An innovative, bespoke programme run by Mountain Bike Skills has been launched that uses mountain biking in learning and behaviour support.
It promotes development through skills-based tasks and is aimed at anyone who has found more traditionally structured learning environments or establishments prohibitive.
This programme is about applying new skills in a real life setting, with sessions available across the North. It works because sessions are centred on the ‘cool’ and up-and-coming sport of mountain biking.
Angela, who used the sessions in a secondary school in Bolton, said: “Using mountain biking as a way of learning seems to somehow work. The young people who had been excluded from mainstream lessons found it stimulating and engaging. They would turn up for the sessions and want to do it. They learnt to work together and focus as well as picking up a range of mechanical and motor skills. Mike is a great instructor who can get the message across to anyone.”
Each session is designed to draw out a range of cognitive and social functions in an applied way. Tasks engage and inspire young people and learners with special needs that would otherwise be turned off by conventional teaching methods.
It can be used with youth offenders, within school support systems or in a range of residential settings. Sessions can be tailored to individual or group requirements building up a progressive toolkit of mechanical knowledge and applied learning.
Geared up! bridges the gap between academic learning and life experience.
How it works A series of mountain-bike maintenance and bike-building workshops culminate in outdoor rides which are Geared up! around constructive alignment: aims and objectives that can be mapped against learning outcomes.
Participants are encouraged to reflect on experience and go on to apply what they have learnt in a range of work and social settings.
For more information call 01539 623520 or email mike.mountainbike@googlemail.com
