Kids, on your bikes!

Many schools across the UK are rolling out cycle to school schemes, in a bid to make the planet greener and children healthier. Not only this, but to also teach them the curriculum in a fun, yet engaging way at the same time.

Winton Primary School in Bournemouth has started a cycle to school scheme to tackle the additional issue of the local area traffic. An increase in the student population, after the school decided to double the number of classes in each year group from two to four, means that morning and afternoon traffic has become troublesome in the area.

Headteacher Neil Tarchetti said: “Cycling and walking to school has become part of our efforts to build children’s awareness of environmental issues. Many students didn’t previously know what to do to lower their carbon footprint so we are bringing that into the curriculum more and developing their understanding.

“Initially pupils are just interested in enjoying a ride on their bike. However, we wanted to develop it beyond that and help these young people understand why cycling to school would be a good thing to do for the environment. A year ago, they didn’t have any awareness, but now it is part of the curriculum. Hopefully we are improving things.”

The average school journey is approximately 1.5 miles, which is just a 15-minute cycle or scoot, but the majority of children are still being driven to school.

While the kids seemingly love riding their bikes to school, which is great, Gary Shipp, from the charity Sustrans, points out that it is the mind of the parents that needs changing, in order to be able to successfully implement the scheme.

Cycle to school is a great way to keep the environment green and children healthy. Not only this but it provides valuable learning skills to children surrounding the importance of an active lifestyle, and allows more family time.

Lets hope we see more schools follow in these footsteps in the near future.

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