School leaders predict a greener school run

According to a survey of school leaders, conducted by school transport technology specialist Kura, school leaders predict a greener future for the school run in the years to come.

More than a third (36.8%) of schools across the country now believe that the coming decade will see more pupils walking and cycling to school, as pupils look to avoid public transport and the toxic impact of polluting, low-occupancy car journeys.

School leaders also predict a significant rise in electric vehicles on the daily school run over the coming decade, with nearly half (45.2%) asserting electric vehicles, such as zero-emission school buses, to be the future of school transport. This comes amidst the UK’s wider shift towards making zero-emission transport standard, with sales of new petrol and diesel-fuelled vehicles banned from 2035 onwards.

These zero-emission ambitions are already being matched by action from many schools, with 21.6% of schools reporting having already put in place investment plans in this area, and a further 18% planning to invest in electric vehicles for their transport fleets over the coming years. But cost and a lack of charging infrastructure remain the main barriers to change.

Only a sixth of respondents (16.4%) reported that they believed that more environmentally-friendly shared transport, such as school-managed coaches and minibuses, would rise in prominence – a concern given that one 49-seater coach equates to 31 cars taken off the roads. However, schools have also been working towards making shared transport a safer, more attractive option for their pupils, with a fifth of schools (20.8%) having invested in additional contact-tracing technology to improve infection control on the daily school run.

Calls for schools to do more to drive an environmentally-friendly school run have been driven by increasing demands from pupils and parents. A separate national survey of 1,000 parents, also commissioned by Kura, revealed that over half (53%) of parents would like their child’s school to be doing more to prioritise sustainability and green initiatives, with a further 49% reporting that their children feel the same way.

During Covid, nearly one in four school leaders (23.2%) believe that infection fears are set to drive increased car usage amongst parents, rising to 35% in independent schools.

Two in five respondents (40%) also highlighted traffic congestion around their school gates as a problem, with a further 22% expressing concern around the level of toxic car fumes around their school.