Viewing 19 posts - 1 through 19 (of 19 total)
  • Bikeability
  • CharlieMungus
    Free Member

    Anyone had their kids go through this scheme or had experience of it? Any opinions / views?

    captaincarbon
    Free Member

    Used to run the precursor to that course. Generally, if its run by the schools and council its good. If its run by any profit making organisation…. not so good. Having run our local school one for 3 years, and then had to ‘work’ for an organisation that was taking money to enrol kids on the course and i found the difference astounding. It was why i handed my notice in an left.

    CharlieMungus
    Free Member

    They just ran one at my local school. My son rides his bike quite happily but having failed to ‘high five’ or put his hand on his helmet safely. He had to go back to class whilst the other kids went out on the road. He came home upset and not wanting to ride his bike any more.

    Doesn’t sound like a great approach to me.

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    trailmonkey
    Full Member

    i used to deliver bikeability training in schools.

    if your lad has been returned to class because he can’t ride one handed then the instructor has made the decision that if he can’t successfully indicate his direction when he’s out on his own then he shouldn’t be riding.

    if it were one of my charges, i’d have certainly let him do the rest of the training as it makes no sense to deny him the course knowledge when he’s going to be out riding his bike regardless of whether he does the course or not.

    sadly some schools treat it as a test and if you ‘pass’ you are able to ride to school. that puts a lot of instructors undre pressure to think of the training in purely pass or fail terms which is wrong. it should be about giving the kids as much knowledge as you can in order for them to stay safe.

    captaincarbon
    Free Member

    Thats not good!.. Didnt take my lad to it i have to admit, but thats down to me being unable to teach him that sort of stuff because i expect too much from him.. coulnt teach him to swim either, despite being a qualified instructor who used to teach kids all day. Had a very trusted friend take him out on the bike and give him some schooling (tennis court stuff before going out on quiet roads). Worked a treat.

    AndyRT
    Free Member

    its sad that schools think in terms of liability so as a result kids think in terms of not being good enough.

    I hope you get your little chap out and about soon Charlie, with a smile on his face to boot!

    CharlieMungus
    Free Member

    if your lad has been returned to class because he can’t ride one handed then the instructor has made the decision that if he can’t successfully indicate his direction when he’s out on his own then he shouldn’t be riding.

    I understand that they cannot take him out on the road if they think he cannot do those things. (It is an aside that I think he can do those things, and that there must be something about the way they approached it which unnerved him). But surely then they should have had some other bike based provision, perhaps training him do do that stuff rather than sending him back into class when he was all excited about spending an afternoon doing bike things. But worst of all is that the course has resulted in him not wanting to ride his bike. WTF??

    project
    Free Member

    About 18 of us various ages from 30 to about very old, rode one of their organised rides at the weekend, excelent organisation and well led, oh and its FREE.

    alexpalacefan
    Full Member

    Charlie, I teach Bikeability and it seems to me your kids teacher did the right thing.

    It’s about riding safely on the road, and as such is primarily road-based teaching. Now the instructor has to be satisfied that the kids he/she takes out are able to ride amongst (quiet) traffic safely. If they weren’t, satisfied for whatever reason then the child has to stay at school.

    Given that it’s a road based scheme it seems a bit much to me to expect the school/local council to lay on extra provision for those kids that aren’t deemed safe.

    On a personal note I think it’s good for kids to sometimes fail to reach their goals, and to be sorted into more and less able. It teaches them valuable lessons if it’s handled well.

    APF

    CharlieMungus
    Free Member

    It’s about riding safely on the road, and as such is primarily road-based teaching. Now the instructor has to be satisfied that the kids he/she takes out are able to ride amongst (quiet) traffic safely. If they weren’t, satisfied for whatever reason then the child has to stay at school.

    Given that it’s a road based scheme it seems a bit much to me to expect the school/local council to lay on extra provision for those kids that aren’t deemed safe.

    On a personal note I think it’s good for kids to sometimes fail to reach their goals, and to be sorted into more and less able. It teaches them valuable lessons if it’s handled well.

    In that case it seems thatnthe fault lies with the implementation of the scheme.
    I can’t really see why the ones who are more able are selected for improvement and no provision is made for the
    others. I find the atitude about sorting into more and less able whilst at primary school quite banal. If the same were applied to mathematics would you still have that opinion?

    Incidentally whatbwould you call ‘handling well’ ? I’m not precious about my lad, but anyone who puts him off cycling, when he actually enjoys it, is an asshole, scheme or not. Imreally hopenyou haven’t done the same to others.

    Aidan
    Free Member

    It’s sad to hear that it put him off riding.

