Almost every week our newspapers report new studies on the damage that air pollution does to our health and especially to children. For example, last November, researchers revealed reduced lung growth in children who lived in the most polluted parts of east London.

In March 2018, a group of Belgian parents took action. Instead of going for coffee on a Friday morning, they closed the road outside their children’s school. They named their movement Filter-Café-Filtre. Over the next two weeks, another 42 schools joined in. Now parents and teachers in 21 cities meet each Friday morning. With hazard tape from DIY shops, banners and musical instruments, they close the roads around about 76 schools. Children play in the street and the parents drink coffee together to demand traffic-free zones, better walking and cycling routes and public transport so children do not have to be driven to school.

A survey by Sustrans found that nearly two-thirds of UK teachers wanted roads closed around their schools. Starting in Italy and then Scotland, so-called School Streets are spreading fast. About 20 UK schools now have traffic-free zones at drop-off and pickup times to reduce road accidents, reduce air pollution exposure and encourage walking and cycling to school.

• This article was amended on 26 May 2019. An editing error led to the article saying schools are closed, when it is the roads around the schools that are closed. This has been corrected.