St. Andrews C/W Primary School

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Cycling Proficiency

Every year, pupils in Year 6 are given the opportunity to take part in cycling proficiency training.

This consists of a theory lesson, which covers the following topics:

The full day practical is on the school playground, which is turned into our simulated road network.

It's a lot of fun and pupils will definitely benefit greatly from the experience.

A copy of the theory training (animated powerpoint presentation) is attached below.

Advice to parents:

Buy your child a bicycle helmet that they like and that they will wear. Avoid full-face helmets as they impair vision and hearing. Get an ajustable, properly fitting helmet. Get them to always wear it!
For the purposes of cycling proficiency training, ideally a road bike or mountain bike is ideal. BMX bikes are not ideal. Make sure that the bike is well maintained. Check brakes, gears, tyre pressures, reflectors.
Cycle with your children to assess their ability. Best for them not to go on roads until you are confident that they have full control of their bike and understand the cycling proficiency maneouvres. Practice with them.
Teach your children how to use their gears. Keep it simple. If they have more than one front sproket (by the pedals) encourage them to leave it on the middle one or the larger one. Then teach them to change gears to the big sproket on the back for starting off and going up hills and to progressively smaller sprockets on the back to increase speed. Remind them to change down to a big sproket on the back before stopping so that they are ready to pull away in 1st or 2nd gear.
Go through the attached powerpoint presentation below with your child to help them understand the manoeuvres.