Cycling festival inspires 650 infants
Pupils from four years old had the chance to experience a fun day of cycle-themed activities at the 2016 Early Rider Festival, run by the Chesterfield School Sport Partnership and supported by Wheely Fun Wheels.
Spread across 12 stations, there were three cycling activities: Italian pursuit, the team relay and the sprint to stop race. Using the pedal-less bikes, the children could put their prior balance bike training into practice in these fun races.
The remaining stations, which were run by sports leaders from Chesterfield College, were all closely linked to cycling and road safety. These activities aimed to connect with the wider school curriculum. They included the “Think” and “See” stations, where the infants labelled parts of the bikes and then completed a word search to find words related to cycling.
Mark Tournier, Partnership Development Manager at the SSP, said: “We are delighted to welcome nearly 700 infants to take part in the Early Rider Festival. This is much more than festival of cycling, it is a chance to really excite and engage young people in sport and physical activity though a range of activities.
“We have tried to bring the classroom to this event with activities linked to numeracy, literacy and communication, managing feeling and self-awareness and of course physical development. We hope everyone has taken a step towards choosing a healthy active lifestyle through cycling.”
Nick Chamberlin, Mountain Bike Leadership and Cycle Training Manager at British Cycling, said: “Learning to ride a bicycle is a rite of passage in any young person’s life, sadly many young people are not getting the support they need to try cycling for the first time. British Cycling are excited by the innovative work of Chesterfield SSP using balance bikes to introduce hundreds of young people to the excitement of riding a bike.”
Chelsea, a pupil from Whitecotes Primary School, said: “I love riding the bike! And the colouring was fun!”
Mr Petch, a teacher at Spire Nursery and Infant School, said: “It’s fantastic seeing all the activities and seeing so many kids on bikes at such a young age. They’re having great fun and interacting with children from other schools.”
Miss McPhie, of Whitecotes Primary School, said: “I like the links to the work we do at school. By having word searches and handwriting activities, they can have a rest and still learn. The kids also enjoyed the station where they labelled the bike parts and the Young Leader running it was excellent.”
The Early Rider programme is the start of the cycling pathway for young people in Chesterfield schools with progressions to bikeabilty levels 1&2, skills to ride and cyclo-cross competitions on which to progress.
