’s Travel Schools of the Year (Walking Mode) at a ceremony in Dublin on Tuesday.

During February schools undertook the BIG Travel Challenge, which asked them to concentrate on one sustainable transport mode for two weeks to see if they could achieve real, lasting change in the travel behaviour of their staff and students.

The Challenge is an initiative of the Green-Schools Travel theme, which is supported by the NTA and the Department of Transport.

Some 1000 pupils attending Piper’s Hill College excelled and embraced the challenge.

They concentrated on encouraging students to walk to school, and saw a 50% increase in students opting to travel to school on foot. Students from the school’s committee took to social media to encourage people to change their travel mode and they made and co-ordinated with local businesses to allow use of their car parks to encourage park ‘n’ stride.

Congratulating  Piper’s Hill College and the other awarded schools on their achievements, Green-Schools Travel Manager Ciara Norton said: “My team and I have been so inspired by the many ways schools approached the Big Travel Challenge this year.

"The winning schools created incredible change in a short period of time, showing the desire among young people to travel to school independently, actively and in a mode that is mindful of our climate and local environment," she added

An Taisce Green-Schools presented the school with their award at the event honouring the winners of this year’s Green-Schools BIG Travel Challenge 2023 in Haughton House of Dublin Zoo.

Ten other schools were awarded for their part in promoting green travel modes to school as part of the BIG Travel Challenge. These are:

• Piper’s Hill College, Walking School of the Year 2023, Secondary 
• St. Mark’s Junior School, Walking School of the Year 2023, Primary
• Adamstown Community College, Cycling School of the Year 2023, Secondary 
• St. Aidan's National School, Cycling School of the Year 2023, Primary
• Scoil Naomh Gobnait, Carpool School of the Year 2023, Primary
• St. Brendan’s College, Carpool School of the Year 2023, Secondary
• St Brigid's National School, Park ‘n’ Stride School of the Year 2023, Primary
• Loreto Secondary School, Park ‘n’ Stride School of the Year 2023, Secondary 
• St. Joseph’s Special School, Special School Sustainable Travel Award 2023
• St. Cecilia’s School, Special School Sustainable Travel Award 2023
• Scoil Mhuire, Big Travel Staffroom Challenge Winners 2023
• Presentation College, Castleisland, Big Travel TikTok Challenge Winners 2023 
• St Brigid's National School, Meath Hill, Ireland’s Travel School of the Year 2023