Some advice on biking to school & using their bike shed.

[Archie_tect]

To clarify my original post stated:



See it is not a helmet thing nor a cycle thing, but being a cycle forum with lots of parents on I thought someone might have had a similar experience and be able to provide me with some answers or assistance or information & I have received some very useful information.

I do cycle it is my most often mode of transport, as I gave up the 2nd car. I cycle with a trailer mostly with my youngest in it.

I have asked my son and gave the answer in a previous post, he says as he did rights at school and they said to stand up for your rights I should stand up for my rights, he also said it was "mean" to make people wear a helmet because bikes & helmets cost money and some people might not have enough money for both.

Sorry Puddles, I had missed that.

In that case as the school have taken the decision for it to be a requirement that to allow pupils to store their bicycles within school grounds their pupils must take/wear a helmet to ride their bicycles to school. They have a right to take that decision- it has been discussed and the decision has been taken and advertised by the issuing of the agreement which everyone had the opportunity to comment upon, and still have [nothing is ever cast in stone permanently]. It is your son's right, if he chooses not to abide by the school's requirement, to store his bicycle off the school site to satisfy the school's rule.

It is perfectly reasonable to set rules which appear to satisfy the majority of parents' agreement, ie by signing and returning the agreement parents undertake to accept the rules stated. If the majority felt it was unreasonable they would have resisted it at a parent/teacher meeting or by lobbying their school governors. Being a lone voice against something, now that the school's position has been confirmed by the Head Teacher and the School Governors, will just appear to be argumentative for the sake of prolonging the point. I think you should accept it and/or make alternative arrangements for your son to secure his bike elsewhere.

You may be concerned about where the helmet can be safely and securely stored, as many schools don't provide secure lockers and it would be impossible for pupils to keep a helmet with them all day.

 

[roadrash]

It seems to me that the head teacher is sitting in her office saying ... dammned if you do ........damned if you dont . you cant please all of the people all of the time.

In my last job, upon signing the contract of employment i saw a paragraph stating that while wearing company uniform you must not do anything which reflects the company in a bad light which would result in disciplinary action ,i had a choice .sign it and abide, by it or dont sign it , dont work there .i didnt expect them to change it just because i didnt like it.

............................................... you have the same choice ................................................................

One rule for one and a different rule for another does not work .

i do think that the head is a bit of an arse in the way shes dealing with though she could put her case across better.
Oh by the way ,yes i do sometimes wear a helmet and sometimes i dont , and i dont give a shiny fart whether anybody else does or not.

 

[Sara_H]

In that case as the school have taken the decision for it to be a requirement that to allow pupils to store their bicycles within school grounds their pupils must take/wear a helmet to ride their bicycles to school. They have a right to take that decision- it has been discussed and the decision has been taken and advertised by the issuing of the agreement which everyone had the opportunity to comment upon, and still have [nothing is ever cast in stone permanently]. It is your son's right, if he chooses not to abide by the school's requirement, to store his bicycle off the school site to satisfy the school's rule.

It is perfectly reasonable to set rules which appear to satisfy the majority of parents' agreement, ie by signing and returning the agreement parents undertake to accept the rules stated. If the majority felt it was unreasonable they would have resisted it at a parent/teacher meeting or by lobbying their school governors. Being a lone voice against something, now that the school's position has been confirmed by the Head Teacher and the School Governors, will just appear to be argumentative for the sake of prolonging the point. I think you should accept it and/or make alternative arrangements for your son to secure his bike elsewhere.

You may be concerned about where the helmet can be safely and securely stored, as many schools don't provide secure lockers and it would be impossible for pupils to keep a helmet with them all day.

But why do the school have the right to stipulate that any child wear a helmet to school?This is the point, and is exactly the same as the issue I had at my sons school.

As others have said, the school has no duty of care for pupils on their way to school, the duty of care is with parents, until children are on school premises, and for school to discriminate against children who's parents have made the choice against helmet use is unfair.

 

[summerdays]

My objection is that it is picking on those who cycle and subjecting them to their "safety" rules whilst not applying similar rules to those who come by other modes, and when different rule would be far more effective at keeping them safe (checking bikes were actually roadworthy) or getting them some training which would increase their safety.

 

[Archie_tect]

They don't have a 'right' Sara, the parents and teachers and govenors have taken a collective decision which everyone at the time appears to have been consulted about and the majority felt was reasonable. They then sent out a form to set out the terms of the agreement. At any time people can challenge the terms of a collective agreement, Puddles has... and the response has been considered and given. If Puddles wishes to present what it is that makes this unfair or prejudiced against certain pupils to the next Parent/Teacher or governors meeting, I am sure they would discuss it openly and fairly and amend the agreement if they agree. If they decide not to change it then Puddles would have to accept the decision and/or make alternative arrangements to avoid undermining the collective agreement.

