The Isle of Wight Council supports School Cycling.
For many years the Isle of Wight Council has been the recipient of a grant to support cycle safety
training in schools, post covid the Sports Development Unit have been trying to expand the current
offer and engage more schools. Our aim is to offer every child the opportunity to participate in the
recognised cycle safety training program Bikeability.
Bikeability was introduced in 2006 and is the naConal standard for cycle safety, very similar to the old
cycle proficiency many of us may have done in years gone by. The current scheme is made up of
three main levels the first being an introduction delivered in a school playground or traffic free space,
the second level see’s instructors guide children around the roads of their local area, children get to
practice things like navigating junctions, passing parked cars and other road safety skills, all within a
live traffic environment. The third level takes the skills developed in level 2, to more complicated
juncCons to further test their skills. The Isle of Wight Council has a small team, so our delivery
focuses on level 1 and 2, this makes sure we are able to cover what is needed to enable as many
children as possible to gain confidence while out cycling.
Looking back to 2022 we are pleased with the progress we’ve made. School prioriCes were different
post Covid, so a lot of effort went into re-connecting and promoting the benefits of Bikeability to
school leaders. We were able to deliver sessions in 21 separate primary schools focusing on the year
5 and 6 children, this was more than enough to saCsfy our grant allocation and is encouraging for
2023 and future years as we hope to expand. 2022 also saw us recruit 2 new instructors, this was the
first time we have been able to bring new staff onboard, previous attempts have always fallen short
as the time commitment required to pass the course has put many off. We are keen to keep growing
our team and would encourage anyone interested in finding out more to contact us at
sports.unit@iow.gov.uk.
Moving into 2023 we are pleased to announce that we have received a grant offer from the
Bikeability trust with a value of a little over £15,000, with the team we have we anticipate this will
allow us to deliver cycle sessions to around 600 children, almost double the pre pandemic number. In
addition to this we’ve been successful in securing a new, fully funded, pilot called “Get Cycling”, this
funding provides 10 primary schools with balance bikes and helmets as well as training for 2 staff
members at each school. Once trained they’ll be able start to integrate cycling to their lessons in
recepCon and year 1. The idea behind the project is to offer children a positive cycling experience at
an early age, the project teaches them the core skills associated with riding a bike as well as an early
introducCon to road safety. It’s hoped this will encourage them to want to do more cycling outside of
school, so by the Cme they access our Bikeability sessions they are comfortable and confident
cyclists.
Schools that have signed up to the pilot are
• St Marys Catholic Primary
• Dover Park Primary
• Nettlestone Primary
• Newport CE Primary
• Barton Primary
• Wooton Community Primary
• Queensgate Foundation Primary
• Brighstone Church of England Aided Primary
• Lanesend Primary
• The Bay CE School
Here is a picture of the children at St Marys Primary school in Ryde who are looking to geting started
with their session.
