It's that time of the year again, and schools across Britain are gearing up for Walk to School week. The national, week-long event, which is running this year between 19 - 23 May, has become a key fixture in the primary school calendar.

During this week, schools around the UK encourage pupils and families to leave their car keys on the table, and walk to school. Behind this campaign is a belief that walking to school regularly has some fantastic benefits, both for individuals and for local communities as a whole. Not only does it mean getting some real quality time between parents and children (as opposed to silently fuming in a traffic jam), but by walking 15 minutes to school and back each day, your child will be burning more calories than the whole PE provision in the national curriculum. And the benefits for congestion and local pollution are obvious - one in five cars on the road in peak time is on the school run, pumping out an average of 60 balloons worth of CO2 per car, per day.

Each year, the our campaign adopts a theme for the week, to help get pupils enthused and link regular walking to school to wider issues. This year, Walk to School week will be linking with Noise Action Week, and our participants (two million pupils last year) will be exploring their local environment through sound.

The campaign asks children to become "sound detectives" on their route to school - mapping out their local soundscapes and exploring their neighbourhoods in an unusual way. Walk to School week also want to help raise awareness of the negative impacts that road noise can have on children's learning. The World Health Organisation found that traffic noise is harming the health of a third of the population of Europe, causing sleep disturbance and disrupting learning patterns.

But at its heart, Walk to School week is a fun week that encourages pupils to get out and about in their communities, and discover the pleasure of regular walking. If you have primary school age children, now is the time to let them properly get to know their community, feel the benefits of an active lifestyle, and get the whole family into the walking habit!

For more information see www.walktoschool.org.uk