Travel

Developing sustainable and eco-friendly travel to and from our school

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Year 5 and 6 Independent Travel

Year 5 and 6 children are allowed to travel to and from school independently if parental consent is received. Please email the school office directly to give this permission.

About our Travel Committee

The University of Cambridge Primary School Travel Committee is a parent-school partnership made up of parent volunteers and school team. The purpose of the committee is to discuss travel policy, organise travel events and promote sustainable and active travel to the school for parents and children. The committee works alongside the Junior Travel Ambassadors, who are children in year 5 who have applied for the position.

If you would like to contact the travel committee please email enquiries@universityprimaryschool.org.uk FAO UCPS Travel Committee.

Vision for travel 

The University of Cambridge Primary School encourages children, parents and visitors to travel to the school by sustainable travel modes, including walking, cycling, public transport and car sharing. The travel committee sets realistic travel behaviour targets at the start of each academic year and a programme of measures that will be implemented to reach the targets set. It identifies the key barriers to sustainable travel and proposes a series of measures to address them.

The aims is to reduce the number of car trips for journeys to/from the school and to other locations by staff and pupils; to encourage children, parents and members of the team to travel to the site by walking, cycling, scooting and public transport; to ensure safe and direct age appropriate walking and cycling provision to and from school for all pupils living in cycling and walking distance to school; to encourage sustainable travel to visitors and contractors to access the site sustainably; and to demonstrate the University of Cambridge Primary School commitment to policies aiming to reduce the environmental impact of the school run.

Events

We have taken part in a variety of different national active travel events, including Bike to School Week; Walk to School Week; and Sustrans Big Pedal. As part of the curriculum, KS2 children also undertake cycle training with Bikeability and all pupils take part in road safety, cycle safety and healthy living lessons termly. School-based events have also been organized by the travel committee involving Outspoken Cycles demonstrating cargo bikes, Dr Bike providing bicycle maintenance and assessments; and a hi vis jacket giveaway.

Getting to and from our school

Cycling

  • Cycle routes: the Ridgeway is a dedicated cycle and pedestrian route that runs from Girton, through Eddington, to Storey’s Way in Cambridge. A useful tool to plan your cycle route is Cycle Streets.
  • Cycle parking: there are cycle racks outside of the school for you to use at drop off and pick up times.
  • Workshop repairs and bike maintenance are available at certain times to encourage and support parents and guardians who travel to school by bike.
  • The University of Cambridge offers free urban cycle skills training to cover all abilities from basic to advanced.

Public Transport

  • The Universal bus goes from Eddington to Addenbrooke’s via key University sites and Cambridge Rail Station. The timetable can be found online. It is available for all to use and University staff can travel for £1 if you show your ID card. Children (5-15) can travel for £1.50 one way or £2 for a day rover.
  • The Madingley Road Park and Ride is only a short walk from UCPS and you can also access the Citi 5 or Citi 6 buses from Huntingdon Road or the X3 or Citi 4 from Madingley Road.

Driving

  • Parking can be found at Madingley Road Park and Ride (free for up to 18 hours), Sainsbury’s (free for up to 90 minutes) and the Travellers Rest Beefeater on Huntingdon Road (only at drop off and pick up times). It is recommended that parents who must drive park at these locations and walk to the school for drop off and pick up.
  • In order to keep Eddington as safe as possible for all children and visitors, please ensure you keep to the 20mph speed limit and take extra care when reversing/manouvering.
  • Parking is extremely limited in Eddington, with some cashless on-street parking available. The first hour of parking is free however you must obtain a ticket or register your vehicle by phone, even for the first hour.
  • Parking enforcement is in place in Eddington and anyone found to be violating parking restrictions will receive a parking charge notice, this includes but is not limited to double parking, not parking in a designated parking bay, parking without registering your vehicle and parking on double yellow lines.

PLEASE NOTE any issues related to parking should be raised directly with the Eddington travel team, who can be contacted at travel@eddington-cambridge.co.uk

Other Links

Bicycle

Welcome to cycling in Cambridge

Cambridge city cycle map

NWCD cycle security poster

Bike security at Eddington

Cycle lighting information

Bus

U bus timetable

Car

Eddington Car Hire

Parking information can be found here.

Live public transport information now available!

Smart Cambridge have developed a pocket Smart Panel which provides live information on bus times, train times and the weather. It can be found via this link on your smartphone and allows you to check accurate live times of buses (some bus stops only show scheduled times). You can also access this information online here.