Bikeability

Step 1 - Teach the facts

Start by talking through these key facts with your pupils:

• Cycling is a cheap, effective and environmentally friendly way of staying fit.
• Cycling is an efficient form of transport so you spend less time sitting in traffic jams and arrive on time.

Use the interactive game Cycling trumps to explore the benefits of cycling with your class.

Pedalling positive

• There are more cycle routes available than ever before.
• Teachers say that pupils who cycle to school are energised, excited, ready to learn and travelling safely and independently.
• Once pupils have been involved in Bikeability they are far more likely to become regular cyclists.
• Many schools have benefited from School Travel Plan grants and other Local Authority Safe Routes to School funding to install secure cycle storage.
• Cycle locks get better all the time, and more and more schools are providing secure storage for bikes at school.
• If parents choose to cycle to school with their children on the way to work they’ll be less likely to be late, and will feel sharper and fitter when they get there – they’ll probably lose weight too.
• Most pupils live close enough to school to cycle comfortably – the average journey in England is 2.3 miles.
• Apart from snow, ice and fog, which in fact doesn’t happen for many days a year, you can cycle comfortably on most days of the year.
• These days, cycling helmets are actually considered quite cool.

Step 2 - Discuss the issues

Talk to pupils about this key issue: If cycling is so good for children and adults alike why don’t more people leave the car at home and cycle to school?

Some of the arguments adults often use about why they are not keen to let their children cycle more are:

• It is too dangerous on the roads these days.
• I’m worried about their skills on the road.
• It’s too far.
• There’s nowhere to leave the bike once you get to school.
• The bike might get stolen.
• They have too much kit to carry.
• They might get lost.
• I just think it’s easier to drop the children off at school on the way to work.
• The weather in this country is too bad for cycling.
• My children make such a fuss about wearing a cycling helmet I just don’t think it’s worth the argument every morning.

How do the pupils feel about these points?
Do they share the views of adults?


Do some market research

Ask pupils to conduct a survey to investigate how their peers and families feel about cycling. Include a section asking for ideas about how to encourage people to cycle more. You can use the template below or create your own survey sheet.


Download  the Survey – template

Step 3 – Create a school cycling policy

Ask pupils to contribute to the creation of a school cycling policy. This is an excellent project for the school council to get their teeth into. It is also an essential element of the School Travel Plan (STP): “Carry out surveys to find out how pupils currently travel to school and how they would like to travel to school.”

The Government will award a grant to English state schools that implement a STP to help fund measures identified in the plan. This could include things like cycle parking and lockers. Details are available from local authority school travel advisers.

Here’s a checklist of points to include in a school cycling policy:

• Training (visit the Bikeability website for information about training)
• Cycle storage
• Secure lockers for helmets and bikes
• Cycle permit scheme – granted on agreement of rights and responsibilities of the cyclists and their parents
• Roadworthiness of bikes – cycle maintenance
• Car parking around the school
• Road design around the school

Work out a realistic timescale for implementation of your cycle policy:

• Who will be responsible for what?
• How will you know your cycling policy is successful?
• How will you monitor and review the policy?

Examples of School Travel Plans (this will open as a new window) can be found on the Sustrans website.

Step 4 - Get cycling!

Find out how your pupils can get involved in Bikeability – the updated cycling proficiency scheme for the 21st century. The scheme that gives children the skills and confidence they need to cycle in modern road conditions.

"We feel that cycling should be a lifelong skill. It is something that should be taught at primary school so that every child leaving school has the skills and confidence to cycle on the roads."
Headteacher Alan Rees, Westbury Park Primary School in Bristol

"We want every child on a bike to be trained to have road sense to keep themselves safe. As a school, we are developing our travel plan and promoting cycling as a very good way of getting to school. We are certainly going to run the course again. The children love it.”
Headteacher Jeremy Doyle, Redhills Community Primary School in Exeter

“Bikeability training has become one of our best received initiatives. Schools really buy into the idea of safer cycling, and Bikeability also helps them achieve their travel and sustainability plans. I can’t think of any other schemes which have been more popular – it’s fantastic.”
Lee Farrell, Partnership Development Manager, Spalding

If you are interested in introducing Bikeability training to your school visit the What is Bikeability? section for more information.

You may decide that you could do with a little help, someone to promote the cause of cycling in your school community. Then you could consider adopting a school 'cycling champion'. These could be parents or teachers who are prepared to put in that extra bit of effort to 'champion' cycling for their school to change opinions and make a real difference.

For more information about becoming a cycling champion please visit the Safe Routes to School (this will open in a new window) website.

It’s worth getting in touch with Bike It (this will open in a new window), a project run by Sustrans, which has already quadrupled the number of children cycling to its target schools. The Bike It team have officers in different regions of the country. They will work with your school in a variety of ways to get the children cycling.

So contact the Bike It team, or contact your local authority and let them know you’d like a Bike It officer in your area.

Step 5 - Make yourself heard

Use some of the communication tools provided on this site to help you make the case for cycling. These include:

• a letter to parents
• support for an assembly presentation.

Spread the message by holding a cycling awareness event for parents and carers. This could include:

• a short talk from a member of the senior management team explaining why the school has decided to get involved in Bikeability and to promote cycling
• short presentations from pupils about how they feel about cycling
• a cycle maintenance and repair workshop.