Cycling to School
Cycling to school encourages independence and builds confidence, reduces congestion and makes roads safer – especially around school gates. An active start to the day leads to pupils achieving better academic results due to improvements in their brain function, behaviour, attendance and school engagement.
The following Youth Sport Trust video shows how any activity helps pupils.
"
Nationally only around 1% of children aged 5 - 10 and 2% of children aged 11 - 16 cycled to school in 2015.
In the urban area of Bedford the figure for lower and primary schools is 3.8%, nearly 4 times the national average, although in hands up surveys more than 7 times this number on average would like to cycle if allowed by their parents or guardians.
For middle and secondary schools the figure is 9.4%, nearly 10 times the national average.
All borough schools now have travel plans in place though which actions are taken to encourage more pupils to use sustainable transport to get to school.
Cycle Training
Bikeability is the National Standard for Cycle Training. Bedford Borough Council receives a grant from the Government each year to enable schools to run training courses. The training has now been outsourced to Outspoken Training. If your school does not currently offer one please contact: 01234) 228336 or e-mail: road.safety@bedford.gov.uk.
For details of Bikeability and other information on cycle training please click here .
Cycling UK (formerly CTC) in 2014 published a step by step guide on 'How to teach a child to ride a bike'. The video can be viewed here .
Cycling UK also has a guide to cycling on the road with children which can be accessed here .