posted by Lesley Eaton, School Travel Administrator, Schools and Learning

Just a reminder that The Big Pedal is coming up in March and our communications will be ramping up. Here are some key points and messages you may want to promote:

What is it? The Big Pedal is an inter-school cycling and scooting challenge that runs across the UK and is open to all primary and secondary schools.

What does it involve: Schools compete to try to get the largest percentage of pupils, staff and parents travelling to school by two wheels. Schools enter data each day to climb the leaderboard. This years theme is Around the World in 10 Days and pupils will track their progress on a wall chart (sent to schools when they register – see below), learning about the countries and cities they pass through along the way.

Dates: The Big Pedal runs from March 20th – 31st.

10 days, 5 days or 1 day & Superhero Day: Schools can choose to enter a 1 or 5 day challenge where their best day or best 5 days out of the two weeks count. A good day for the 1 day challenge would be Friday 31st March, when we are encouraging schools to run a Superhero Day where pupils dress themselves and their bikes as Superheroes. Schools in Scotland can share images on that day on Twitter to @SustransScot #BigPedal to go into the draw to win prizes.

What is the value to schools?Joining in The Big Pedal is a great way for schools to get the whole school community excited about active travel and get staff, pupils and parents active. Participation can directly impact school traffic issues and schools can win great prizes.

Registration: For information (including lots of resources for schools to use) and to register, visit http://bigpedal.org.uk/.

What can you do?

• All schools will receive an email about The Big Pedal so please flag it up and encourage them to take part. 
• Ask schools in your area who are taking part to share on Twitter to @SustransScot #BigPedal. We will retweet and promote their tweets.
• If you have any underspend this year you could use this to offer additional local prizes to increase participation in the challenge.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with Kirsty by email Kirsty.Rankin@sustrans.org.uk.