It’s the end of another busy but rewarding school year.

So what have we achieved this year? Well, much like when I was at school it’s a case of tried hard, did well, achieved a lot, but could have done better.

We’re happy to say we hit our target for young people learning to ride safely on the road, with 1500 riders completing their Bikeability course. We’ve also collected lots of really positive feedback from schools about the course, with post course surveys regularly awarding us 5 out of 5 for pre-course information, course content, and overall satisfaction. We have also collected lots of useful information from schools on how we could help them to deliver the courses, meaning that we now have nice new ID badges to go along with our folders that we supply to schools with all our DBS and other legal information, and we have also introduced pre-course bike servicing to help parents to be ready for the course and to ease the stress on riders and teachers on the first morning when increasing numbers of bikes were being rejected as unsafe to ride on the road.

We have also successfully introduced our pre-school and reception classes ‘Cyclings’ which use balance bikes to help young children learn to ride for the first time. These sessions are about so much more than this though, they help children work on balance, coordination, perception, listening, teamwork and more. Some really fantastic feedback from the team at Birdwell School that lots of children there are now starting to ask their loved ones to help them to ride and are really enjoying being out on their bikes.

Other successes have been the continued work with after school clubs, festivals and holiday programmes, which have been well attended and well received. We also continue to help with the amazing work which goes on at Westhaven Special School to get all the children there riding. 

Our Saturday morning cycling club, now in the care of Rob, continues to thrive and the club have been going on lots of trips, and more recently were given a series of lessons by multiple Olympic Mountainbike star Oli Beckinsale.

So what could we have done better?

There are several fantastic projects which we are working on which we would love to get launched soon and we are knuckling down, chasing the powers that be, working with local charities and the council to try and make these happen.

These include a fantastic opportunity to launch the Sole Cycling Academy at Weston College, a chance to get the young people doing sports courses at college to come along and be members of an elite academy with a pathway to future riding success. We are also hoping to launch a bike mechanics workshop which will run weekly at Westhaven Special School, giving young people there the chance to learn a trade, learn to use their hands, and do some real cycling work experience as they prepare for life after school. We had also hoped by now that we would be successful in a bid for funding to enable us to offer ‘Cyclings’ and bike maintenance workshops in many more schools who we know would love to have them.

So, more work to do, more people to speak to and more networks to build, as with everything, the best ideas often remain just that without some financial backing, so I promise to spend the next few months getting some positive funding news…a big thanks to our MP John Penrose who recently took the time to meet and give me some great ideas of who may be able to help.

So that’s it, a strong year, with all targets hit, lots of happy riders and many nice stories to tell. Lots of friends made and a diary full of bookings for next school year, so bring on the better weather, bring on the next set of opportunities and we’ll carry on with the 9th year of the Sole Cycling adventure! 

    
   
 

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