The Big Pedal is a giant inter-school cycling competition spanning 15 school days in March (5-23 March 2012). It works a bit like the Tour de France in that each day of the race is a new stage following a different Sustrans cycle route around the UK.

Schools encourage pupils, parents and staff to cycle and scoot to school each day and the more that do, the faster their time will be for each stage of the race.

Most schools take part in the whole three week challenge, but schools can also just enter one or more of three daily stages on Tuesday 6, Thursday 15 and Wednesday 21 March.

In the local area the schools registered to date are:

• Hotham Primary School, Putney
• Beatrix Potter Primary School, Earlsfield
• Our Lady Queen of Heaven RC School, Wimbledon
• Shaftesbury Park Primary School, Battersea
  

Schools log in to the website each day of the race and record their school’s results. All school results are then published the following day on the website and schools can track how they and other schools are doing throughout the race.

This year we have three categories for schools: small primaries (150 pupils and less), large primaries (over 150 pupils), and secondary schools. This means there are lots of opportunities for all sizes of school to win prizes and do well.

Some schools run their own competitions between their individual classes too. Results are recorded per class and when schools log in to the website, they can access information about which classes have performed best at each stage.

5th March 2012