CLV has further established itself as a cycling hub after it became the top North East secondary school in Sustrans’ Big Pedal 2014. This 2 week initiative encourages students and teachers to cycle or scoot to school rather than use motorised transport.
The number of bikes and scooters in the bike shed were counted every day by y9 students A Shewry and M Douds and these were processed by Sustrans as a percentage of the school population. The numbers were boosted by the hardy band of teachers who cycle from Blyth, Heaton and Whitley Bay and as far away as Low Fell.
This was the second year in a row that CLV has been the best school in the North East, but this time we also came in 7th overall in the country, which is a terrific result. There was a noticeable increase in bikes year on year and it seems that the young people of Cramlington are starting to make the most of the extensive network of traffic-free paths in the town. During the course of the Big Pedal we had a successful Bikers’ Breakfast where those who had biked in enjoyed a complimentary sausage sandwich while watching some pretty inspiring bike videos.
Having been involved with Bike Club and the Suscram Cycling project for 3 years now, it is great to see how many more people are getting into cycling. We owe a great deal of thanks to Richard Rothwell, our Sustrans Bike It Officer, who has been working with us and some of the local Primary Schools to get more people cycling. Richard worked one morning with Adam, Matthew, Brandon and Robert to “health check” all the bikes in the shed and he was full of praise for how responsibly the boys had worked with him.
The final icing on the cake is that we were in direct competition with Bede Academy in the Big Pedal and because we came out top, Richard has given us the prize of a top of the range toolkit to be used in school. We now have big plans to get the members of Bike Club skilled up in using them!