By Sean Coughlan BBC News Online education staff

School children in south-west London have set a world record for the largest "walking bus".

Pupils from four Kingston schools set the new record

There were 1,142 children, teachers and parents in the record bid by schools in Kingston, which almost doubled the previous record, held by schools in the nearby borough of Ealing.

The four record-breaking schools, St Agatha's, Latchmere Infant, Latchmere Junior and Fernhill School, were raising awareness about the borough's regular walking bus schemes - and were marking International Walk to School Day.

The idea of a walking bus is to provide families with a safe and practical way of allowing children to walk to school, rather than be driven in cars.

Adults supervise these groups of walking children, which like a bus, have stopping points on the way to school.

Healthy

There are two main aims of getting children out their parents' cars - to help them have a healthier lifestyle, and to reduce the levels of car use.

Road safety officer, James Parker, says that pupils who walk are more alert when they reach school

"If children are walking to school it eases congestion on the road and reduces pollution," says the borough's road safety officer, James Williams.

"Schools also tell us that if pupils have had the exercise of walking to school, they are more alert and more receptive to learning."

The school run accounts for about a fifth of the rush hour traffic - and initiatives such as walking buses are an attempt to reverse the trend that has seen fewer children walking to school.

Parents' fears

Fears over safety, whether from traffic accidents or predatory adults, and an increase in car ownership have contributed to this surge in travelling to school on four wheels rather than two legs.

Graham Tanner says that parents need a viable alternative to driving children to school

The school drop-off can also be part of a longer journey, such as parents driving to work, says James Williams, and the walking bus is an attempt to offer a practical alternative.

This concept will be further developed when Kingston's walking bus becomes a "park and walk" service, where parents can leave children at a central point, from which they will be walked to school.

"There's no point trying to bash people out of cars if there isn't a viable alternative," says Graham Tanner of Transport for London.

Over-protective

"We're trying to work with parents, so they don't have to set aside time every morning for the school run. If they volunteered for the walking bus, they might only have to help once a week."

The 1,000-strong walking bus marked International Walk to School Day

And he also raises the question as to whether parents can sometimes "cocoon" children for too long, with safety fears making them over-protective.

It's certainly not difficult to see the traffic problem that schemes such as the walking bus are trying to tackle.

As the school day approaches, the main roads in this London suburb are filled with a constant flow of cars.

And the big Victorian houses have two and sometimes three cars parked across their forecourts.

James Parker is optimistic about the impact of the walking bus scheme - which is part of a walking to school initiative that the borough has been promoting for seven years.

"Many parents can drive their children to school without really giving it any thought - but when they try walking, they find it might not really take them much longer," he says.