Our Active School Travel (AST) program is a free tailored 3-year program for Gold Coast primary schools.
Participating schools receive a suite of resources including free toolkits, incentives and support to enable
students, parents, carers and teachers to:
- re-mode by swapping the car for walking, wheeling and public transport
- reduce car trips by carpooling or combining trips
- re-route to take a slightly different route to avoid congested roads
- re-time school-related trips, by dropping children earlier or picking them up later.
Active travel is the best way to get to and from school on the Gold Coast. When school communities actively
travel, children feel empowered, there is less traffic on our roads and less pollution in our environment.
What's new
We are currently recruiting new primary and high schools to join the Active School Travel Program in 2027!
If your school is interested, please complete the following form. Places are limited and a merit-based
selection process may apply.
Apply now
ART-AST
Calling all budding artists!
The Active School Travel ART-AST competition is back for 2026!
Enter for your chance to win a $200 Smiggle voucher (terms & conditions apply).
Download the template and entry form(PDF, 43KB) and submit an A3 landscape artwork celebrating safe active school travel themes including walking, wheeling, catching public transport, carpooling or road safety for your chance to win great prizes and be named ART-AST of the year. Remember safe active travel means helmets.
There are three categories:
Junior: prep and year one students
Intermediate: year 2 and year 3 students
Senior: year 4 to year 6 students
Competition opens 20 April 2026
Competition closes 26 June 2026
Enter through your school or
Enter here
Download the competition terms and conditions(PDF, 120KB).
Benefits of active travel
Since our program's inception, thousands of families have been walking and wheeling their way to school,
having fun, making friends and helping the environment.
Our active travel communities enjoy:
- healthier children
- safer school zones
- increased concentration in students
- making friends (students and parents)
- learning life-long skills
- a connected community
- resources and skills to empower the community
- reduced traffic around school
- helping the environment.
See our program snapshot:
Active School Travel program snapshot(PDF, 646KB)
Hear from our junior active travellers about what they enjoy doing when getting to
and from school.
Get involved
Principals, teachers & school staff
The Active School Travel program is an educational program that empowers children and school
communities to get moving safely. The program fast tracks skills so that students can safely
walk, wheel and BUS IT to school while also learning about the environment, health and
wellbeing.
Structured educational programs that expose children to practical traffic situations include:
Riding Rulz bike skills
The Riding Rulz bike skills program for Year 5 and 6 students aims to encourage students to ride
to school and to have the skills, confidence and experience to ride safely. The training
provides children with invaluable riding skills and lays the foundation for independent travel
choices.
Police Citizen Youth Club bike skills
Bike skills training for Year 4 students is held at Ashmore PCYC. Year 4 students benefit from an
excursion to learn basic bike skills and important road safety information.
BUS IT Bus skills workshops
The workshops aim to build students' road and bus safety skills, confidence, and proper bus
etiquette and include a Surfside bus ride.
Research suggests that children who start their day by walking or riding to school find it easier
to concentrate for up to four hours after their journey.
If your school is interested in learning more about the Active School Travel program, please
contact the team at activeschooltravel@goldcoast.qld.gov.au
Parents & carers
Actively travelling with your children helps create lifelong memories and time for important
conversations. Parents and carers play a critical role in influencing children's positive road
behaviour when engaging in active school travel. Even making a change once a week can make a
significant difference to school-related congestion.
If your child is enrolled in an Active School Travel school, you may also consider joining the
school's Active School Travel Committee (ASTC) to help lead and promote the program within the
school community. Contact your school to see how you can help.
Nationally, there are a number of events you may wish to participate in too, Day for Daniel, National Ride2School Day and
National Walk Safely to School Day.
Resources
Registered AST Schools
Registered Active School Travel schools follow a structured program facilitated by the City of
Gold Coast. If your school is interested in learning more about the Active School Travel
program, please contact the team at activeschooltravel@goldcoast.qld.gov.au.
Access to registered AST school content is via the AST Online resources Hub, contact your AST
Engagement Officer for assistance.
AST Fundamentals Program
For schools who are not yet registered with the Active School travel Program but would like to
start learning more about active school travel, please find some educational resources below:
AST fact sheets
Road safety fact sheets
Our new road safety fact sheet brochures offer advice for families to support their children in
learning and practicing road safety, and basic principles children can follow when actively
travelling around roads.
AST case studies
Active travel stories
Learn about Active School Travel from the schools that have benefited.
Watch our 2025 video competition winners and entrants:
2025 Winners
All 2025 Video Competition Entrants
Road safety for Active School Travel
Road safety around schools is everyone’s responsibility. Understanding and following road safety rules
in and around school zones helps to keep our school communities safe.
Traffic and parking rules in school zones help to optimise traffic movement and make school zones safer
places for children.
The City of Gold Coast is responsible for enforcing parking rules, and offers community education programs to support safe active travel, including road safety skill programs for primary school age students.
Download our brochure:
School zone road rules brochure(PDF, 477KB)
Road safety awareness builds important life skills essential to everyone. To protect them for life, children
should begin road safety education from an early age and continue to be reinforced through to young
adulthood and beyond.
STOP, LOOK, LISTEN & THINK
A helpful strategy that supports children to cross the road safely.
- STOP one step back from the footpath or shoulder of the road if there is no footpath
- LOOK in all directions for approaching traffic
- LISTEN in all directions for approaching traffic
- THINK about whether it is safe to cross the road – when the road is clear, or all
traffic has stopped. When crossing, walk straight across the road. Keep LOOKING and LISTENING for
traffic while crossing.
Our active travel schools
We have so many schools that we have worked with to make Active School Travel a success, we want to give a
shout out to these schools!
View schools
- Current
- Caningeraba State School
- Coombabah State School
- Coomera Springs State School
- Coomera State School
- Currumbin State School
- Elanora State School
- Foxwell State Secondary College
- Gainsborough State School
- Gilston State School
- Highland Reserve State School
- Kings Christian College Pimpama Primary
- Kings Christian College Pimpama Secondary
- Labrador State School
- Mudgeeraba Creek State School
- Musgrave Hill State School
- Nerang State School
- Norfolk Village State School
- Picnic Creek State School
- Pimpama State Primary College
- Pimpama State School
- Springbrook State School
- St Brigid's Catholic Primary School
- St Joseph's College
- Surfers Paradise State School
- Tallebudgera State School
- William Duncan State School
- Worongary State School
- Completed
- Arundel State School
- Ashmore State School
- Clover Hill State School
- Coombabah State School
- Coomera Rivers State School
- Emmanuel College
- Foxwell State Secondary College
- Guardian Angels Primary School
- Helensvale State School
- Jubilee Primary School
- Kings Christian College Pimpama
- Merrimac State School
- Miami State School
- Mudgeeraba State School
- Oxenford State School
- Park Lake State School
- Robina State School
- Southport State High School
- Southport State School
- St Andrews Lutheran College
- St Brigid's Catholic Primary
- St Francis Xavier Catholic Primary
- St Joseph’s College
- Upper Coomera State College
- Varsity College Primary Campus
Contact us
If you are interested in learning more about the Active School Travel program, please email our team at activeschooltravel@goldcoast.qld.gov.au