TCC letter to heads (Trust)
Teacher Cycling Community www.teachercycling.com has the aim of engaging more teachers in cycling, commuting by bike and connecting with other like-minded individuals. Cycling has endless benefits to the individual, environment and community, leading to better outcomes for all, hence promoting it as a means of active commuting for school staff and engaging with a community which supports staff to do so, is a great place to start. Teacher Cycling Community runs on a membership/subscription model to provide subscribers with community benefits, those who subscribe access; £60 worth of benefits instantly, but more importantly the social aspects of forums, real life and online ride meet ups, as well as 15+ brand and product discounts to reduce the financial barriers teachers and education staff can face to cycling to work and in their own time. The community isn’t just for ‘cyclists’ in the Lycra wearing 100km riding niche, but anyone who owns a bike, utilitarian riders who don’t own a car, commuters who ride the 2 miles into work to save on petrol and everyone in between.
What do members say about the community?
"Teacher Cycling Community gives me motivation to ride and access to a like-minded community" Sue
"Traditional Cycling Clubs don't appeal to me, but connecting with like-minded individuals and groups like Teacher Cycling Community do. They're not the same thing." Emma
Benefits of commuting by bike for individual staff
cycling for 20 minutes on most days reduces mortality risk by at least 10%; active commuting is associated with about a 10% decrease in risk for cardiovascular disease and a 30% decrease in type 2 diabetes risk; and cancer-related mortality is 30% lower among bike commuters. (*1)
Cycle commuters believe that riding to work makes them feel fantastic on many levels, including stress reduction and improvements to mood (*2)
Benefits of commuting by bike for the school community
Rehearsal and planning for the day ahead during the ride to work and processing and closure of events from the day during the ride home. The cycle commute therefore provides a valuable book-ending to the working day, which enhances mood and stress reduction. (*2)
Contributors to the research reported an increased performance at work (*2)
Benefits of Teacher Cycling Community for staff social well-being
For some participants, riding to work was normalised by the number of people they encountered at work or during the rider doing the same thing. This could also lead to opportunities for social rewards and camaraderie. (*2)
TCC allows for those staff who are the first or few who do so at a school to engage with other staff members from different schools and access those social rewards and camaraderie.
Joyce Frankland Academy Wednesday Wheel - a commuting group of staff who ride to JFAN from Saffron Walden Market Square every Wednesday morning.
Frideday is a weekly remote event when education staff are encouraged to ride to work or outside of work, sharing their rides on socials, strava and the forums
Local meet ups lead by our team of ambassadors which take place half termly in areas local to our ambassadors
Weekly Zwift rides during the winter on Wednesday evenings with Discord channel
As has been highlighted; cycling and particularly Teacher Cycling Community can have a positive impact on not only individual members of staff, but the community and environment in the school. Please take the time to have a look at the website and social media accounts for further inspiration and resources, sign up as a member (www.teachercycling.com) and hopefully the community will see you on one of our local meet ups around your local in the near future!
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