How to encourage cycling at schools with anti-cycling policies

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Don't stop kids from cycling to school

2) The law - what schools can and cannot do about cycling to school

• Cycling ‘bans’

Schools do not have any legal right to ban cycling to and from their premises.

However, schools can discourage cycling through letters to parents or anti-cycling statements at assemblies and in publications. Schools can also ban bicycles from school grounds or refuse to supply cycle parking, which in many cases creates a de facto ban.

• Liability

Some schools will make incorrect claims (either knowingly or out of ignorance) about their liability for students and/or their bicycles in order to justify a ban on cycles/cycle parking on school grounds.

However, schools are not liable for students travelling independently to or from the premises (school-operated buses are a different matter). Equally, schools are not liable for theft or damage caused to bicycles on school grounds, just as schools are not liable for theft or damage to a student’s coat left in a cloakroom.