Get school pupils cycling during Bike Week

Written by Rosie Keeling

With childhood obesity at an all time high we need to be thinking about how our children can have happier and brighter futures.  According to the British Medical Association, there are around 1 million obese children under the age of 16 in the UK (in 2007) resulting in an increase in childhood Type II Diabetes and a resultant rise in heart disease, osteoarthritis and some cancers.  Estimates indicate that if current trends continue, at least one fifth of boys and one third of girls will be obese by 2020.

Tackling this issue requires a change in our culture and attitudes towards food and exercise - a complex social problem.  Key to encouraging exercise is to make it a fun activity that school pupils can get involved in and one way of doing this is to take part in this week’s Bike Week, (14th-22nd June.) Bike Week aims to promote exercise through cycling and consists of many events throughout the country, many of which are aimed at children. To find details of events in your area visit their Event Search.  Bike Week is also focussed on bringing families together and enabling them to enjoy an activity that is both healthy for the whole family and positive for the environment.

To find out more on how you or your school can get involved, visit Bike Week’s website. You can also run your own event and promote it on their site, which could be great for all schools. If you are an independent school with ISC let us know your plans and we will publicise it.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 17th, 2008 at 12:39 pm by Rosie Keeling and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.