Students crank out cycle challenge
Waipawa School pupils work on skills for their big ride
After a really successful trip last year, we decided to make our Waipawa School bike trip between Waipawa and Waipukurau an annual event. So on Tuesday, September 19 Waipawa School Year 3-4 students biked from Waipawa to Waipukurau and back again.
It is a huge accomplishment for these students, as some couldn’t even ride a bike at the beginning of the term. Quite a few students graduated to bigger bikes over the term, and that’s when their confidence really soared.
The Year 4 students who rode last year were great leaders, and they were just so keen to prepare themselves for a big ride.
This year we encouraged students to strive for a bigger challenge. The challenge was to ride from school, down Tapairu Rd, and then along the stopbank to Waipukurau. In order to make this group, each child needed to prove their stamina, their road safety skills and their ability to ride up hills.
Twenty children tackled this challenge and were absolutely amazing.
We arrived at Russell Park, Waipukurau, and the children were extremely grateful to receive a surprise ice block, courtesy of Che Lind, school community officer, and the Blue Light Police.
Che led our Safe Cycling programme the week before our event and commented on how wellprepared the children were. He couldn’t believe that everyone was successfully riding their bikes, after seeing some of them really struggling in week one of the term.
The children were successful because they rode their bikes every day. Our cycling programme meant that children were setting weekly goals, such as learning how to wear their helmets correctly, keeping their feet on their pedals when braking, slowing
down before the corners, keeping safe distances from the person in front of them, and riding at a comfortable pace for 30 minutes.
It was awesome to see the children having fun at Russell Park, using the fields, playground, skatepark and the
pump track. They still had energy to burn, even after the cycling. We had a surprise sausage sizzle, many thanks to Countdown Supermarket for sponsoring this, and to Matua Hayden and Constable Che for cooking.
After this tasty treat, we set a Mathletics challenge for the children, which saw them racing all over the park, looking for the symbols. Some teams did a lot of running, and some other teams were a bit more strategic. All teams successfully decoded the puzzle — Biking is Cool.
It was time to head back to Waipawa and it was impressive to see everyone push themselves just a little bit harder to get home.
A huge thank you to the parents, and grandparents, who cycled with us, or helped out, on the day. Having such great support meant that the day ran smoothly. We can’t wait to do it all again next year.
Thumbs up to the drivers who slowed down as we walked our bikes across the Waipawa Bridge, that was very much appreciated.