Laura and St Ebbes School

Laura is the Active Travel Champion at St Ebbes School. She says:

I was volunteering for School Streets at the barrier when the trial began and some of the parents were very, very angry. So now, the way I approach it is, let’s give the school and the parents as much support as we can to cycle more, rather than just telling them that they have to. 

I discovered that a lot of parents couldn’t cycle, so of course they weren’t teaching their children. You can tell someone the benefits of cycling a thousand times but they won’t be able to change until they’ve had that cycle training.

To support families through the first year of the transition to School Streets, every half term I ran an absolute beginners cycle training session at the school, with another parent. We did it in the playground and around the school. We’ve taught around twenty children and parents how to ride a bike, how to be more confident and they also had the possibility to join “Ride on quiet roads” training with a qualified instructor. Now I am running a different project that teaches children and staff to ride bikes during school hours or just before school starts.

I also set up a bike library at the school, so if anyone needs a bike they can use it. All the bikes were donated; by other parents and people in the community. Now we’ve got eight bikes and I believe that many more families are cycling to school.

To me, cycling to school is just a logical thing; it’s quicker, it’s free, it means you can go to a playground or park on the way home and spend more time with your children. But I do understand that for some people, it’s a big ask. That’s why we need to give that support.

I cycle from Donnington Bridge to St Ebbes; it’s about a mile and a half each way. On my way, I pick up a few other children and we cycle together. There was a time last summer when I was cycling with nine children! We go along the cycle lane, over the crossing and then the rest of the way on the quieter roads. 

With my older one, we practice our times tables while we’re riding to school. 

I think people just need free training, once a week, in every single park, wherever they are. That would make a huge change.