Great Baddow High School regularly organises 'Bikeability' cycle training programmes to give our students the practical skills and understanding to cycle on today’s roads safely.

This month we ran a 'Bikeability Level 3' course which aims to develop riders’ skills and confidence so they can ride in diverse road environments, including complex, often busy roads and junctions, sometimes with speed limits above 30 mph and to:

• Plan journey.
• Plan to and ride assertively everywhere cycling is permitted.
• Maintain suitable riding positions.
• Cooperate with and respect other road users (including avoiding driver blind spots and riding with others).
• Pass queueing traffic and use junctions controlled by traffic lights (if present).
• Use cycle infrastructure and multi lane roads (if present).
• Ride on roads with speeds above 30 mph (if present).

At the training session, they first learnt about checking their bike for basic roadworthiness.

They then started by cycling on the playground to show that they were confident enough to go out on the road and were able to indicate with both arms and make turns and observing for anything around them.

Following this they cycled down to the Army and Navy roundabout stopping on the way several times to practice road positioning for all turns.  All of these were explained in detail as to why they were to use these road positions and demonstrated by the instructors before the students demonstrated their understanding and ability to do the turns.

They had to negotiate roundabouts, zebra crossings, a box junction, traffic lights including filter lanes and cycle paths.  They went on the underpass at both the Army and Navy and Parkway and were told about the different signs that indicate whether they were allowed to cycle or not on the paths.

Well done to all twenty -four students that took part.

“As a cyclist myself I thought it was a really informative course which any student who cycles would definitely benefit from doing.” Mrs C Mowle