Riding a bike can be a speedy - and healthy - option for getting to the school gates on time, but students at one school in south London won’t be able to cycle in unless they’re using number plates.
Pupils at Stanley Park High School, a mixed, Government-funded school in Carshalton, will soon be issued with number plates that “must be displayed when riding to and from school” as part of a new registration scheme that will allow members of the public to report any irresponsible cycling by the children.
The school’s headteacher Amit Amin said the new scheme is in response to children cycling in a way that “endangers themselves and others”.
“Students without a number plate will not be permitted to cycle to school, or lock their bicycles on school grounds,” he wrote on the school’s website.
While the measure will make it easier for the public to report the children behaving badly on their bikes, it is part of a wider scheme being introduced on 1 October aimed at encouraging cycling, which includes subsidised bike lights and maintenance workshops.
“Our absolute priority is the safety of our students, and the aim of this initiative is simply to ensure their safety as they travel to and from school,” the school said in a statement.
Stanley Park High is not the first school to implement strict rules around pupils’ bike use. Students at some schools in Coventry, Surrey and St Albans have to adhere to guidelines about what they can wear while cycling, such as high visibility vests, and have been threatened with having their bikes confiscated if they contravene them.
But critics of the number plates scheme say it is an example of headteachers taking on responsibilities outside of their remit.
Charity Cycling UK says that putting restrictions on children cycling “could have a negative effect” on the number of them who choose to ride to school.
Duncan Dollimore, road safety and legal campaigns officer at the charity, questioned why the Carshalton school wanted to “make cycling to school more difficult”.
“They should be looking to make active journeys easier and more attractive. Worryingly, this behaviour seems to be part of a trend of headteachers trespassing on parental responsibilities,” he said.
He said that encouraging local authorities to adopt 20mph speed limits and traffic calming measures around schools would make cycling safer for children, “not number plates on bikes”.
Additional reporting by Press Association