Parents and carers are responsible for their child’s safety when travelling to and from school. The department encourages all children and their families to be safe active travellers.

Benefits of safely walking to and from school

Benefits of safely walking to and from school helps:

• promote physical activity
• reduce traffic
• reduce our carbon footprint
• provide an opportunity for supervising adults to talk with their child about road safety.

Key road safety messages for pedestrian safety

Always hold a child's hand when:

• crossing the road
• on the footpath
• in a carpark

Key messages to share with an older child:

• use a safe place to cross the road
• Stop! Look! Listen! Think! everytime you cross the road.

Referenced from TfNSW Key road safety messages

Walking advice to share with parents and carers

Primary schools can support their parents and carers with advice about:

• Walking safely to and from school
• When can I let my child travel to and from school independently
• Starting high school safely

Transport for NSW advice:

• Hold your child's hand (PDF, 387.8 KB)External link
• Walking safely together to and from school (PDF, 189.45 KB)External link
• Children’s and supervised crossings (PDF, 935.83 KB)External link
• Translations are available in 15 community languagesExternal link
• (print versions available through their online catalogueExternal link)

Secondary schools can support their parents and carers with advice about:

• Walking to school safely - never too old to be safe

Advice about implementing a Walking school bus