West Ross pupils are winners of Golden Boot Award

Pupils at a West Ross Primary School are the winners of the Golden Boot Award – a competition organised by The Highland Council’s Road Safety Unit which aims to spread the road safety awareness message and encourage parents and children to make walking to school part of their daily routine.

Local Highland Councillor Richard Greene recently presented winners - Kinlochewe Primary School with the Golden Boot award and congratulated them on their commitment to walking to school. He said: “There were nearly 6,000 pupils taking part in the Golden Boot competition throughout the Highlands and your commitment in attaining the highest percentage of pupils walking to school at any Primary is commendable. You have done an excellent job in reducing the number of motorists on the road and encourage active travel to school.”

In second place for the Golden Boot Award was Maryburgh Primary and third place was Inver Primary.

The Golden Boot Competition took place during National Walk to School Week and wall charts and stickers were provided to each school.  Each day pupils would put a sticker on their chart if they had walked to school.  These charts were sent back to the Council’s Road Safety Unit and they recorded the percentage of pupils walking over the space of the week. Kinlochewe walked 68 times with 14 pupils participating giving them a total of 97.1% for the week. 

Debbie Tuckwell, Highland Council’s Assistant Road Safety Officer added: “Through the Golden Boot, not only are we encouraging road safety awareness we are also encouraging healthy lifestyles. National statistics have shown over recent years that this campaign is vital: