Play on Pedals says a big 'thank you' after incredible first year

By Suzanne
Tuesday, 10 March 2015
Play on Pedals celebrates its first year
Suzanne Forup, CTC's Assistant Head of Development in Scotland, leads the partnership behind Play on Pedals - a Glasgow-based initiative that is enabling pre-school children to explore the playful side of cycling.

It's been an incredible first year for Play on Pedals.

The community project, a partnership between CTC, Cycling Scotland, the Glasgow Bike Station and Play Scotland, and supported by players of the People's Postcode Lottery has so far seen over 500 participants (including instructors) take part in cycling at nurseries across the city.

At the beginning of 2014, training resources and instruction manuals for the Play on Pedals early years age group had not been created in Scotland, so it is a fantastic achievement that in its first year, Play on Pedals has written a full training programme and resource pack for Instructor and parents, alongside recruiting over 80 volunteer instructors and engaging with roughly 140 Glasgow- based nurseries and groups.

A pool of hundreds of bikes that are based in community settings for nurseries to access has also been purchased and distributed to participating areas of Glasgow, receiving great feedback from the new young cyclists.

Additionally, eleven ‘hero organisations’ have been established. Hero organisations receive training and resources to support Play on Pedals within their local communities. These organisations are central in the development of the Play on Pedals project, as many of them are local bike workshops and have the expertise to provide much needed support for nurseries, including maintenance and advice for instructors.

As part of the initiative, champion athletes have also visited local nurseries; including triple Paralympic Gold medal winner Aileen McGlynn OBE, who scooped two silver medals at the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games, and James McCallum, who won Bronze at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games 2006.

The next twelve months will see the extended roll out of the programme across the city, recruiting more Hero Organisations and carrying out additional Bike Swaps, community events and training days.

You can find our more about the project by checking out the website: https://playonpedals.wordpress.com/ or following them on Twitter: @PlayonPedals

Family cycling Cycling UK in Scotland Play Together on Pedals