Medway children don't know where they live

The school run could be behind some childrens grasp of where they live, if a new survey is to be believed.

According to the Kia Motors poll of 2,011 UK youngsters, almost a fifth of primary-age children are stumped when asked where they live, while only one in a hundred knows the name of the next road.

However, the research suggests that the drive to school might be responsible for blunting schoolchildren's street knowledge, with those who live in London - which has the greatest proportion of kids who walk to school every day - seemingly most aware of their surroundings.

According to the poll, 86% of the capital's kids knew their home address, and an impressive 61% even knew their postcode. While 76% of children in London walk to school, barely half do in the rest of the South East - where 80% knew their address, but only a paltry 25% could give their postcode.

Meanwhile, in Wales - where car usage on the school run is most prevalent - barely three in five children knew their home address.

Released to mark the start of Walk to School Week, the research claims that being driven to school is undermining children's knowledge of local geography. It points out that the majority don't recognise landmarks, but instead have cobbled together a rudimentary picture of their surroundings that relies on recognising houses or trees.

And the aim of this year's Walk to School Week - which is organised by pedestrian charity Living Streets - is to get more parents and children exploring the area where they live by getting out and pounding the pavements.

Charity chief executive Toby Armstrong said: "Young children are often bundled from front door to car door without the opportunity to get out on foot, to learn about road safety and to get to know their local neighbourhood."

An Australian survey released last month found that children who walked to school were more engaged with their communities, while those who were driven "tended to depict abstract, isolated images of their neighbourhood environment, with the car and the road as the central theme".