We visit an Oxfordshire school that’s running a classic bike restoration class for its pupils
Cokethorpe School has built into its curriculum a lesson that deals with a different type of classics, with its Build-a-bike Bantam project
I’VE JUST VISITED a school that’s very different to any educational establishment I attended in my youth – in a good way. After an invitation from Simon Carter, who teaches History and Politics at Cokethorpe School, just outside Oxford, I went along to take a look at their ‘Builda-bike’ life-skills programme. They have a group of around 15 students, ranging from 11 to 18, currently involved in the restoration of a 1960 BSA Bantam.
Simon said they have been following with great interest the progress of young Lewis Perry’s Excelsior restoration – which I’ve been helping him with and reporting on in CB – and wondered if I was free to pay them a visit. It was an opportunity not to be missed, and Lewis wanted to come too, so off we went to see the project and meet the group.
Cokethorpe is an independent day school that takes boys and girls aged four to 18 and the project group has two female members (although they were absent for our visit). Simon explained that one issue with the group was the need to divide jobs according to age – or more precisely, strength – so younger pupils tackle jobs like dismantling the carburettor, leaving senior students to apply greater body weight to seized chassis bolts.
Long-term motorcyclist Simon enjoys off-duty bike chats with fellow enthusiast (and Design Technology teacher) Colin Johnson; the idea for the programme arose when one of Colin’s A-level DT students, Henry, asked if he could clean up some Honda parts in the workshop.
The first group project was stripping one of Simon’s old
‘THE STUDENTS RANGE FROM 11 TO 18, WITH TWO FEMALE MEMBERS’