Bendigo Community Health Services is set to empower local primary school students to walk, cycle or scoot to school.

BCHS is launching Move Your Way, based on successful programs in Brunswick and Coburg, which resulted in up to 47 per cent of participating families making the effort to get more active on the school run.

BCHS health promotion officer Sebastian Goscha said Move Your Way would initially be rolled out to two Bendigo schools from Term 2 this year.

“We’re currently inviting expressions of interest from schools in Eaglehawk, California Gully, North Bendigo, Kangaroo Flat, White Hills and Heathcote to take part in this fully-funded program to improve the health and wellbeing of students and their families,” he said.

“We’ll be using a range of techniques to encourage more active travel to and from school, including promoting safe cycling routes, introducing car-free zones around the schools and introducing Tag On technology.”

Tag On provides students with electronic tags to tap onto a kiosk when they arrive at school, logging their arrival and the mode they took to get there.

“Once students ‘tag on’, a notification is sent to their parent or guardian, so they know their child has arrived safely, which has been really popular with families who’ve used the system,” Sebastian said.

He said the technology had been embraced by the Melbourne schools that had adopted it, with more than half of the students at one participating primary school tagging on each day.

“We hope Bendigo schools see the same level of success, and ultimately that we begin to change the habits of how students travel to school, even if that means parking the family car further away from school and walking part of the way.

“It’s these small steps that will go a long way to improving fitness levels, health, wellbeing, and connectedness to community.”

The pilot program will include data collection on its usage and success.

Schools interested in taking part should read the expression of interest, and register their interest by April 3. They can also view a recording of our information session here.

For more information please call Sebastian on 5406 1288 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.