Playground 2 Podium 2012 - John Spence Community High School

Page 6 John Spence
Since September, John Spence has been a pilot school for the BIKE IT project run by SUSTRANS. Bike
It works directly with schools, getting thousands of children on their bikes and cycling to school every
day. It does this by helping schools to make the case for cycling in their school travel plans; supporting
cycling champions in schools and demonstrating that cycling is a popular choice amongst children and
their parents. The aim of Bike It is to create a pro-cycling culture in schools that continues long after the
Bike It officer has finished their work.
John Spence is the lead school in North Tyneside for Bike It along with its five main feeder schools;
Preston Grange, King Edwards, Spring Gardens, Whitehouse and Christ Church. Lucy Bemrose is our
Bike It Officer.
“Bike It really is my dream job, not only do I get to help the environment and reduce my carbon footprint
but I also get to use my bike everyday. Plus I have the opportunity to work with some fantastic schools
and really help the pupils and the whole school community understand the benefits of cycling. All the
Bike It projects are unique which is fantastic as it means each school will have a bespoke project which
enables me to go on the journey with them.”
As part of our project so far, we have completed a survey within ICT lessons, collating views and
opinions of all our students in relation to a range of things from mode of transport to personal views on
cycling. This survey has given us the starting point to build upon and change the perception of our
students in order to select cycling as a possible method of travelling to school. In turn, with the massive
support of Lucy different things have been happening around our school:
�� Organised Transition rides from Primary Schools to John Spence.
�� Bike Doctor operating for a week, fixing and diagnosing problems on our student’s bikes
�� Organised National School Bike Raffle (each student travelling by bike received a raffle
ticket). Yr7 & 8 had the chance to win a bike of their choice, whilst Yr9 & 10 could win a
Mountain Bike Trip for two! The winners of this event were Billy Hall (Year 8) and Jordan
Williams and Declan McIntire (both Yr10). 150 tickets had been given out in the five-day
time frame.
�� Early morning breakfasts for cyclists from 8.00am on the Astro
�� Informative assemblies
�� Four members of staff completing a Urban Bike Leaders Course (Mr Pilkington, Mr Fullard,
Mrs Blair and Miss Heath)
�� X2 Days cycling as part of our Activity Week
Lucy has also been heavily involved in our local primary schools working with different
age ranges to promote and support the importance of cycling. Year 5 Preston Grange
pupils have been Mountain Biking at the Rising Sun Country Park, Spring Gardens held
their very own Tour De France in Reception class and a whole host of other events have
been a regular fixture in our primary schools Summer Term.