By Mikayla Van Loon
Edinburgh College students are being asked to exchange the car ride for a bike ride next week, as the school takes part in national Ride2School Day.
Participating in the event for the first time two years ago, humanities teacher Danny Brooks has been championing the idea for students to ride to school more often so decided to bring back the event after a year off in 2022.
Given the location of the school, being at the peak of Edinburgh Road, Mr Brooks said he understands why students don’t ride to school but he’d like to see the number increase.
“We’ve had a little bike rack but it’s only ever got two bikes in it out of a school of a couple hundred. We just need more bikes at school,” he said.
“It troubles me how many parents drop their kids right at the gate, so I’m just keen to see kids riding.”
With mountain bike riding weaved into Edinburgh College’s curriculum, featuring over a kilometre stretch of track on the 40 acre school property, Mr Brooks said getting students to ride to school is “the missing link” in promoting cycling and mountain biking.
“It’s always a sport option here. Some of our kids know Sylvan and the Warby trail really well, and do a lot of cycling. So it’s just a no brainer to say, well ‘just ride your bike to school kids’.”
While the physical aspects of choosing to ride to school are at the forefront of Mr Brooks’ reasoning, he said even for himself opting to ride home to Yarra Junction some days leaves him with a clear head.
“My head is splendidly clear of the day’s work [when I ride]. So I think kids could use a lot more exercise in their day. If they’re active, they’ll learn better.
“That’s a basic for me, that if they’re less active, if they walk from their house, to their car, and then from the front gate of the school, where the car parks to the classroom, they’re not going to learn as well.”
With around 400,000 students expected to take part in Ride2School Day nationally, Bicycle Network CEO Alison McCormack said it’s a way for students to begin some healthy habits.
“Riding to school can help students perform better in the classroom. Students who actively travel to school are more awake and alert. Their concentration levels and understanding of content improves,” she said.
“Students who are physically active are happier and healthier. They also become more self-sufficient and build resilience.”
Hopeful around 20 high school students will participate in the event on Friday 24 March either by walking or riding, Mr Brooks said he’d be happy to see any level of participation.
“I’ll be riding in from Yarra Junction and I’ll be picking up a couple of kids in Woori Yallock and along the way on the trail, so hopefully we’ll get a bit of a bike bus going.
“We had a couple of kids walk a couple of years ago from Kilsyth somewhere. So that was a decent walk for them and they’re going to do that again.”
Having completed throughout the pandemic a school Strava challenge which saw some students do 100km rides, Mr Brooks said it would be nice to see that kind of participation again and hopes Ride2School can trigger that inspiration.
“We’re just going to try to get back to a bit more of that, ‘it’s cool to be active and let us know what you’re doing’ and just boost it again until it becomes a bit more of a thing and there’s more than two bikes in the bike rack.”
