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news
School sign.jpgDerby school threatens to ban pupils from cycling
The head teacher of a school in Derby has threatened to ban pupils from riding their bikes in the school grounds.
The Derby Telegraph reports that Zoe House, head teacher at Lees Brook Community School in Chaddesden, wrote to parents following an unspecified number of incidents “involving students travelling to and from school on bikes.”
She said that several students had been left with cuts and bruises, with the school responding by holding assemblies about road safety, staff patrolling the street outside, and meeting local police to take advice.
In her letter, Mrs House said: “Unfortunately, these steps have not had the impact we hoped for.
"We have received an increased number of phone calls from the local community, as well as parents, contacting the school about students riding their bikes inappropriately and dangerously.”
Some individual students have already been banned from riding bicycles on school premises, however Mrs House, who urged parents to speak to their children about “the importance of road safety while cycling,” said that it could be extended to all pupils,
“Despite regular reminders, the majority of students are not wearing cycle helmets,” she wrote.
"Most have them, but they stay in bags or on the handlebars of their bikes.
"Students have been banned from riding their bikes in the school grounds but some continue to ignore this rule.
“The safety and welfare of all of our students is of paramount importance to us.
“If we do not see a rapid reduction in the number of incidents, we will be forced to ban all students from bringing their bikes onto the school grounds.”
The Derby Telegraph reported that Mrs House had not disclosed how many of the school’s students ride bikes to get there.
Recent months have seen a number of schools around the country seek to ban children from cycling or impose conditions on them such as being required to wear a cycle helmet and high-visibility clothing.
> Cycling UK urges: “Stop making cycling to school difficult”
Duncan Dollimore, head of campaigns at the charity Cycling UK, told road.cc: “Judging by media reports, this ban follows reports regarding the behaviour of a few young people.
“It’s interesting that the head teacher has not disclosed how many pupils currently cycle to school, but presumably there are those who do so sensibly and safely.
“Banning them from bringing their bikes into the school grounds is effectively a ban on cycling to school, unless they’re happy to lock their bikes to railings outside the school, and all because of concerns, whether justified or not, regarding the behaviour of some of their peers."
He added: “A fine message to send to young people: we’ll stop you all from doing something which is healthy, and which schools are obliged to promote through a school travel plan, because the adults can’t be bothered to deal with issues raised about individuals – and because we can.”
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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23 comments
Will they ban the playing of football because of a few yellow cards despite explaining the rules a couple of times?
Ban parking after some parking tickets?
Section 508A of the ‘Education and Inspections Act 1996’ “places a general duty on
local authorities to promote the use of sustainable travel and transport. The duty
applies to children and young people of compulsory school age who travel to receive
education or training in a local authority’s area. The duty relates to journeys to and
from institutions where education or training is delivered.” [Department for Education, 2014. Home to school travel and transport statutory guidance.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/home-to-school-travel-and-tra...
Under the Education and Inspections Act 1996, [councils] also have a
legal duty to:
• Assess the travel and transport needs of children, and young people within the authority’s area;
• Audit the sustainable travel and transport infrastructure within the authority’s area that may be used when travelling to and from, or between schools/institutions;
• Develop a strategy to improve the sustainable travel and transport infrastructure within the authority so that the travel and transport needs of children and young people are best catered for;
• Promote sustainable travel and transport modes on the journey to, from, and between schools and other institutions; and
• Publish a ‘Sustainable Modes of Travel to School’ (SMOTS) Strategy.
So, any chance of a ban on headteachers who undermine their local authority's legal duty to 'promote the use of sustainable travel and transport'? How about banning said head from driving to school until she understands the real issues with cycling to school?
This article on introducing risk into children's playgrounds seems relevant to this: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/10/world/europe/britain-playgrounds-risk...
The sad thing is this has being a known for a very long time and by overzealous types kids have no cencept of managing risk of their own so when they come to certain scenarios even into adulthood they are hopeless and thus make bigger errors in judgement and from that get hurt more.
It's not even a difficult concept to grasp, when I explain it (the helmet thing) to everyone they're like yeah, it makes total sense, even my 9yr old grandson gets it (he has ADHD too).
The problem is that people are so indoctrinated and have being told this is how you must do x and this will definitely do y and yet despite looking at the stats is not true and often the opposite and still people insist this will protect you/improve safety, they continue doing the wrong thing and matters get worse and the wrong method/information gets propagated again and again to the point the general public actually believe it,.
You only have too look at Australia, NZ, US and even now the UK to see how this disinformation has had massive negative effects on not just safety but general well being of society as a whole because of the knock on negatives.
This is why I've said that cycle helmets are the singular worse thing to happen to cycling since the motor vehicle could go above 10mph, it's a disaster that has cost lives on a pandemic scale.
