Bike riding is an important life skill that has benefits across health and wellbeing, transport, physical literacy – but most importantly of all – it’s good fun!
One of the key barriers to providing bike education in a school setting is equitable access to bikes for all students. To address this barrier, we are working with schools and communities to create libraries of donated bikes that are owned by schools and can be used by all students. Further to this, we’ll provide AusCycling Foundation Instructor training to teachers and parents, so bike education can be embedded as part of the day-to-day activities at the school.
Thanks to the support of our friends at the Rapha Foundation, we will be able to facilitate bike libraries and instructor education for 30 schools across Australia.
One day we’d love it if bike education was a compulsory inclusion on the school curriculum, and we feel that sustainable models such as Bikes for Schools can help to make that happen.
There is no doubt that enthusiasm and passion for implementing bike education in the school from a key decision-maker/influencer is necessary. However, there are a couple of practical things that are also required:
• A space to store 15-20 bikes undercover. A 3m x 3m space would suffice.
• Four (or more) teachers and/or parents who are interested in undertaking Instructor training. Training is a mix of online learning, with a practical session and will take approximately 5 hours.
• A community relationship that can be activated to provide the basics of bike maintenance or maybe a group of students would like to take this on. In an ideal scenario, monthly safety check should be conducted on the bikes.
• A small budget for accessories including some spare helmets, a pump and spare tyres. Again, we can assist with a list to guide this and some partners if needed to fulfill it.
Through the generous support of the Rapha Foundation, we are able to fund the following for partner schools:
• The framework and set up for a bike donation day or connection with a partner that will accept and repurpose donated bikes to create the library.
• Facilitate the connection with community mentors to lead the donation drive and ensure the donated bikes are in good working order.
• Access to the online instructor training course and the conduct of the practical session and assessment onsite at the school at a time convenient to the participants.
• Lesson plans and resources for the Ride Nation Schools bike education program, which consists of three levels – Skills, Confidence and Explore.
• Ongoing support for the school to keep providing bike education for all students.
