Here at Hadrian Park we do all we can to promote healthy lifestyles and have therefore made a commitment to encourage staff, children and parents to consider cycling more often as a method of sustainable travel.  Cycling has many great health benefits, saves money and has a positive impact on our environment.  

As a school community we have sought to establish cycling as a recreational activity at the heart of what we do, so that our pupils and their families can make use of the fantastic cycling opportunities that are available to them in terms of the local cycle paths and wagon ways nearby our school. Working in partnership with Bike4health we have created a cycling programme to engage our children in outdoor activity which delivers many positive learning outcomes.  

We recognise the benefits of learning outdoors, not only in supporting curriculum learning but also in many personal development areas such as: 

Teamwork 

Communication 

Leading and supporting 

Challenge and Risk 

Personal Resilience 

Motivation 

Self confidence 

Problem Solving and Decision Making 

Learning a New skill 

Awareness of Our Environment 

We have therefore invested in 80 bicycles of varying sizes, helmets, bike storage facilities, 2 x bike tracks (1x accessible for all and 1 x pump track) on school site and British Cycling training for all members of staff to see our cycling vision come to life. This investment has allowed us to develop a cycling programme which not only supports personal development, but also improves physical and mental well-being.   

Cycling really is at the heart of our school. Find out what we are doing to promote a love for cycling across school:  

• Regular opportunities for pupils and staff to cycle and explore local routes. Working alongside Bike4Health to lead bicycle and route training for a whole afternoon, normally every Friday (Spring and Summer Terms).  We provide this cycling opportunity to all pupils within Year 3, Year 4, Year 5 and Year 6. 
• Extra –curriculum cycling clubs to support non-riders and develop more confident children as ride leaders.  
• Use of our 2 multi-purpose tracks on school site during breaks, lunches and throughout the school day.  
• Decreased the use of teacher’s cars and coaches to travel to sports competitions, school trips and swimming lessons. To protect our environment and provide a more sustainable way of travelling we utilise cycling to events and trips where possible. This also supports our school budget! 
• Working alongside Bikeability North Tyneside to train pupils in safe cycling.  
• Promotion of active travel to and from school.  
• Wider cycling opportunities and events/trip. 

We actively promote cycling and the raft of experiences that come with it. We are looking forward to expanding our cycling offer in the future, where we will be planning cycle rides to various exciting locations including, Coast to Coast, Amsterdam and Italy.  

The Tour of Britain Blog

On the 10^th September 2021, 25 cyclists from Hadrian Park travelled to experience and watch the finale of the Stage 6 leg of the Tour of Britain. 

The Tour of Britain is an elite cycling race that takes place around the UK. Elite cyclists race in a number of stages, all competing to complete the tour in the fastest time possible. 

In 2021, Stage 6 of the race finished at the North East's famous landmark, "The Angel of the North". Our 25 cyclists took on the challenge of taking part in a 50km round trip from our school to the Angel of the North to watch the cyclist cross the finish line of stage 6. Not only did the children get to watch the elite athletes cross the finish line, we also got to ride through the final part of the course and over the finish line ourselves! This was extremely exciting, as it involved cycling over the line in front of the TV cameras and a huge crowd of spectators. Following completion of the race we also watched the elite athletes claim their prizes and make their winners speeches. 

This ride was a huge accomplishment for the 25 children that took part and they showed great determination, resilience and passion throughout the ride.