TAVISTOCK primary school children walked a safe route to the town's college as part of an initiative to encourage them to cycle or walk when they step up to secondary school.

Year 6 pupils from Tavistock Community Primary, Whitchurch Primary and St Peter's Primary walked to Tavistock College as part of a Sustainable Travel and Road Safety in School Transitions (STARSS) week.

Rosie Agnew, Devon County Council's sustainable schools travel adviser, organised the event in conjunction with the three primaries and the college.

She said: 'The project was a fun way of promoting walking and cycling as part of the transition to Tavistock College. The pupils were shown appropriate routes to school and learned about safe behaviour.

'The pupils have enjoyed a week of special lessons in their primary schools learning about road safety and their impact on the environment.

'Champion trials rider Andrei Burton put on a fantastic display to demonstrate how exciting cycling can be and to promote the Tour of Britain cycle race which is coming through Tavistock in September. The pupils were enthralled and left eager to get on their bikes.'

The pupils divided into groups to discuss the good and bad areas along their route and to provide advice to walkers and cyclists through a presentation.

The winning teams have been invited back to Tavistock College to work with older students on a 'Routes to School' booklet and DVD. These will be distributed to all Year 6 pupils so they can plan their travel to the college.

Sally Hubbard, Tavistock College head of transition, said: 'It is a great initiative and we hope the primary school children's work will prove effective in encouraging new students to walk or cycle to college. It's very important that they look after themselves however they come to school.'