European Mobility Week
To school on foot or by bike
Op voeten en fietsen naar School
Europea Mobility Week Summary of Events (Debriefing)
The first European Mobility Week (15th to 19th September 2014) at the European School Bergen is a
fact. Following is a summary of events and information obtained.
Objective – To stimulate primary school children to think about sustainable transport to and from
school, to think about preserving the environment and to think about a healthy lifestyle.
Was the objective reached? – Judging by the enthusiasm with which the children cycled,
rollerbladed, longboarded, skateboarded, step-scootered, walked and ran to school I think it’s safe to
say that most children made an effort to use some form of sustainable transport to get to school for
the week. Please see the section ”Lessons Learned” in this document for some of the things that
could have been done better.
Volunteers – This activity would not have been possible without the help of some dedicated
volunteers. Particular thanks go out to the new school president and vice president Cancel and
Caroline, the members of the parent’s association and the PAC and several parents who volunteered
once they heard about the activity.
Encouragement snacks – At our school we handed out a variety of fruit (appels, pears, mandarins)
plus sultana or apple biscuit packets and orange juice boxes. On Thursday and Friday primary school
children could also choose a reflector for their bike. On most days children could choose from the
above variety.
Thanks to Sponsors – the European Mobility Week encouragement snacks were sponsored by:
Wokke, groete en fruit shop in Bergen, (appels, pears and mandarins at cost price),
ESB Parents’ Association, who paid for the fruit bought at cost price,
Eko Plaze, biologic supermarket in Schoorl, (350 orange juice boxes)
Estafette, biologic supermarket in Bergen, (80 packets of organic sultana and apple biscuit packets),
Albert Heijn Supermarket in Bergen, (320 “Elstar” appels).
Additional sponsors for the raffle prizes:
Busker bicycle shop in Bergen – who sponsored the Cortina bike bells (96 for our school out of 300 in
total which were distributed to all other participating schools) and also the “Trekbike” magazines
(120 to our school out of 350 in total which were distributed to all other participating schools),
Marskramer Bergen – who sponsored 300 sets of 2 “anti-stress balls”, (90 of which for ESB and the
rest were evenly distributed among all other participating schools).
Werner’s Kaas en Delicatessen in Bergen – Who sponsored 2 packets of 150 gr of organic dried fruit.
The ESB Parent’s Association – who sponsored sets of rulers, pencils and sharpeners.
All sponsors have received a letter thanking them for their support and helping to allow us to put
together a memorable event for the children of the (primary) schools in Bergen.
Numbers – In the table below the number of students are shown how received fruit/snack per day
and per location. Children who used sustainable transport to come to school automatically qualified
to get a snack, children arriving by car or bus were asked whether they had played sports or engaged
in any physical activity during the week to earn their snack.
Please note that the below number can not be considered entirely accurate, as during busy times
students slipped past and volunteers at the gates and were not questioned and “written up”.
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Primary Gate
76
90
81
102
94
Secondary gate
213
194
216
161
236
End of activity presentation to assembled children and prize giving – To formerly close the Mobility
Week activity a short presentation was shown to the assembled children highlighting why the activity
had taken place, what the objectives were and that raffle prizes would be made available.
Issuing the sponsored gift items was a challenge: We wanted to make this as fair as possible so that
all children would have some sort of prize.
Unbeknownst to the organisers not all score sheets had been handed in to the organisers and
therefore some children missed out on their gift.
Other Schools – ESB Coordinators volunteered to organise this VVN activity and help the other
Bergen primary schools to prepare for this event. The other primary schools in Bergen who
participated were:
Van Reenenschool
Bosschool
Willem Alexanderschool
Lucebertschool
Vrijeschool
Matieu Wiegmanschool
(approx. 250 pupils)
(approx. 200 pupils)
(approx. 200 pupils)
(approx. 100 pupils)
(approx. 100 pupils)
(approx. 100 pupils)
(Dutch written feedback regarding the event from these schools is available on request). The above
mentioned schools “piggy-backed” off the sponsorship which was raised for the event. Not all
schools participated the 5 full days and some schools used different criteria and score sheets, but at
all schools the children, teachers and parents were enthused by the general idea of mobility week.
Several schools have suggested that they may wish to make this an annual event. ESB VVN
volunteers will benefit from the organising of VVN activities by other schools, such as the Blind Angle
Project and the Traffic Proficiency Exam.
ESB PAC VVN Coordinator
VVN Verkeersouder ESB
Jackie Barbour
Ozlem Aydemirli
Student volunteers ready at the gate to keep a record of how children arrived at school.
Parent volunteers handing out fruit.
End of Mobility Week presentation for all students.