CYCLE FRIENDLY SCHOOL AWARD Champion's Handbook
INTRODUCTION Why cycling? Right now, in Scotland, cycling is more popular than it ever has been before. That s because so many of you are seeing the benefits that cycling brings, like improving your health, saving you money, and looking after the environment. We all understand the benefits of cycling but the real question is, how do you get more people cycling at your school. Our Cycle Friendly School award is designed to help you do just that! rd, hool Awa c S ly d n ycle Frie g their C in iv e c re orders) rimary (B P rd fo rs Prio 2010 October In this guide we ll explain the benefits of becoming a Cycle Friendly School and guide you through the steps to becoming one. Why cycle friendly schools? Because our Cycle Friendly Schools award gives you an opportunity to reward the parents, teachers, and volunteers that are committed to increasing cycling at school. The Cycle Friendly School award is nationally recognised and is a great way for your school to show its commitment to cycling. Your role as the school cycling champion Yes that s right, without racing the Tour de France or competing at the Olympics, you are a cycling champion! Your role as the school cycling champion is an important one because: you will be our main point of contact throughout the awards process. you will need to motivate and coordinate others. Crosshouse Primary & S hortlees Prim June 2012 ary (East Ay rshire) receiv ing their Cyc le Friendly Sch ool Awards, The easiest and quickest way to make changes in your school is to bring together the teachers, parents, and pupils. It only takes one enthusiastic person to make big changes to your school by encouraging the different parts of your school community to work together. The role of cycling champion is important, your role is essential to achieving Cycle Friendly School status. 3
ASSESSMENT QUESTIONS THE SIX ST A CYCLE EPS TO BECOMI N FRIENDL Y SCHOO G L We have designed this award process to be as easy as p ossible. We will support 1. Find a commit ted scho ol cycle c guide you hampion r work. to help 2. Reg ister your school on line at www.cyc lefriendly school.o rg 3. Com plete the quick and easy onlin made up e self-ass of 10 yes/ essment n o a n swer que self-asses stions. An sment for example m can be found on page 15. 4. We will then c ontact you to provide or simply recomme to set up ndations the next s tep. 5. We will visit yo ur school to carry o assessme ut a short nt and pro vide supp ort or adv ice if need 6. If yo ed. ur school is succes sful you w certificate ill receive, an outdo a framed o r banner to your succ proudly d ess to you isplay to r lo cal comm goodies fo unity and r staff and some s t udents. (You may even w they will w rite 4 ant to ap a story ab proach the local pre out your a ss to see ward). if You have already answered the first self-assessment question with a yes, does your school have a school cycling champion. We ll now start to look at the other nine questions but something to bear in mind as we cover each topic is that you don t need to answer yes to all ten questions to achieve the award. Q. Does your school have cycle parking and changing facilities? Cycle parking and changing facilities are covered in questions two and three and are sometimes referred to as cycling infrastructure. Cycle Parking There are lots of different styles of cycle parking available and the ease of use can vary greatly between them. If your school doesn t have cycle parking yet don t worry as there may be funding available to help your school purchase some and there is plenty of advice available on what to go for. Things to consider when looking at cycle parking are: its location, is it convenient to use? design and installation, will it last and does it work well with the bikes that will be parked there? capacity, how many bikes will be parked there? the cost and what funding is available? To find out more about funding please contact us on 0141 229 5350 and we will sign-post you to whatever funding is available. To find out more about cycle parking either contact us on the number above or visit www.sustrans.org.uk and search for cycle parking for schools or visit the safe routes to schools section and look under resources then infosheets. 5
