Cycling UK Forum

If you google school cycling ban, you get a sustrans hit, that gives a dfe document that says what teachers can legally do and what they are cuplbable for:

So they cant ban a child from cycling to school. Its illegal and therefore they can be sued. I wouldnt hesitate if it was my child.

They can ban taking a bike on the premises. If it was taken onto the property they are not culpable for any damage\theft etc.

So the cycling ban is a non issue, the premises ban is all they can do and seems to me easily challenged and much less highly charged.

Armed with this i'd basically initiate proceedings against the school for:
-Failing in their duty of care by discouraging healthy lifestyles (plenty of evidence on this)
-Attempting to ban a child from cycling to school(its illegal) and its bullying. The school is abusing its position of power to make that childs life difficult.

I'd attempt a reasoned approach to let them store the bike. I'd show them that they have no liability according to the dfe and that i personally would be willing to sign something that agreed with that. I'd agree that the child couldnt cycle on school premises ( i assume cars are banned) so that in safety terms on school premises they'd be the same as any other child.

I'd also try and keep the press interested.

South Today

Story at 09:31

It absolutely beggars belief! If there's a CTC Portsmouth group could they organise a supportive Critical Mass one morning?

"Statistically, Portsmouth has size problems: 52per cent of adults are overweight, compared with the English average of 45 per cent. A third of primary school-leavers weigh too much and three-quarters of residents do not exercise regularly."
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_a ... 154770.ece

thirdcrank wrote:emergency_pants

I walked to school on my own when I was four - in common with most of the other children; my mother took me on the first day so I would know which class I was in. Obviously, traffic conditions have changed a lot in the intervening six decades and a 4 year-old walking unaccompanied along the A 647 in Leeds would face much more danger than we did. These changes have not inevitably occurred through the operation of some natural law but rather because our society has accepted them.

In the not very far off future we are likely to have sixth formers being routinely accompanied to school because it is unsafe to do otherwise.

I also used to walk to school in Stretford across 2 main roads from a very early age and can remember carefully using the crossings and checking the traffic, but then we didn't have a car until I was about 6 or 7 so we always used to walk to the local shops etc. I did cycling proficency at about 9 and used to cycle locally by myself.

The trouble nowadays (start of rant) is that a lot of children get ferried everywhere and don't get to develop any road sense - even the children living near my parents now all get driven to my second primary school although it's only a 15 minute walk and has a crossing attendant on the only crossing (end rant)