CHILDREN and teachers got on their bikes and scooters for a week of healthy school runs.

Conifers Primary School, in Weymouth, recently held a "Conifers Pedal" where children, parents and staff were encouraged to ride their scooters and bikes to school for a whole week, to help improve their health and also do a bit for the environment.

This culminated on the Friday with a bike and scoot breakfast, organised by the charity Sustrans.

Sustrans is working with schools in Weymouth to provide children with the skills and information necessary to allow them to ride a bike to school on a regular basis.

Children at the school were rewarded on the Friday for cycling or scooting to school with cereal bars, fruit and drinks as a finale to the week's events in an effort to encourage more people to be active on the journey to school.

Staff also joined in, with headteacher Andrew Johnson jumping on his longboard for the occasion.

Karen Power, a teaching assistant at Conifers, who organised the week, said: "It was a successful week although the weather was not the best. The children, even the little ones, they all did it. We were very pleased with it."

At Conifers, pupils are divided in to houses and a tally was kept for pupils in each house when they scooted or cycled with the winning house being rewarded with a non-school uniform day in the future.

Jonathan Dixon, from Sustrans, said: "Walking and cycling to school is a great way for our children to get the exercise they need everyday to keep healthy, and research shows it allows them to become better students in the classroom. Let’s not forget it’s fun, too."

Sustrans believes that every child has the right to walk, cycle or scoot to school, hoping to make the government commit to lower traffic speeds and transform walking and cycle routes.

It has 120 officers working with nearly 2,000 schools and colleges in the UK.

Sustrans has helped provide bike shelters and worked on other projects in Weymouth and Portland to encourage children to scoot or cycle to school.

Sustrans works in Dorset thanks to funding from Dorset County Council.