Changing Facilities Ideally we would like to see every school have a dedicated changing room with lockers, benches and drying facilities but we understand that isn t always practical. What we are hoping for is that, if pupils or employees at the school need to get changed that space is made for them. This can be made in the toilets by providing a bench, or even in a cupboard if it s big enough! Q. Are there safe routes to your school and do you have a travel plan? Q. Is Bikeability Scotland being delivered in your school? Cycle training is the best way to boost your confidence when cycling and confident cyclists are safe cyclists. Bikeability Scotland is the modern day cycling proficiency, designed to give the next generation of cyclists all the skills they need to tackle modern roads. There are three levels of Bikeability training: You may not instantly know the answer to this but the easiest way to find out is to find out if your school has a travel plan. If it does, great, because to create a travel plan you need to map out all of the different routes used to get to school. If your school doesn t then you might want to speak to the School Travel Professional in your council to find out how to get one started, for their contact details see who to contact on www.sustrans.org.uk/what-we-do/ safe-routes-to-schools/whats-in-yourarea/scotland. By having a travel plan you will also be answering yes to one of the self-assessment questions as well as increasing your chances of getting funding for cycling projects. Bikeability Scotland Level 1 teaches your school s pupils the basic skills of riding abike, ike balance, control, and making turns. It is usually delivered in primary five and takes place in the playground or another traffic-free environment. Bikeability Scotland Level 2 teaches pupils how to ride safely on the road and how to tackle basic junctions. It is usually delivered in primary six and takes place on quiet roads that have been risk assessed by a qualified Cycle Trainer. Bikeability Scotland Level 3 teaches pupils how to ride more complex junctions and to plan journeys effectively. It is usually delivered in primary seven and takes place on-road, on a route risk assessed by a qualified Cycle Trainer. Safe and attractive routes to school are one of the best ways of encouraging more people to cycle and there is lots of good information available on this subject. www.sustrans.org.uk offer excellent advice on safe routes to school and even have a section of their website and a newsletter dedicated to it. Our team can offer expert advice on the route planning and design, please contact 0141 229 5350 to find out more. In every local authority there is a local coordinator to help with resources. We are here to help your school deliver Bikeability Scotland at all three levels. We can provide resources, advice, and training for instructors. We can often put you in touch with volunteers as well. If you would like to know more about Bikeability Scotland or want to register yourself as a volunteer to help with delivery please visit: www.cyclingscotland.org or call us on 0131 229 5350 It is hugely important that your school participate in the Hands Up Survey Scotland. This national survey helps create a picture across Scotland of how children travel to school, and the results can also be used to help shape and develop your school travel plan. For more information on the Hands Up Survey visit www.sustrans.org.uk 6 7
Go Mountain Bike Go Mountain Bike is a course designed to improve your off-road riding skills. It is designed for both adults and children and we ve split it into four themes: 1. Riding skills 2. First aid 3. Being independent and self-supporting 4. Sharing the outdoors Other initiatives that cycling links in with Cycling can link in with the internationally recognised Eco-Schools Award. Becoming a Cycle Friendly School helps you take a step towards becoming an Eco-School, to find out more please visit www.ecoschoolsscotland.org Cycling fits in perfectly to the Transport and the Health and Well-Being outcomes of the Curriculum for Excellence (CfE). We have prepared a package of lesson plans to support teachers in covering these outcomes as part of CfE. To request these lesson plans or to find out more please contact us on 0141 229 5350. Each of these themes has five levels of ability so that there is something for everyone from the complete beginner to the seasoned mountain-biker. Go Mountain Bike works perfectly as an after school project or extra-curricular activity. If you would like to find out more about this please visit our website Q. Does your school participate in other cyc ling activities / events e.g. The Big Pedal? www.cyclingscotland.org or call 0141 229 5358. Q. Does your school offer cycling outside of school? Encouraging cycling after school is a great way to boost the number of pupils cycling to your school. There are a number of projects available to you that make setting up your own cycling club easy to do: Let s Ride is designed to make offering your own led rides easy to do. We provide you with all of the information and resources you need to set up a series of rides in your area. To find out more and to register your rides visit www.letsride.org.uk Bike Club is a great way to set up an after school cycling club. Offered by the CTC, there are even grants to get your club up and running. To find out more please visit www.bikeclub.org.uk Go Ride offers children the ability to get involved in sport