 

[Archie_tect]

My objection is that it is picking on those who cycle and subjecting them to their "safety" rules whilst not applying similar rules to those who come by other modes, and when different rule would be far more effective at keeping them safe (checking bikes were actually roadworthy) or getting them some training which would increase their safety.

Didn't Puddles say the school has a basic cycling training requirement? However, once you start imposing requirements about bike road worthiness, who does the checking, how do you legislate and who has the responsibility to say yes or no?

 

[Sara_H]

They don't have a 'right' Sara, the parents and teachers and govenors have taken a collective decision which everyone at the time appears to have been consulted about and the majority felt was reasonable..

Just because the majority felt it was reasonable doesn't mean it was.

When I raised my objections at school the main reasons given were that Bradley Wiggins had said helmets should be compulsorary (!) and that another parent, who happened to be a nurse had said that children should wear helmets.
There was nothing evidence based or reasonable whatsoever about their decision to try to prevent children without helmets from cycling to school.
In this case the school is trying to withold a facility from some children in a manner that is not reasonable.

@Puddles, just for information, when I was going through this I found some quite useful info on the CTC website, it was guidance for schools, a downloadable pdf. It explicitly states that schools should not be insisting on helmets and backs it up with evidence. It may be worth digging it up.

 

[Sara_H]

http://www.ctc.org.uk/file/public/schools-and-collegesbrf_2.pdf

"Cycle helmets: Imposing helmet rules is not justified on health and safety grounds given the
uncertainties about their effectiveness, and the measure can be discriminatory because the cost of buying a helmet may be beyond some family’s means. It should therefore be up to parents to
decide whether they want their children to wear helmets whilst cycling and their decisions should
be informed by clear information about the protection such headwear affords. Cycle helmets are
discussed more fully in CTC’s briefing Cycle helmets. www.ctc.org.uk/campaigns > views"

 

[Archie_tect]

I like that, thanks Sara.
Were you successful in persuading the school to change it's policy?

 

[Puddles]

To clarify.

The school travel policy - says nothing about helmets

There is no training requirement for cyclists

Every parent I have spoken to has said "do they? when did they bring that in? why did they decide to do that now?, being in a small village (born & raised here moved away with hubby came back) I even went to that school, I can recognise former pupils who are also parents, one of whom is on child #5 2 already have gone through the school and she was unaware of the helmet policy and said in 2008 when they did the whole woo hoo bike racks, travel policy safe route to school etc thing, helmets were never mentioned, they did ask parents about the training but parents voted no.


Bike passes are apparently relatively new only been in for 3 years when the school issued them they did not consult they simply said due to over loaded racks & un-locked bikes they wanted to do the pass so bike useage could be monitored and so that parents would agree to lock bikes (apparently the wrong bike had been taken home on a few occasions when bikes were the same & locks would solve them having a parent in the office saying where is my sons bike). I am told the first forms only had things like locking bikes, don't ride them in school, don't leave overnight & that the school took no responsibility for their safety etc.

Since then once you get your pass issued for 1 year, they simply re-issue the pass each year with no form to sign so a lot of "oldies" at the school have no idea when the "new bike pass rules" were issued and are unaware they MUST put a helmet on their child to put a bike in a rack.

 

[Sara_H]

I like that.
Were you successful in persuading the school to change it's policy Sara?

Well, as I said further up, I recieved two rather rude replies to my email to school. I replied once again stating (nicely) that they were ill informed and gave them some pointers.
I didn't hear from them again, but in the two newsletters sent since then the item about cycle hlmets/bikeabilty has not appeared (prior to this it was included in every newsletter.).

 

[Puddles]

Thanks Sara, I shall add that to my, now extensive, collection of information

 

[RiflemanSmith]

An odd comparison to make. The OP situation is more akin to the headteacher requiring the children to wear their uniforms at home on the weekend.

Not really as you could walk your child to school in a onesie if you so wished but you would have to be wearing it when you enter the school grounds.
If it is such a big deal and you are so anti helmet lol, let your kid ride to school then put the helmet on to push their bike into school then park the bike in the bike stand not hard why the fuss?

 

[Puddles]

YAY! Small victory

The travel plan officer local authority is going to mail her with another schools policy recommending they change their cycle policy to not mandatory

 

[RiflemanSmith]

YAY! Small victory

The travel plan officer local authority is going to mail her with another schools policy recommending they change their cycle policy to not mandatory

Wow well done you are very heroic in your struggle against the oppressive over bearing regime of that school and your victory shall reverberate down the book of history.
Your name shall be the battle cry on the lips of the self-righteous forever more.