Community Action Suffolk is pleased to have supported Melton Primary School with an exciting new cycling project called ‘Bike for Life’ which launched on 18 March 2016.
The children of Melton Primary school were so inspired by the Women’s Tour which raced past the school in the summer of 2016, that headteacher Mr. Girling and the Friends of Melton School (FOMS) were keen to help them get involved with the sport. Funding of £9599.90 was secured for the school to develop this project for all the children of the school to enjoy.
The ‘Bike for Life’ project will allow all the children at the school to use a brand new bike and scooter shed, take part in cycling training, a cycling after school club, the chance to scoot/cycle at lunchtimes on a track at the school as well as learning more about the sport and hear from people in the local community who are also involved with the sport. Mark Girling, Head teacher said:
“This is a really exciting project for all the children at Melton Primary School. Cycling is a fantastic skill for life as well as being wonderful for keeping healthy. We thank all of the funders for supporting our school with this new project, and look forward to seeing more children coming to school on their bikes and scooters now that we have such wonderful new facilities and exciting activities planned by our teachers.”
Community Action Suffolk supported the school’s Parent Teacher Association (PTA) to look for funding, and support with writing funding applications to secure the finances for the school. FOMS is a registered charity and was therefore able to support the school, pupils and parents ambitions to develop new opportunities for all of the children to take part in, which otherwise the school might not have been able to secure if they had applied directly themselves. Claire Taylor-Haigh, Community Field Officer at CAS, said:
“This is such a great project for all the children at Melton, but more than that a great example of how a PTA can work so closely with their school and local funders to reach where statutory organisation can’t reach! These kinds of projects take a lot of dedication to get them to fruition, and it is the hard work of parents at the school as well as a strong partnership between the FOMS and the school which have made this such a success.”
If you are a local PTA or “Friends Of” group who would like to know more about how to attract funding and support for your group, contact your local CAS Community Field Officer.