cycling. To find out more please visit www.britishcycling.org.uk/go-ride If you are offering cycling outside of school, why not offer it to the wider community? You could invite pupils from other schools or clubs. By offering cycling to your community you will also be answering yes to question ten of the self-assessment. As well as after school cycling clubs there are many other cycling activities and events your school can take part in: The Big Pedal is the UKs biggest school cycling event. A virtual race that involves schools from all over the United Kingdon. This is a fantastic event for your school to be part of. To find out more please visit www.sustrans.org.uk and search for Big Pedal Bike Week, during bike week there are lots of events to take part in and there is support available for schools that want to put on their own event. To find out more visit www.bikeweek.org www.bikeeventsscotland.com is the biggest list of cycle events in Scotland. With everything from family cycle rides to elite races this easy to use website is a useful tool for promoting cycling activities Pedal for Scotland is the biggest mass participation bike ride in Scotland with rides for all abilities offered, including a family ride. To find out more please visit www.pedalforscotland.org Walk to School Week Living Streets Walk to School campaign aims to encourage all parents, children and young people to make walking to school part of their daily routine And there s more! We cannot list all of the cycling events here so why not do your own search or even come up with your own event. Sustrans have created a guide to school cycling events which is a good place to start when creating your own event. Again please visit www.sustrans.org.uk and search for pedal pack. 8 9
CASE STUDY St. Ninians Primary School in Stirling St. Ninians Primary were the first school in their area to achieve the Cycle Friendly School award. The pupils and staff there have been incredibly successful in promoting cycling and they have seen a ten fold increase in cycling in four years. Back in 2006 only 1% of pupils cycled to school, by 2010 10% were cycling to school. Here are some of the things they did to boost cycling: they successfully applied to Sustrans for a grant to improve their cycle parking they created links with their local Go-Ride club, the Wallace Warriors they developed a school travel plan with actions focussing on cycling they organised a Dr Bike session in partnership with the local community project, Recyke-A-Bike they delivered cycle training (now Bikeability) and led rides to the older pupils finally, they linked their activities to the EcoSchool Award This is a sample of the assessment form. The form can also be completed online at www.cyclefriendlyschool.org Criteria Yes No Comments 1. Does your school have a school cycling champion? 2. Is cycle parking available for pupils and staff? 3. Do you provide changing facilities for pupils and staff? 4. Are there safe routes to school in the wider community (e.g. safe access routes, 20mph zone etc) 5. Does your school have an up to date school travel plan in place? 6. Is Bikeability Scotland training being delivered? USEFUL LINKS Sustrans provide support for Safer Routes to School and School Travel Plans. Various other documents on promoting sustainable travel to school are available from their website. www.sustrans.org.uk The Bike Club has funding and support to help establish and promote extra-curricular cycling projects for young people aged 10-20 years. www.bikeclub.org.uk Scottish Cycling have lots of useful information on school clubs and cycling for sport. www.britishcycling.org.uk/scotland 10 7. Is extra curricular cycling promoted to children? The Road Safety Scotlad website has information on their Junior Road Safety Officer project as well as general road safety advice for all road users. www.road-safety.org.uk Living Streets work closely with schools to promote walking to school through their WOW (walk once a week) campaign. www.livingstreets.org.uk Cycle Streets is a useful nationwide cycle journey planning and mapping tool. www.cyclestreets.net Eco-schools is a national initiative designed to encourage whole-school action for the environment. www.ecoschoolsscotland.org 8. Does cycling contribute to wider initiatives such as the Eco-Schools Award? 9. Does the school participate in promotional cycling activities such as The Big Pedal? 10. Is cycling promoted to the wider school community? Any Other Comments: 11
If you have any questions regarding Cycle Friendly Schools contact: Cycling Scotland 24 Blythswood Square Glasgow G2 4BG T: 0141 229 5350 E: info@cyclingscotland.org www.cyclingscotland.org Scottish Charity Number SC029760 Sustrans School Travel Team Rosebery House 9 Haymarket Terrace Edinburgh EH12 5EZ T: 0131 346 1384 E: schools-scotland@sustrans.org.uk www.sustrans.org.uk/schooltravel