About the merit scheme
The merit scheme rewards students who commit to walking regularly. As students walk to and from school they receive a clip on their walking school bus ticket.
Students earn a key tag when they reach various milestones. For example, after 50 walks, 100 walks and so on. This gives longevity to their involvement on the walking school bus.
There are 6 walking key tags and 3 special skill key tags to earn. Students can work towards collecting the whole set.
Walking tags
These are earned for 50, 100, 200, 300, 450 and 600 walks.
Special skill key tags
The 3 special key tags are:
- Road Safety — for demonstrating good road safety practices
- Leadership — for senior students who take on leadership duties and complete the student leadership programme
- Winter Walker — to encourage students to keep walking though the colder, wetter months.
Merit scheme starter pack
When you set up a walking school bus you'll receive a starter pack.
The starter pack includes:
- an information brochure
- walking school bus tickets
- bag tags on carabiners (for students who may not already have one)
- sets of the 6 different merit key tags
- a sample recording sheet (PDF 37KB) to keep track of each student's walks and the merit key tags they earn
- a criteria card (PDF 368KB) that shows students how to achieve each merit key tag.
Manage your merit scheme
Learn how to kick start your scheme, track students walks and present key tags to students. You'll be using the resources you received in your merit scheme starter pack.
We recommend that you launch your merit scheme at a school assembly — or you could host a walking school bus milo morning. Explain the scheme to students then hand out criteria cards and walking school bus tickets to participants.
Use the walking school bus tickets to record a student's walks. Each ticket has clips for 25 walks.
On your recording sheet, mark off when a student completes a ticket. This helps keep track of their progress toward each merit key tag.
Students can also keep a record of their merit key tags on a criteria card. The card also has details of what's required to earn each key tag.
Award a merit key tag to a student once they have achieved the criteria.
For example, if a student has walked 50 times on a walking school bus, they receive the first merit key tag '50 walks'.
We recommend you award merit key tags at your school assembly. By doing this the school shows their support for your walking school bus. It also promotes the walking school bus to other students.
If you need replacement key tags, extras for new students, or another carabiner for someone who has a full one, you can order these online.
Packs will be sent at the end of each month for any orders placed during that month.