CTUK News - March 2010

Cycling is a Life Skill

Malorees Junior School in North West London views cycling as a life skill. Alongside swimming, cycling is considered a useful and important activity that will deliver real benefits to the children throughout their lives.

‘Cycling is so important for the children and they love it. It is good for their health but you don’t have to be really fit to be a superb cyclist. In that way it is a very inclusive activity. As well as hand-to-eye and balance skills, cycling on the road helps to develop the children’s confidence. The parents also appreciate the child’s improved road skills and traffic awareness when cycling as a family.’
Pam Thomas, Head Teacher, Malorees Junior School

Lollipop patrols get cycling taster session

For their one day training course, School Crossing Patrol Managers at Hackney Council swopped their lollipop signs for bicycles in a cycling taster session.

Every year Hackney Council organises a training day for their School Crossing Patrols (SCPs). The training deals with issues relevant to the SCPs work, from safety aspects and vehicle management to basic matters such as uniform requests.

This year School Crossing Patrol Manager, Brigid Brennan, decided to organise something a little different - a cycle training taster session for the patrollers with Cycle Training UK (CTUK).

‘Over the last few years the number of cyclists has increased dramatically in Hackney. We felt that it would be helpful for our School Crossing Patrols to have an understanding of cycling and the cyclist’s perspective when they managed a crossing. In addition, many SCPs do not live close to their patrol site. Cycling to work would be an ideal travel solution for SCPs to get to their schools as its cheaper and in many cases quicker than travelling by bus.’
Brigid Brennan, School Crossing Patrol Manager, Hackney Streetscene