She had better ban rugby and football - they too dangerous.
Child head injury stats, just goes to prove that children in cars and other activities are at greater risk.
child head injuries.JPG
It would be interesting to know, in all these cases where HTs blame bad cycling behaviour as a reason to ban cycling, how many complaints do the schools receive regarding students behaving badly while walking to/from school?
Any proposals to ban students walking to/from school because of bad behaviour?
Any proposals to insist pupils wear name badges or numbers when they are walking to/from school.
BTW. According to a study published in the BMJ, more pupils suffer head injuries in school than those cycling.
She said that several students had been left with cuts and bruises.....
All part of being a kid are cuts and bruises. Let Them be children.
Of course the negative effects of _not_ cycling won't become apparent till long after the children have left the school. And much of the effect will be distributed across the wider population that the head-teacher isn't directly held responsible for.
I suppose it's similar to how people don't see directly the results of not having children vaccinated.
Everyone puts too much weight on immediate and local negatives, while ignoring any negative outcome that's less direct, even if it's actually far greater. It's not just the head's fault, everyone around her and who has any power over her will do the same and she's bound to be influenced by that.
Humans are just a bit thick (look who we end up with as leaders). Never mind robot cars, just replace us all with robots and be done with it.
One of the negative effects of not getting the exercise that you need is a reduced attention span so some of the negative impacts would directly impact the school and their results.
A couple of decades (and a few hundred miles) ago in another life I managed a video rental store in this area and it is a bit of a problem area. This just seems to me that the Head Teacher is just trying to tackle the symptom rather than the problem. If the problem children are causing issues on bikes then removing the bikes is not going to stop those problem children being issues it is just going to have a negative impact on the non-problem children and potentially make the problem children worse if they are not burning off energy.
Equally the problem children are probably more of a product of the society that they are growing up in and there could be little that the Head could do to turn the situation around.
Sad times
good point - this, of course, applies to the parents too.
Ofsted put it succinctly in their last inspection in November 2016:
Effectiveness of leadership and management - needs improvement
At the central London school I work next to, the school run traffic can get so bad that parents abandon their cars in the road, not parked, to walk their kid the 50 yards to the school entrance. Beggars belief that non hi-viz, non helmet wearing cycling children are seen as any kind of a problem.
I pass a well-known and highly successful grammar school on my commute. The behaviour of some of the parents dropping their kids off is dreadful. They park their expensive 4x4s on the pavement, stop on the zig zag lines or double yellow lines and make U-turns without looking properly or make quick overtakes of school buses that are disgorging children. I pass other less famous schools on my route too and it's of note that the parents of kids at those don't seem to drive in such an entitled fashion.
How many car drivers were driving too fast near the schoool, parking on double yellow lines, causing an obstruction, commiting a close pass, using a mobile, not having their windows clear of dew and condensation?
Perhaps she should ban children standing at a bus stop in case a drunk driver kills them.
I wonder whether the headteacher has considered banning cars from being driven on the school grounds on the basis some drivers speed, use their mobile phone, etc?
Oh love off you muppett.
How about you start to teach the parents how to drive properly and ban them from driving to school. This idiot shouldn't be in charge of an empty classroom never mind a school.
How many children have being injured in the school grounds for any activity whatsoever, PE, playing in the playground, why not ban that whilst your at it, stupid fecker!
Moronic thinking!
Bit low on facts, these quotes.
I'm interpreting this as another ultra-conservative prick jumping on the 'KIDS ARE PULLING WHEELIES!!1! moral panic bandwagon. She's doing everything that she can to stop kids actually riding to school.
This is the vocal minority that are so narrow-minded and conservative that they have zero perspective. I wish a sense of perspective on those people, preferably brought about by something to actually worry about.
I wonder what she'd do if a *parent* turned up to a meeting or a parents' evening on a bike, and not wearing a helmet?
1 in 3 year 6 pupils are overweight or obese.
I'm sure this sort of ban will help...
Why is it so difficult for modern head teachers to use a bit of common sense and enforce rules in their own domain?
Many years ago when I was a 14-16 yo cycling to school we we not allowed to cycle in the school grounds. If you did you got a clip round the ear from the duty teacher, male or female.
If you tried it on you got banned and had to walk and got the piss taken by your schoolmates.
Not sure about the chastisement but even that might help.
Several students with cuts and bruises!
My god, what a tragedy - we should close down the whole school, no wait, the whole county to prevent these atrocities.
Wrap them in cotton wool and feed them McDonalds - that's what I say.
So what she is saying really is that as Head Teacher of the school she is unable to either educate or instill dicipline into her pupils.
Makes you wonder if she is suitable for a job as a head teacher...