Supporting your school
“ It ' s been hard to get people to make time for bike bus. I think a lot of people think it ' s a great idea when they ' re chatting on WhatsApp, but it has been hard to get people to show up.”
I think it ' s easier now we ' ve launched, but I found it really hard to get volunteers to come and meet me and plan it. I did a day when I rode around with a woman from Lewisham Cyclists, who came to just advise us on what ' s a good route. We did have two parents join us, but I would have liked lots more parents to have been there. I really wanted it to be not just my opinion, but for other parents to decide what would be a good route. It was quite difficult to get other people along, but I dealt with that by thinking, right, we just need to launch and then we ' ll get people ' s opinions as we go along.
And that has worked, we did six rides in between Easter and the half term, and then I did an online survey to try and get people ' s opinions. I got about ten responses, which was better than just the two that came along at the beginning. I feel like sometimes people just need to see something running before they want to feed back. Sometimes you just have to do the change and then talk to people as you go along. |
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“ Start a bike bus. That ' s my key tip for other PTAs, and that ' s why I wanted to do this interview. I want to spread the word about bike buses. I think people might assume you need to be a really amazing cyclist or you need to be trained in some way, but actually, a bike bus is a really easy community activity to organise.” |
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You don ' t need to be an expert or an amazing cyclist. You ' re going to be cycling really slowly. And you don ' t even need a bike, you know, you can do it on a scooter. It ' s a really lovely intervention that parents can do that supports so many outcomes – health, wellbeing, educational attainment, carbon emissions, equality, climate action – it just fits into so many areas.
Getting the volunteers and parents involved can be tricky, as a lot of people are a bit scared. People are scared of taking on the responsibility or are worried about it taking up some time, and I get that and feel the same sometimes. But ultimately, it ' s just about building a team that supports you so you don ' t feel alone with it, and enjoying this really wholesome activity with the children.
Images: Crispin Hughes, Paul Meyler 28 PARENTKIND. ORG AUTUMN / WINTER 2026