The UK’s first ever Bike Band – a new fun and healthy initiative featuring 60 primary school children singing with bells and drums on their bikes – is being conducted by a local school for Bike to School Week.
Inspired by the Netherlands’ brass Bike Bands, pupils from Oldfield Park Junior School will become the first school Bike Band in the UK when they cycle along the new Two Tunnels cycling greenway in Bath on 14th June.
The Council’s Music Service has written two songs especially for the school which will be sung by the cyclists, accompanied by bells and drums.
All 60 Year 5 pupils will make up the Bike Band and will cycle the seven miles to Midford and back – wearing bright orange t-shirts, caps and bands. They will then meet up with the rest of the school at Bloomfield Space for a healthy celebration picnic and a whole school performance of their songs.
Councillor Dine Romero (Lib-Dem, Southdown), Cabinet Member for Early Years, Children and Youth, said: “Bath & North East Somerset Council is proud to be leading the way with the creation of the UK’s first ever Bike Band. The experience of children cycling, singing and playing music while promoting healthy lifestyles in a community celebration will, we hope, lead to more ‘Bike Band’ spectaculars like this around the country!”
The Bike Band will join forces with the Council’s Wheels for All scheme – using its amazing range of adapted bikes, tricycles, hand and quad cycles to help transport the young musicians, singers and drummers through the Two Tunnels.
The ride will be led by the Council’s Cycling Development officer, Jim Imeson, who has been working with the school; practicing using the adapted bikes with attached drums on the Council’s new Odd Down Cycle Circuit, which was funded by British Cycling.
The initial idea of creating a school Bike Band came from Cycling Instructor Paul Lowe, who helped the pupils complete their Bikeability cycle training and get their bikes checked by mechanics so that they are safe to ride.
Judy Allies, the Council’s Director of Public Health Award Coordinator, brought together a diverse team to help set up a Bike Band with Oldfield Park Junior School so that other local schools could learn from their experience and create their own Bike Bands.
The Bike Band Bonanza pulls together several aspects of the Director of Public Health Award’s positive health and wellbeing outcomes such as emotional health and well-being, physical activity and healthy eating.
Oldfield Park Junior School’s Head teacher Marilyn Cole has been instrumental in turning this from an unusual idea into reality. She said: “We have been connected with The Two Tunnels Project since 2010 when Year 3 went behind the fencing to see the tunnels filled with clay. I am delighted that three years later Year 5 will be cycling through the tunnels, en masse whilst playing instruments and singing. It will be a wonderful community event.”
“The children have been busy learning the songs, designing bonanza logos and practicing their cycling skills. Ella from Year 5 said: “I am excited because I have never cycled and played instruments at the same time through a tunnel.”
The school has also been working closely with Charlotte Musgrove, Food for Life Manager, to make sure the day is a really tasty success. She said: “The picnic will incorporate a smoothie bike to combine the theme of cycling and physical activity with healthy eating, allowing children to use their pedal power to make a tasty fruit smoothie using local, seasonal and organic fruit!”
Children from Stepping Stones Preschool, next to the junior school, will give the cyclists a good send off by singing on the playground at the start of their ride. The preschool is also looking forward to using balance bikes and scooters on the school playground as part of their physical activity provision after the event.
