Questions asked over school bike scheme

Over 70 South Lanarkshire primary schools have taken part in Bikeability training aimed at older pupils.

Bikeability Scotland is designed to give children the skills and confidence they need to cycle safely on the roads, and there are two levels of the training which are carried out from primary five to seven.

Level one covers basic cycling skills and is taught in the playground and other traffic-free environments, and this is typically delivered to primary five pupils.

And level two is the core training of the programme which takes place on quieter risk-assessed single lane roads with simple junctions. This is delivered to primary six and seven pupils and focuses on roads in accordance with the Highway Code and riding safely and responsibly in traffic.

From the last academic term (2021/2022), 1560 pupils from 58 schools completed level one of the course, 1594 pupils from 57 schools were subject to assessment at level two this included 1365 pupils from 49 schools completing Bikeability Level 2 and 42 schools delivered multi-level training.

In total, the number of schools across South Lanarkshire delivering at least one programme was 72.

All primary schools are invited to take part in the programme, and a free one-day Bikeability Scotland instructor training course is offered to all new or existing school trainers. This includes school staff, volunteers and any other interested parties looking to update their skills and knowledge to National Standards for cycle training and Bikeability Scotland Level 1 and Level 2 programmes.

In autumn last year, two instructor training courses were delivered by Traffic and Transportation Officers and 24 candidates were successfully certified as Bikeability Scotland instructors on completion of these courses.

Councillor John Anderson ( East Kilbride Central South) questioned the number of primary schools taking part in the programme, as only 58 per cent of all South Lanarkshire primary schools offer at least one Bikeability training course.

He said:“I notice there are fewer schools that take part in this than there are in the calendar competition. I’m just wondering if our education colleagues could make it compulsory as part of the curriculum and they have people offering this to every school because there will be some schools who never ever get it.

“I think it is quite important because there are some benefits from cycling and from the safety aspects as well, I know a lot of schools take kids swimming and give them swimming lessons because of the dangers of water, but I think this is more important or certainly as important.”

Council officers confirmed that schools are offered support to get them sorted to conduct the training.

Councillor Julia Marrs (Clydesdale North), offered suggestions on how to get more volunteers and said: “I’m wondering whether something that could be looked at is that parent volunteers and friends of the school volunteers tend to be associated with the children that are going through bikeability which is in the more senior phase of their primary education, so those parents and the friends of the school move on pretty quickly and there’s a constant turnover of volunteers.

“Perhaps that’s something to encourage parents in the younger school, although their children might not be taking part at that time it gives a longevity of volunteers for that particular school to ensure they take part.”

There is a small fleet of bikes and helmets which was funded by Cycling Scotland, available to schools.