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| UPDATED
EVERY FRIDAY
Last Update:
Friday 20th
May, 2005 |
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| All
content © New Journal Enterprises, 2005. |
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| Ella’s singular way of going to school |
Ella Rogger on her unicycle |
SHE was fed up of seeing pupils dropped off in cars
at her Hampstead primary school, so Ella Roggers, 11, decided
to set an example.
The pupil of Fitzjohn’s school in Fitzjohn’s Avenue
didn’t walk or bicycle to school. Instead, she borrowed
her uncle’s unicycle and started making the 15 minute
trip up the hill from her home in Belsize Park Gardens to
show her class mates how easy it is.
Ella was showing off her unique get-to-school skills on Thursday
at an alternative transport day laid on by teachers in a bid
to encourage parents to find other ways to drop off their
charges instead of using the car.
Ella said: “I was given it and now I love using it.
My uncle hadn’t ridden it for three years so he let
me have a go – and now I am much better than him.”
She added that the daily trip – with mum walking behind
– was fun. She said: “It’s easier going
back home down the hill than it is going up. But I have unicycled
all the way to Covent Garden before, so it’s no problem.”
She added when she joins her new school, Parliament Hill in
Highgate Road, in September, she would still use one wheel
to get about. The Fitzjohn’s scheme is part of a Hampstead
wide project to cut school-run traffic.
The school, sitting in an area dubbed ‘Nappy Valley’,
is being targeted by the project run by Camden Council and
worried parents called Time To Talk, which has produced fact
sheets for parents about other ways to get the kids to school.
Parent Karen Webb, who has a child at private school Devonshire
House, launched the project three months ago. She said: “Kids
enjoy going to school on the Tube, bike, or by foot. There’s
such a lot of traffic around here. I want to get parents thinking
about the school run.”
Ms Webb acknowledged that some had to drive – but said
schools should look at who they admitted through the gates.
She said: “There is an issue with some schools selection
process. Why are some kids getting in who do not live within
a sensible distance?”
n Today (Thursday) Holly Bush Vale’s Hampstead Parochial
primary school caretaker Bob Speller will lead a troupe of
children across Hampstead Heath on their bikes to demonstrate
how easy it is to leave the car at home. |
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