By Damian and Shawn, year 6 students at St Kevin's Primary School
Friday 19 March was National Ride2School Day.
Our school, St. Kevin’s Primary School Hampton Park, organised a meeting place in front of the Hampton Park Library. We were told to arrive at 8.15am with our bikes, scooters and bike helmets.
There were multiple teachers there, so two could lead each group of students, one at the front, one at the back. There were five groups, the faster and older students first, and the slower and younger students going later.
Each group consisted of about 30 students and left at different times. The groups traveled safely across the roads, stopping at the traffic lights with the support of their teacher group leaders and other teachers positioned along the way.
The smaller groups meant we were able to stay together.
Many of the students from St Kevin’s Primary School were able to participate because of our yearly Bike Education Program.
In our school, Prep to Year 6 students participate in the Bike Ed program throughout the year. Each lesson, we start by completing a safety check of our bikes and helmets. We need to make sure that our helmets are fastened correctly and our bike is working.
We do laps around our school oval to warm up for our riding skills. Each lesson, the teachers who have been trained, organise drills for the students to practice and that teach us how to ride a bike safely. The school has bikes for students to learn on and they are very useful for our school community.
Sometimes, students get split into groups for different drills. We get a certain amount of time to do each drill before we move on to the next.
Students are provided with helmets, hairnets and bikes if they don’t bring their own to school. The program runs at different times throughout the whole year for Prep to Year 6. Each year level gets two hours of riding each week for 5 weeks during the program. St. Kevin’s has a variety of bike sizes available for its students.
Once we have completed our Bike Ed for the year, the next year we are ready and confident to participate in the ride from the Hampton Park Library to St. Kevin’s with the support of our teachers.
