Cycle training for children aged 9 and over to help build the skills and confidence to ride a bike safely on the road.

Bikeability is a national cycle training scheme. It’s like cycling proficiency, but better. It’s about gaining practical skills and understanding how to cycle on today’s roads.

The course is for children who:

• are aged between 9 and 16 years
• can ride a bike one handed so they’re able to indicate and look over their shoulder
• have their own bike and helmet
• have permission from a parent or carer to take part
• live or go to school in Bournemouth, Christchurch or Poole

You can book your child on this course even if they haven't completed a Level 1 course first, as long as they are a confident cyclist with the following skills:

• can look over their shoulder whilst cycling
• ride one handed so they can signal
• brake effectively
• manoeuvre their bike

This course is designed to teach your child how to cycle safely on the roads. It is not a course for a child who cannot yet cycle confidently. Please ensure they have the above skills before booking them on this course. If they do not yet have these skills, you may be able to book them on one of our school or holiday Bikeability Level 1 Playground Bike Skills courses. Please ask at your child’s school or check our booking system below for current course availability. If there’s no current courses, please email us for a place on the waiting list.

During the first hour of the course, before taking them out on the road, we will check that your child can cycle proficiently by checking they have all the above skills and are safe to take out on the road. We will also check your child’s bike is roadworthy and their helmet is fitted correctly. This will take place in a secure playground area.

We will then take your child out onto the local residential roads surrounding our training location. This will give your child a real cycling experience that equips them with skills to deal with traffic on short local journeys, such as cycling to school or the local shops. Our Level 2 course will encourage and develop safe cycling skills, develop positive attitudes towards road use, increase knowledge and understanding of the road and traffic environment and give riders the confidence to use their bicycles on local roads.

Your child will learn how to:

• start and finish a journey
• pass side roads and parked vehicles
• make left, right and U turns
• understand where to position themselves when cycling on the road
• be aware of everything around them whilst cycling
• explain decisions made during cycling and thereby demonstrate understanding of a safe cycling strategy

Booking

We offer our free Bikeability courses to all of our BCP Council primary and secondary schools, to year 4 and above. Our aim is for every child in primary school to have achieved their Bikeability Level 2 (Residential Road Cycle Training) before they leave for secondary school. If your child is in year 6 and has not yet had Bikeability offered to them in their school, please email us at bikeability@bcpcouncil.gov.uk so we can contact the school to book their course in. The school will also be offered the relevant Bikeability Learn to Ride, Level 1 and Level 3 training as appropriate for their school and students.

We may offer some very limited holiday courses later in the year but currently we’re not running any until all our schools have made their bookings for the current academic year. It is far more beneficial for your child to complete their Bikeability course within their school day, when they’re in a learning mindset, in their local residential area, so the roads they’re learning their cycle skills on are relevant to their home to school journey and it also removes the risk of non-attendees on courses, which costs us a lot of our Bikeability funding every year.

Instructors

Our instructors are all fully qualified to the national standard, DBS checked and trained in first aid. They also receive regular safeguarding training. 

Contact us

If you have a query regarding our courses, please call the Bikeability Team on 01202 127 867/ 01202 123 982 or email bikeability@bcpcouncil.gov.uk. If there are no current holiday courses available, please email us and we will place you on our waiting list and you will be notified when courses are available.

There may be a delay in the response as we are a very small busy team and we are often out at events or meetings.

Sometimes emails may get caught in the junk or spam folder, so please check these if you’re expecting an email from us.

Funding

The Bikeability Scheme is funded by Active Travel England via The Bikeability Trust.