A focus on Hampshire schools
A focus on: Clanfield Junior School, Clanfield, Waterlooville.
A case study showing how engagement with community partners can build support and shared responsibility for active and safe travel to school.
Clanfield Junior School joined Modeshift STARS in 2017. The school currently holds an Excellent level Travel Plan.
The school is situated in a rural location on Little Hyden Lane. The setting means benefiting from the beautiful scenic environment around, but this also leads to challenges: footways connecting the school to the village and the Park and Stride locations are sparse and where they do exist, are often of poor quality and narrow. Also, the adjacent East Meon Road is a busy through-route off the A3. The challenges of the infrastructure along with a year-long absence of a School Crossing Patrol (now reinstated) has reduced families’ confidence to Park and Stride or park further away from school and onward walk/wheel/scoot.
Despite the challenges, the school works hard to:
- campaign to improve the local infrastructure,
- educate the school and wider community about all aspects of road safety,
- promote walking and use of the Park and Stride sites,
- participate in fun active travel events such as Walk to School Week,
- reduce the number of cars coming all the way to school.
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To expand further:
Campaigning to improve the local infrastructure:
The drive to improve the local infrastructure benefits not only the school community but the wider local area. The school continue to work with local councillors, Hampshire County Council’s: Travel Planning Team, Road Safety Team and Traffic Management Team and NSL parking services, actively lobbying for improved conditions for everyone. For example, the school has led on lobbying for a 20mph speed limit for East Meon Road. The school also liaised with the Local Authority to push to fill the vacant School Crossing Patrol post.
The actions the school and partners are engaged with are communicated to the school community and their assistance in reporting issues is requested.
In-depth parent / carer surveys have also been completed to understand behaviours and barriers to active and safe travel and to provide evidence to support lobbying / applications.
Educating the school and wider community about all aspects of road safety:
Clanfield Junior has a strong commitment to sustainability goals, which underpins their approach to school travel planning. The school state that success depends on effective collaboration with local partners and agencies to build shared responsibility.
Promoting Clanfield Junior’s work with East Hants Police.
To cite some examples of this collaboration:
The school works with Local Authority Travel Planning Officer, Agata, who helps set targets such as establishing a Park and Stride scheme and associated resources for sharing with the school community. Agata helps translate actions into Modeshift STARS accreditation.
The school received support from the local PCSO during a speed monitoring session outside the school. The event was so well received that the following year, the school partnered with the local Speedwatch group. During both sessions, pupils gained practical road safety experience, engaged with residents, and helped raise driver awareness. The observations and learning points are onward shared with the school community and partners to reinforce safe travel behaviours and provide evidence for improving local infrastructure.
The JRSO team plays a key role in road safety and active travel work – delivering messages through assemblies, parent communications and organising events / campaigns.
Promotion of walking and use of the Park and Stride sites:
The school actively promotes Park and Stride sites, working with the Local Authority to create locations such as Peel Park and creating a digital map (see below) for sharing with families. Families are also encouraged to walk from a friend’s house, park on a friend’s drive, and car share.
Clanfield Junior School’s Park and Stride map.
Clanfield Junior and Petersgate Infant have worked together to adjust the timing of their school days to allow parents / carers more time between drop off / collections to encourage use of the Park and Strides.
The health and environmental benefits of active travel are very much reinforced in the school’s work with Petersfield Climate Action Network (PeCAN) workshops exploring climate change and encouraging care for the local environment.
The school have increased the number of school trips within the local vicinity such as Clanfield Pond, Peel Park, Little Hyden Woods and Catherington Lith. This helps pupils to connect with the environment and community as well as providing a great opportunity to practice important road safety skills and experience the joy of walking / wheeling. These visits also showcase collaboration with partners for example, the owners of Little Hyden Woods who share their knowledge and passion for the woodland.
Participation in fun active travel events such as Walk to School Week:
The school is keen to take part in events and campaigns that promote road safety and active travel. Some of the highlights are:
Walk to School Week, the Be Bright Be Seen event, The Clean Air Challenge 2025 and a Road Safety Green Cross Code poster competition.
Reduce the number of cars coming all the way to school:
The efforts of the school to embed the importance of safer and active travel are reflected in the improvement in the travel behaviours of the school community. As an example, the school achieved a fantastic 12% reduction in car alone travel last year. At the same time, there was a 29% increase in the use of Park and Stride and a 9% increase in car sharing.
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In response to the question, ‘What top tips would you give to other schools joining / engaging in Modeshift STARS’? the school gave the following great pointers:
- Keep being creative - try out new ideas and see what works.
- Say yes to help when it’s offered - working with others can make a big difference.
- Work closely with your local Travel Planning Officer.
- Stay positive, even when things don’t go to plan!
- Get pupils involved as much as possible - their energy and ideas can really drive change.
- Talk about what you're doing with the wider school community. Sharing your efforts helps bring everyone on board, including parents and local residents.
- And most importantly, believe in yourself! You’ve got the tools to inspire future generations and help create better places to live, learn, play, and work.
The school believe that success cannot be achieved in isolation. Producing a meaningful and successful travel plan requires collaboration with community partners.
Some truly inspirational community collaborative work, keep up the great work!
To read about other 'Focus on' schools choose an edition of the Modeshift STARS information leaflet below:
Edition 1: A focus on Fairfield Infant School, Havant
Edition 2: A focus on Brune Park Community School, Gosport
Edition 3: A focus on STARS School of the Year finalists
Edition 4: A focus on Ashurst Pre-School, New Forest
Edition 5: A focus on Lockerley Church of England Endowed Primary School, Romsey
If you would like your school to be showcased, please email: travelplans@hants.gov.uk