On Wednesday 15^th October we were very fortunate to have visitors from the Hawks BMX Club.  The club is promoting the BMX Wheels Project which is funded by Hillingdon Community Trust.  The project is an exciting new outreach programme to introduce children to the new Olympic sport of BMX Racing and is a fun way to get into cycling.

At 8am a large truck, van and trailer arrived at the school; loaded with the BMX bikes, helmets and gloves, plus two enthusiastic fully qualified instructors.  We also had four volunteers’ pupils from Swakeley School.

Throughout the day children in years 4, 5 and 6 attended a 45minute taster session.  The session started with the children being taught how to do a safety check on their bikes, and then were introduced to basic skills needed for bmx racing.  

The pupils from Swakeleys School assisted with children who were unable to ride a bike.  The pupils were very supportive and encouraging, and by the end of the day had successfully taught ten of our children to ride a bike.  Thank you girls!

There was a definite buzz around the school with excited children and staff.  A couple of overheard comments were “This has been the best day ever at school”,  “How wonderful to see all my class smiling” and “It was great to see how many pupils were showing resilience, particularly the riders who were not as confident as others.  It was a very successful taster session and our thanks go to Hawks BMX club and the pupils from Swakeleys School.

It has been great for us to work with and promote BMX with Hayes Hawks BMX Club with SHSSN schools. Pupils have thrived on having a sport in their school that they wouldn’t normally be able to do or have access to. Our core values are the Olympic and Paralympic Values and BMX has highlighted these in abundance within the pupils. Seeing the determination on one particular pupils face (through the tears), to overcome something they were finding difficult and to go on and achieve their goal was inspirational to see.

• It has enriched the experience of the pupils involved.
• A wider range of pupils have experienced tasters/competition/festivals that would
• otherwise not been able to.

“Thanks, all of our children thoroughly enjoyed the festival! So much so a year 4 pupil said to his mum: ‘ I’ll have to give up football now, it clashes with BMX on Saturday –

 I want to do that instead!’”

“The BMX taster session last week was very good and all our children enjoyed themselves.”

“Just a quick note to say that the taster session was fantastic. All children were engaged and it was well matched to their ability level. “ 

“I think the event was fantastic. I’m a huge fan of getting more cycling into schools”

“Tasters have been a real success I believe. The children thoroughly loved the BMX tasters – was nice as was completely different.”