Students at International School Utrecht take part in Dutch safe cycling exam

Cycling is a healthy and enjoyable activity and it is an integral part of Dutch life. That is why students (aged 10-14) at International School Utrecht have been involved over the past few months in theoretical traffic lessons, as well as practical bike skill lessons. The aim is to get the students certified as safe bikers.

The driving force behind this project is dedicated traffic parent Katja van Dien, who took it upon her to translate and teach the theoretical traffic lessons that are made available to all Dutch primary schools by ‘Veilig Verkeer Nederland’, the Dutch association for Safe Traffic. Van Dien also persuaded ‘Veilig Verkeer Nederland’ to translate the national theoretical exam into English, so ISUtrecht could be a pilot school for other Dutch international schools wanting to take part in the national safe cycling exam.

‘Our family has lived abroad for seven years and when we returned to the Netherlands, I wanted my children to be able to cycle to school, like all Dutch children’, says Van Dien. ‘Although they could manage to stay on their bikes and cycle in a straight line, they found it really difficult to negotiate traffic.’

Starting with the basics

The school leadership team at ISUtrecht fortunately was keen to join forces with Van Dien and together with a dedicated team of parent volunteers she started her traffic lessons in early January. ‘I had to start with the absolute basics as most of the international students weren’t used to cycling. In fact some students couldn’t ride a bike at all.’

In spite of the wet, gloomy January weather, every Monday morning the grade 4 and 5 students would start the day on their bikes. ‘We spent a lot of time practising bike skills like cycling with one hand, so they could get used to using the other hand for signalling, or cycling in a group and negotiating obstacles.’

The 10 and 11 year olds, as well as the older middle school students also took part in theoretical traffic lessons, learning about the right of way, traffic signs and other traffic rules. These lessons resulted in all the students passing their theoretical exam on the 10th of April.

Real-life situations

At the moment the students are busy preparing for the practical cycling exam later this month. With the help of the local community policeman, Van Dien came op with a challenging exam route. ‘I wanted the students to encounter similar traffic situations to those they would have to negotiate if they were to cycle from our school to the city centre, as it is something most Dutch children and their families would do regularly’, Van Dien explains. ‘No one takes the car to go into Utrecht city centre as it is almost impossible to park and very expensive as well.’

To ensure all students are well prepared for the test, together with her team of parent volunteers, she took them on a practice ride. Van Dien: ‘we stopped at all the posts where volunteers will be positioned to mark the students during the exam. This gave me the opportunity to go over the different traffic situations once more, while it gave the students the opportunity to ask me some questions.’

For the Upper Primary students at ISUtrecht passing the exam has an added bonus. Just like their Dutch peers, the international students will go on an overnight camp to mark the end of their time at primary school. As tradition has it, going ‘op kamp’ in the Netherlands, invariably means cycling to a camp house, usually situated in a forest, or other nature reserve, for a few days of outdoor activities. This year in between the masses of Dutch primary school children going ‘op kamp’, some very proud international children can be seen cycling to their camp house just outside Utrecht.

Contributed by International School Utrecht