Santa's Visit to the Walking Bus
I've been working on our December e-newsletter today. Of course there has to be a Santa story this month so I put in a bit about when Santa came to visit our Walking Bus last year.

The kids loved it especially as our junior conductors were his helpers and helped give out free wristbands to those who took part. The press also came and took photos (Santa stories in December somehow seem to attract journalists). We had some new recruits, some of whom even came again when Santa wasn't there.

I think any walk to school scheme can do with a publicity/promotion boost like that every now and then just to keep the numbers up and help keep the profile high within school and to the wider public.

The only problem was we used a bit of a cheapo 'beard' - it didn't take the kids long to notice the elastic at the sides but at least they were impressed with the rest.

Where are the Cybermen and Welsh Dolls in Cardiff?

For the last couple of days I've been at a conference in Cardiff showing off our BrightKidz high vis wares to lots of school travel advisors (people who work for the council and help you start walk to school schemes and school travel plans etc).

I was also there as a speaker to talk about informal Walking Bus schemes and how they work. They were a friendly crowd so it was a good couple of days (and not too scary speaking as it is a subject I am passionate about).

Of course souvenirs were required for the kids. To them, Cardiff means Doctor Who (as filming is based there), so a model Tardis and first hand description of a meeting with David Tennant and a cyberman would have been first choice. Failing that a Welsh doll for my daughter (black hat etc) for a bit of tradition.... but I couldn't find any of those... and just had to make do with magazines.