Class teacher at Darvel Primary School in East Ayrshire, Siobhan Richardson has been recognised with highly commended in the Instructor of the Year category. Her nomination highlighted her exceptional dedication, her driven creativity, her ability to form and maintain partnerships, and her hard work in transforming the way pupils, staff and families engage with cycling at the school.
Our school is in the middle of the village and for some children it's just too far to walk. Whereas, if they can go on their bike, we're not getting as many cars up to the school and they're becoming more independent because they can cycle to school rather than having to get a lift.
In a rare quiet moment, we spoke to Siobhan about cycling at Darvel Primary, her role in developing and growing the Bikeability Scotland programme, and how she has used the foundation that it provides to develop skills and confidence in the wider school community.
How do you feel about the Bikeability Scotland Award?
I'm absolutely ecstatic. I really didn't expect to receive the email and I'm utterly delighted. It's lovely because I do these things because I love doing it. You see the rewards with the children instantly and the benefits that everything brings to the community. For me, just to do that as part of something I love, and then for someone else to think that it's fab just makes me so delighted.
Have you shared the news?
My mum is super fanatical about cycling. When I told her she was properly excited. I think it'll be good when we can share it with the families that we've helped. I'm looking forward to that.
Take us back to the beginning. How did everything start?
We’ve worked really closely with partnerships within the school and within the community. We've got a really great charity on our doorstep: Cycle Station, and they've been great and it all started with them. My daughter went to their Balance Buddies class and I got chatting to them there. It's really difficult to do it on your own as a full-time class teacher. It's been really good having people like Cycle Station and the school getting on board. It takes a whole team to do it.
You see the rewards with the children instantly and the benefits that everything brings to the community.
Tell us about some of the challenges you have faced?
One of the challenges I've found is a lot of children can’t ride a bike. They get to P6 and you think, we'll start Bikeability in P6 and they'll at least be able to pedal. We found this year we had 9 or 10 children who had not been on a bike before. And when you start it that late, it's just so much to catch up on. I think trying to integrate it into school life as early as possible is one of the only ways that we can get over that hurdle.
I was talking to one of the secondary PE teachers, she said that some still can't cycle when they get to S1. I was like, right, we need to fix this. From that, we've come up with a three-year plan for our school. We hope that we can start cycling from P4 and then do at least one block a year until they get to the academy so that they're confident cyclists, especially on the roads. It's just so much safer.
Are there any other obstacles you have been grappling with?
Another big hurdle that we've had is that children don't have bikes. We didn't even have enough bikes for the children to have one between two. We need to find funding and it takes a lot of time to get all these things set up. Some of the hurdles you come across, you don't expect them.
We sent out a survey before we started the Bikeability. Do you have a bike? Do you have a helmet? What is your skillset like? How confident is your child on a bike? We found that although some people were saying they had a bike and they would bring it to school. They didn’t bring it to school. Some children that did bring a bike weren't happy to share a bike - which is absolutely fine - but it just meant we were really stuck. We had eight school bikes, which is fantastic but some of the bikes were too small and we didn't have enough for them all.
It took a lot of time to get the cohort of children that we started with last year through their Bikeability and then moving into this session, there's going to be more juggling bikes.
Things like weather you always think of but we can dress for the weather and we all live in Scotland and it's one of these things, but the bikes are a really big issue.
What do you need for a sustainable programme of training?
To make it sustainable we would need to have a good fleet of bikes and a variety of sizes of bike. We would possibly need an extra pair of hands to help out, because having such a range of abilities is a lot. When you've got 10 children who can't cycle at all, and then you've got some who go mountain biking. Trying to deliver training when there's one or two instructors is impossible when you've got such a big range of abilities.
So, breaking it down, starting the training earlier, starting them all when they're younger, so there's not as big a gap, would definitely solve that.
We did an air pollution survey and tested the air quality before a Walk and Cycle to School Week - then we tested it the week after and the air pollution had dropped drastically.
Are there any standout moments that stick with you?
We managed to get a little bit of funding for some basic skills workshops. The children went along to Cycle Station and learned how to pump up tyres and do the M-check and put chains back on. We had them out with the Bikeability training on hand as kind of mechanics we called them. Just seeing that light bulb moment was just incredible.
There's another girl I'm thinking of as well. She's P6 and she was terrified of a bike. She'd never sat on a bike. She’d never done it. We managed to get one of the girls to work 1-to-1 with her and we managed to loan her one of the school bikes over the summer. Her mum came up to me on the first day and was like, she wants to let you know she can ride her bike. At that moment it was like she was one of my own kids. Her mum was just absolutely ecstatic. She'll be able to join in this year with Bikeability sessions.
How does Bikeability fit into the bigger picture?
Our school is in the middle of the village and for some children it's just too far to walk. Whereas, if they can go on their bike, we're not getting as many cars up to the school and they're becoming more independent because they can cycle to school rather than having to get a lift.
We actually did an air pollution survey and tested the air quality before we had a walk and cycle to school week. Then we tested it the week after and the air pollution had dropped drastically on that walk to school week. We can look at different ideas, like having like school zones and not allowing cars, but for our school having more of an active travel approach has more of an impact.
How have you encouraged active travel at the school?
I'd been speaking to someone that I know that lives in America and they have a bike bus. I was like, I want to do that at Darvel. I spoke to the guys at Cycle Station. How can we make this work? I was on maternity leave when I was conjuring up my first bike bus plan.
As one of my keeping in touch days we did a bike bus and it was amazing. This year, since I've been back, we’ve done it every second Tuesday. Having the kids involved and seeing how much they enjoyed coming to school [by bike bus] and having that positive impact in the morning.
The community will come out and clap at their door and they'll say, this looks great, well-done kids. And it just gives them a boost.
What has been the impact of the bike bus in the wider community?
I'll meet people that I wouldn't normally meet because I'll be cycling with them. The community will come out and clap at their door and they'll say, this looks great, well-done kids. And it just gives them a boost.I think having different pick-up points throughout the village, that really helps us because it means everyone can get involved. I just think every school should do it. I know it's maybe not feasible, but that's my mission.
How important is support within the school?
I'm quite lucky because my head teacher is quite up for giving me time out of class. He sees the long-term and short-term benefits of doing the cycle training. Not every school can do that.
Tell us about the future?
I've got my three-year plan. We do the balance bikes in P1 and then by P4 we can start mini riders and then Bikeability and different things like that and possibly having some afterschool clubs. There's lots of plans, we just need bodies to help put them into action.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity. A longer audio version is available.