Kettering academy crowned county’s school of the year in STARS awards

Pupils and staff at a Kettering school have been celebrating after being crowned Northamptonshire’s school of the year in an award ceremony.

Grange Primary Academy in Kettering was named the 'School of the Local Authority' at the STARS awards, that recognise reward and celebrate schools embracing safe, sustainable travel.

Taking the best in county they were crowned by judges who described the primary school as ‘excellent’ and congratulated staff, parents and pupils for their commitment to promoting cycling, walking and other forms of sustainable and active travel.

Lydia Meek, deputy head at Grange Primary Academy, said: “Brightwayz has been supporting us with our active travel planning and has given our young road safety heroes a real focus and direction - and we are proud to be recognised for all our hard work. Thanks to their continued support we are now looking at some other ideas, which we are confident this will help us achieve our longer-term healthy living goals. This is just the beginning.”

In April, pupils at the Jean Road school took part in the Big Pedal as they went for gold in the STARS accreditations.

They particularly impressed judges by taking part in a UK Road Safety Hero scheme, self-funding a travel plan and becoming Northamptonshire’s first school to take part in the Brightwayz ST:EPS scheme (Safe Travel: Enabling Pupils and Schools) and the first to achieve Modeshift STARS accreditations.

Brightwayz is a social enterprise committed to promoting safe, active, sustainable travel for everyday journeys. Active travel is all about encouraging people to walk, cycle or travel in other active ways to school, work or other local destinations. Sustainable travel also includes using public and shared transport for longer journeys.

Alison Holland, founder of active travel social enterprise Brightwayz, said: “Our focus is on inspiring safe, active, sustainable travel for everyone and we are constantly impressed with the passion, commitment and dedication of the whole team at Grange Primary Academy. A huge congratulations.

“Active travel and road safety has been a priority for this school for many years, with all staff constantly looking for and coming up with new ideas of how to engage pupils and parents in active travel. The whole school community is involved and the STARS judges were impressed by the school’s committed Year 5 and 6 road safety heroes.”