Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government believes that educating young people about the benefits of cycling, and indeed of active travel and physical activity in general, is fundamental to the current and future health and wellbeing of the country. We support various organisations in Scotland to deliver a number of programmes that provide the knowledge and training required to live a safe, healthy and active life. These include:

Road Safety Scotland

Road Safety Scotland's free road safety learning resources, closely linked to Curriculum for Excellence and made available to schools and other educational establishments across the country. This is a lifelong learning approach to road safety for young people aged 3 to 18 years, with a view to developing responsible road use among young people. The learning resources encourage safer road use and good practice across all road user groups, including child cyclists.

Sustrans Scotland

I Bike is a programme working directly with pupils designed to increase rates of cycling and support all modes of active travel to and from schools. Sustrans officers work with teachers and parents, supported by local authority school travel planning initiatives, road safety and active school teams to deliver a tailored programme of curriculum led activities to encourage schools to deliver cycling activities over a three year period. Champions are identified within each school and bike crews made up from pupils who promote the activities to their peers.

The School cycle and scooter parking programme is a match funded grant programme available to local authorities. The programme installs new or improved cycle and scooter parking within school grounds. The new facilities are also subject to local promotion and campaigns so that the whole school community are aware of the benefits.

Sustrans manage the School Travel Professional Network; a forum for local authority officers to share experiences and learn from each other when rolling out school travel campaigns and activities. This also includes developing and rolling out school travel plan templates and other initiatives linked with ‘Healthier Routes’ which support teachers to involve pupils in the development of school travel plans and active travel promotion.

There are a number of free resources to schools to raise awareness about the benefits of cycling including the Big Street Survey; lesson plans and activities designed to encourage children to identify opportunities for cycling and walking infrastructure improvements around their school. The Big Shift is a six week programme designed for teachers to run activities to encourage cycling to and from school and this can culminate in taking part in the annual Big Pedal, a UK wide competition based on participation of pupils logging journeys to and from school, which is supported by curriculum linked resources. For younger pupils, Sustrans Superheroes provides inspiration for children to learn and practice skills essential for safe, fun and sustained active travel.

Cycling Scotland

Cycling Scotland manages the national Bikeability Scotland cycle training programme on behalf of the Scottish Government, funded through Transport Scotland and the Education Department. This programme is delivered across 29 local authority areas, to over 32,000 primary aged pupils. The most recent available data for 2014-15 shows that 40.1% of schools delivered an on-road training programme promoting confidence and skills to make trips by bike. In addition to practical cycle training, the scheme includes teaching resources and classroom packs to embed cycling across the Curriculum for Excellence. Bikeability Scotland aligns with the UK National Standard for Cycling.

The ‘Give Everyone Cycle Space’ is a road safety campaign asking drivers to give people on bikes enough space when passing – as much space as they’d give a car. Again, Transport Scotland is working in partnership with Education colleagues to jointly fund this campaign. Local activity including a range of classroom and participatory activities take place within primary schools. These activities include lesson plans around route planning, cycle safety and the benefits of cycling and guided rides in the local area.

It also runs the Cycle Friendly School Award programme for both primary and secondary schools. The award scheme promotes good practices and recognises schools that have make a commitment to promoting and increasing pupil cycling. The scheme highlights programmes available from partners including Sustrans and Scottish Cycling, as well as the Bikeability Scotland and the "Give Everyone Cycle Space" campaign. The Cycle Friendly School Award pack includes a teachers pack with lesson plans to promote the benefits of cycling to primary pupils. Since the launch of the scheme, 337 schools have attained the award, covering over 100,000 pupils.

Since 2014, the ‘Cycle School Camps’ programme, funded by Transport Scotland and Climate Change Division of the Scottish Government, has been available to secondary school pupils to develop as ‘School Cycle Champions’ and deliver projects to increase cycling within their schools. School teams apply for the ten spaces on the week-long residential camps where they gain skills in cycle instruction, first aid, maintenance and event delivery. The teams are then supported after the camps to implement projects within their schools – support includes grant funding and support from a Cycling Scotland Tutor.

Cycling as an activity in Physical Education (PE)

Cycling can play an important part in cross-curricular learning, providing the opportunity for pupils to learn about the benefits of cycling for their health, the environment and the wider community. The Cycling Action Plan for Scotland calls for cycling to be promoted as an activity in PE. Examples include:

Cumbernauld High School - a partnership project with Forestry Commission Scotland (FCS) and Cycling Scotland to introduce a progressive mountain biking programme in PE for pupils in S3 upwards.

East Dunbartonshire Cycle Cooperative – a social enterprise working with a cluster of primary schools in Bishopbriggs to promote cycling in the community. All schools have a Cycle Friendly School Award and cycling is promoted as part of Inter Disciplinary Learning projects within each school.

Over 2012-13 – 2015-16 grants totalling over £1.2 million were awarded by Education Scotland, with 51 schools awarded grants to support the development of cycling as an activity in PE and the wider curriculum. This funding went towards purchasing bikes, teacher cycle leader training and promoting cycling as a means of transport.

All the above organisations and Scottish Government cross-portfolio policy areas work in partnership to complement and promote each others' programmes to ensure our young people have the access to information and training to gain the life skills to walk and cycle safely.