By Callum Ludwig
A group of parents and students at Wesburn Primary School have made a habit of ditching the car and taking a brisk walk t and from school.
The Wesburn Primary School ‘Walking Bus’ is well and truly in operation before and after school, weather permitting of course.
Anthony Glynn and his wife said starting walking their daughter Adele to and from school when she was in Prep in 2020, which is how the group started.
“Then in 2022, our son Oscar started prep and he and his friend Emily who lives up the road would now walk and on the way we made friends and a few people kept walking with us,” he said.
“This year we’ve had a few kids come across from another school who now go to Wesburn, so now we’ve got about 10 kids walking each day, sometimes up to 15 or 16 depending on whether parents could bring them”
Anthony and Sage started walking their kids to school as they both remembered walking to school growing up in Bairnsdale and Wonga Park respectively.
Mr Glynn said they both thought ‘it’s only a kilometre up the road so what’s the point in driving?’
“We have the time, I do the morning walk and Sage does the afternoons each while the other is at work, we leave our place at about 8.15am, 8.20am and everyone joins along the way,” he said.
“The more the merrier, we walk every morning unless it’s really raining, we had a couple of wet mornings where it sprinkled a bit, but we still walked in our gumboots and our coats. If the kids are really young, we want a parent with us, but if they’re grade five or six, you can dump them at our house and they can walk with us if they want.”
The walk from the Glynn house takes the group about 20 minutes.
Kodie Ireland is one parent who has gotten involved in the ‘Walking Bus’ and said it gives the kids a chance to get some exercise and get some energy out before they go into the classroom.
“I joined it because my son was in prep at the time and he was struggling with being dropped off at school., he was very anxious and didn’t want to go in. So by walking with the other kids, he got a chance to start chatting to his friends on the way to school,” she said.
“By the time we got to school, he wasn’t thinking about the fact that he was going to miss me for the day, he was thinking about the fact that he could spend the day with his friends.”
