Schools in Peterborough are still celebrating the achievements they accomplished during this year’s UK wide Big Pedal which took place between 23 April-4 May. Sixteen schools across the city got involved however, St Thomas More Catholic Primary school has even more reason to celebrate their achievements than most!
They fended off tough competition from other local Sustrans Bike It Plus schools to finish top of the pile in Peterborough for the second year in a row! They also achieved an impressive 7th place finish nationally in the Sustrans Big Pedal large schools category. Incredibly, Orton Wistow Primary from Peterborough also made it into the top 20 places nationally out of 500 schools in the competition’s large schools category!
The Big Pedal is the largest competition of its kind in the UK. Backed by world record breaking cyclist Mark Beaumont, it’s all about encouraging children, teachers and parents to jump on their bikes and scooters and ditch the car.
The head teacher at St Thomas More is Anne-Marie McElhinney who was thrilled with the outcome. Commenting on the results she said:
“We are delighted to have won the Big Pedal in Peterborough again this year. Our whole community always gets behind us and rises to the challenge of cycling and scooting into school for the two weeks of the Big Pedal. At St Thomas More we are committed to improving the health and fitness of our children as well working together to reduce pollution in our local environment. The good news is that our bike sheds and scooter pods are still full one week later”.
The results from this year’s Big Pedal competition provides further evidence that years of investment to promote sustainable transport by Peterborough City Council are paying off. As part of their commitment to create the UK’s environment capital the local authority set up TravelChoice – an organisation created to reduce the need to travel by car.
Through this initiative we were commissioned to deliver the Bike It Plus scheme at a number of schools across the area. Last year the project reached a project milestone making its 70,000th engagement with pupils, teachers and families in Peterborough. With funding from the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority secured our team are confident they’ll be able to go on reducing the number of children travelling to school by car.
Reflecting on this year’s competition our local Schools and Communities officer, Gemma Hughes, said:
“It is truly astonishing to have two Peterborough schools right up there in the top 20 national positions. It was wonderful to see both schools improving on last year’s scores - teachers, pupils and parents really got behind the competition this year and both schools nailed it! We’re very grateful to Peterborough City Council, and the Combined Authority, for their significant support. Without their vision we wouldn’t be seeing so many people coming out on their bikes and scooters, and with plenty of smiles – It’s a spectacular achievement!
See all the final Big Pedal results from around the countryfrom News https://www.sustrans.org.uk/news/it%E2%80%99s-pedaltastic-result-peterborough
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