Miller Homes Makes Dreams Come Shoe

Miller Homes is putting a spring in the step of pupils at a Hampshire school with a special competition to support Walk to School Week.

The leading housebuilder joined forces with Living Streets, the UK charity for everyday walking, to sponsor Alton Infant School during Walk to School Week in May. The initiative encouraged families to leave their cars behind and use their feet to make their way to school instead.

The support provided by Miller Homes for the week-long initiative funded challenge packs, which included a competition to get pupils to design the happiest shoes they could imagine.

The winning design was created by seven year-old Miela Abbott, and to recognise the outstanding design, Miela won a family ticket to theme park Paultons Park, near Romsey.

Miller Homes has been providing high quality family homes for the past 80 years and sustainability is high on the agenda at its nearby development in Alton at Anstey Gardens.

Linda Humphrey, sales manager at Miller Homes, explains that this was a great reason to get involved in the campaign:

“We are delighted to have supported Walk to School Week because of the positive impact it has had on our communities. The resource packs given to schools were designed to spark the imagination and we certainly saw evidence of this in the competition entries we received.

“Whenever we build new homes, we ensure that developments are within walking distance of local amenities, with the vast majority being within a mile of the nearest school. We hope the competition, and the initiative as a whole, helped children to discover that walking to school is far more enjoyable than being taken by car.”

The initiative was well received by students at Alton Infant School as Jayne Broach, Headteacher, explained.

“There is an amazing community spirit here in Alton and parents and pupils alike really embraced the Walk to School Week that we participated in with Miller Homes.

“We had some truly innovative ideas for the competition. I hope that the effort that was put in to many of the wonderful designs will help pupils, who do not already walk to school every day, to remember the initiative in a positive light and inspire them to get active on the journey to school more often in the future.”