Teachers in East Riding have been teaching their pupils to learn to cycle, after East Riding of Yorkshire Council was chosen to take part in the Bikeability Trust’s pilot project Get Cycling in schools.
The Bikeability Trust has worked with cycle training providers to develop bespoke instructor training for teachers and teaching assistants. The pilot aims to give teachers the skills they need to get pupils confident on balance bikes and pedal cycles.
Schools involved in the pilot received practical and online training and printed materials to help them plan lessons and activities with their pupils, together with helmets and a fleet of cycles, to help tackle the barrier of children not having access to a cycle. The pilot aims to ensure that children can learn basic cycling skills before they learn more advanced cycling skills with a Bikeability instructor.
The pilot is currently in its third phase and has received overwhelmingly positive feedback so far, with many teachers successfully teaching the essential life skill of learning to ride to their pupils.
Emily Cherry, Chief Executive of the Bikeability Trust, said:
“I’m so pleased that East Riding of Yorkshire is one of the areas taking part in this brilliant pilot. Teaching children to cycle is such a rewarding experience and something we know teachers enjoy. It also means our Bikeability instructors can be confident that when they turn up to deliver more advanced training, pupils will have learnt the basics. We look forward to hearing how much pupils in enjoy learning this essential skill for life!”
Following on from the success of this project, Penshurst Primary staff, assisted by the loan of some of the Road Safety fleet cycles supplied by the Bikeability Trust, have started to help some of their older pupils to start cycling for the first time.
Aqib, who was unable to ride a bike, took part in Learn to Ride training with Mrs Jackson and two months later passed level 2 Bikeability training.
Aqib said – “It was great to be taught how to ride a bike (I felt silly not knowing). I really enjoyed the lessons. I was so pleased to get the opportunity to take part in Bikeability 2 and was proud to achieve Level 2.“
A fantastic result in such a short time. Well done Aqib!
Here are some more quotes from those who took part.
Lux – “I enjoyed the balance bikes around the cones, I really enjoyed it when we had to go slow and then fast. I am now more confident to ride a bike.”
Max – “I have really enjoyed learning how to ride a bike with Miss Jackson. I am now looking forward to taking Bikeability in November and I am not worried at all, and I can balance well and do signals.”
Annie – “I enjoyed balance bikes with Mrs Palmer. I enjoyed the track and being an animal going fast and slow, I can now ride my bike with ease.“