This week is a chance for children everywhere to be encouraged to travel to school on their bike over a five day week during June. Cycling could help to kick-start a new exercise routine for kids, after all as little as fifteen minutes of physical activity a day can cut a child’s risk of becoming obese by as much as 50%. In addition it will reduce the amount of traffic around the school itself, not forgetting it will also make a difference to the environment too. So how can you get involved?

One great idea is to organize a bike breakfast, because everyone is going to need the right fuel inside them in a morning, to get through the school day and the bike ride too. Get the children involved by designing a poster, award certificates after the event for those who complete the planned event. See if you can get some of the teachers to take part, and see how far they travel in a week.

Some hints and tips for your planning session: 

  1. Ensure that your bike is in good working order, checking tyres, lights, brakes etc
  2. Plan your route. This is important as you need to know where you are going. Make sure you know where any busy road junctions are, and always make sure that someone knows the route you will be taking.

Bike week runs from 9-13th June, unless you are in Northern Ireland where it is 14-22 June. Various competitions are already planned, including a competition where you get the chance to design a cycling jersey. Other competitions include ‘The Big Pedal’ which is the UK’s largest inter-school cycling and scooting challenge. For two weeks schools compete to see who can get the most pupils, families and staff members to arrive by bike or scooter. The last event saw over a million active journeys recorded across the country.

So get out of the car and put on your best children’s clothing, be it a fleece or waterproof (looking at the weather outside at the moment, the latter might be the best option) and get active by getting on your bike.