    I teach Bikeability sometimes and I do sometimes have to send kids back after the first day.

    We always go in with 2 instructors. If one or two of the children don’t pick up riding one-handed straight away, I try to give them the chance to have some extra practise with one instructor while the rest of the group do something else. If they are borderline with signalling, but not a liability, I always take them out on the road for the first day. If they can manage some extra practise after school (hard at this time of year) and/or they get the time to practise on very quiet roads during the course, most of them get to the standard.

    There are lots of things to take into account, though. Some of the schools I deal with are right on very busy roads, so taking someone that I can’t yet trust to ride safely with the group on our way to somewhere quiet would mean walking them all along the pavement. I might not have time to do that.

    Sadly, there’s never going to be the manpower to do an extra class for children who can’t go onto the road with the main group. Funding policy has created a race to the bottom with cycle training provision so that pupil:teacher ratios are always maxed out and timing is as crammed as possible.

    CharlieMungus
    Free Member

    There were 2 instructors

    alexpalacefan
    Full Member

    CM. Do you know what banal means?

    Children are sorted by ability all the time.

    You’re “not precious” about your lad, but can’t believe that all the bikeability instructors here might have a point?

    Thanks for your concern re. my bikeability instruction outcomes. I’m happy with them.

    Yes, there are 2 instructors. It can be quite hard to take a large group of kids who don’t ride too well onto the roads.

    APF

    CharlieMungus
    Free Member

    You’re “not precious” about your lad, but can’t believe that all the bikeability instructors here might have a point?

    No, i can’t see their point. It’s not all bikeability instructors on here, I’m quite happy with Aidan’s viewpoint. If you are happy with your outcomes, and i can only assume you would not be happy with putting kids off cycling, then you too would disagree with the actions of the instructors in this particular case. So, i can’t really understand your defensive stance. Yes, i do know what banal means, why do you ask?

    LadyGresley
    Free Member

    project – Member

    About 18 of us various ages from 30 to about very old, rode one of their organised rides at the weekend, excelent organisation and well led, oh and its FREE.
    That wasn’t Bikeability, that was our company with a slightly similar name 😀 And we have another couple of cracking routes coming up after being out on a recce today!

    And as for the OP, if a child isn’t able to ride one handed and signal, then it isn’t safe to take them out on the roads. We don’t do any stuff like “high five”, we actually test them on signalling. It is really difficult to continue including a child who isn’t able to do this, as the instructor will probably have another five children who can, and need to be able to continue with their training. We usually spend an extra 15 minutes or so, working on signalling with “wobbly” children, and that’s often all it takes to get them doing it ok.

    CharlieMungus
    Free Member

    That sounds entirely reasonable. FWIW He can ride safely enough when accompanied. At the end of the day, i’ll have to spend some time persuading him to ger back on his bike and to carry on riding and then we can get back to enjoying it.

    alexpalacefan
    Full Member

    Nice one, once it’s fun the rest will follow

    A

    antigee
    Full Member

    feel very sorry for child that wasn’t allowed to be out riding with his mates – can understand the issues though but i think it has to be made clear up front what criteria will be for training as kids really look forward to it and and being told you are not good enough go back inside isn’t a valuable life lesson – its pi$$ poor

    In that case it seems thatnthe fault lies with the implementation of the scheme.
    I can’t really see why the ones who are more able are selected for improvement and no provision is made for the
    others

    well put – i find it sadly frustrating that at my childrens school kids were told up front no bmx’s – now i understand the reflectors/brakes – road legal crap – but the kids whizzing around between parked cars up and off the pavements are probably most in need
    and could probably show the “center parcs” riders a trick or two

    Trekster
    Full Member

    I will be a volunteer assistant at a local scondary school chosen for this project starting in a couple of weeks
    Have been assisting Active Schools co-ordinators deliver Bikeability 2(old cyc prof)for last 3yrs. This is the next step up to Bb3 and taking the kids out on the road around local housing sheme. ACO and council travel plan co-ordinator will be planning the routes and I help with the skills/guiding stuff.
    Probably in a different situation to the other tutors^^^^but we have never sent anyone back to class or failed anyone yet. Some of the bikes that kids turn up with leave a lot to be desired and if they are too bad we just get them sharing. I also have 2 bikes I let the kids use and we can get some from the local Scottish Cycling rep if he can spare them.
    Currently working on a deal with one of our lbs who reclaims & recycles bikes and is prepared to do a loan scheme for us. That will also be usefull on another project.
    Have also been working with the local NHS special needs dept on a programme to get kids on bikes and that may be rolling out to some schools soon.

Viewing 19 posts - 1 through 19 (of 19 total)

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