Pedal Ready and Gibraltar Boys Secondary School trailblaze cycling training in school curriculum

by Paul Balban

Cycling Proficiency is seen in the UK as a practical life-skill program, widely taught within schools, within school time, teaching basic bike control and road awareness with an introduction to the Highway Code within Level 1 and then further on into Level 2 where children are then introduced to real road environments.

Schools value it as part of their road safety education helping promote transport independence and encouraging healthy travel habits. Later, a further Level 3 can be undertaken for those that wish to develop further proficiency in real, often busy road conditions.

There has always been a strong government connection and modern cycling training is funded by UK Government via local authorities and ultimately the Department for Transport, via BikeAbility helping to promote cycling as part of road safety and Active Travel Policy.

Therefore, cycling training in schools is not just educational, its part of National Transport and Public Health Policy.

In Gibraltar, we have yet to see the adoption of cycling training within the National Curriculum during school time.

Many children, often with the support of parents wishing their children to be well resourced and be as safe as possible when cycling, have resorted to participating in cycling training as part of Pedal Ready, a scheme set up by the former Minister for Transport and professionally led by a retired Police Officer with over 20 years of cycling proficiency teaching experience.
In a city with an area of seven square kilometres with one of the greatest vehicle ownership rates in the world and a further 6,000-8,000 vehicles crossing into Gibraltar every day, with the prospect of further increases after 10th April, cycling training should be central on our minds.

If we want to promote safety on our roads for cyclists, wish to encourage active travel, for a greener, child friendly city while embracing a cleaner environment and a fitter population, cycling is of utmost benefit.

On Thursday 19th March, thanks to the vision and forward thinking of the Gibraltar Boys Secondary School, Gibraltar has edged one step closer to making this vision a reality and seeing this key life-skill introduced within the curriculum of all Year 6 or Year 7 students in all schools, during school time.

This would give cycling as an alternative mode of transport the importance it needs in any city aspiring to be a modern, green, environmentally conscious and attractive place to live in.
Congratulations to teacher Jacob Rose and headteacher Jonathan Paull for their vision and for supporting Pedal Ready in their aims for children locally.

The Gibraltar Boys Secondary School has worked around every single potential obstacle such as finding space to park bicycles within their small school to supporting the children cycling to the venue which was situated away from the school premises and then back to school again.

The participating pupils were mature, responsive and above all they enjoyed themselves thoroughly. Congratulations trailblazers. We will surely build upon this together.

Pedal Ready will continue to support and encourage other schools to participate in cycling training, helping to find solutions to the issues raised by the Department of Education in order to facilitate the introduction of cycling training within the National Curriculum in Gibraltar and in doing so, to follow in the footsteps of the Gibraltar Boys Secondary School in Gibraltar.
Happy and safe cycling.

Paul Balban is a former transport minister and now Gibraltar’s Bicycle Mayor under the Bicycle Mayor Network, a cycling advocacy programme of BYCS, an Amsterdam-based global non-profit.