Rolling into fall semester PE classes
We are excited to kick off the 2025-2026 school year.
After our busy year and huge impact last year, Youth en Route has grown to better support teachers and learning. Kimberley Nelson has taken on a leadership role as the Program Manager for Youth en Route. Based on feedback received from our student advisory council, the many teachers we worked with, and of course our students, we have made changes to how we delivery our core program for this year, and can’t wait to share it with you.
The goals and timelines are the same: four or five 80-minute classes allows a learning progression for all students from never been on a bike to a short community bike ride in a way that that safe and empowering for everyone. We jam in a lot of learning, so youth can choose to bike to where they want to go – including how to choose a route, basic bike maintenance and road and pathway safety and etiquette.
Removed day-one class room activity
For those of you who are familiar with our programming, we have eliminated the slide show presentation from day 1. We are asking our teachers to give a brief presentation (15 minutes) during class time the week before our arrival. This will :
- Allow students to prepare to have a device (smart phone, tablet or other device) to complete our Student Active Travel Survey (the data is crucial to our organization!)
- Dress appropriately for the upcoming week
- Understand behavioural expectations
- Think about what their personal learning objectives are
- Get on the bikes and start riding immediately, with focused safety instructions happening with bikes in hand!
Book dates now!
We are working to add our available dates to the website so that you are better able to plan your yearly curriculum in advance, but I have included a little preview so you can see how to better fit our program into your school. Note that we are only able to accommodate two schools per week with our standard offering and 1 adaptive school per week to ensure proper staffing levels and equipment from Youth en Route. all this means that we will fill up quickly. E-mail Programs@youthenroute.ca
Information on Adaptive and Winter biking coming
Youth en Route will continue to offer winter and adaptive biking during classes as well. Our adaptive program is geared to any special education class – and it’s ideally built into PE or gym hours during the winter months. We bring a range of bikes for different abilities and staff to support teachers and aides to get students riding.
Thanks to funding from Alberta Eco-Trust, we have the opportunity to support winter biking with outdoor education and leadership classes. We bring a fleet of bikes with studded tires and help students students understand that biking can be a four-season activity if you have the right clothes and equipment. These programs are tailored to reach your desired learning outcomes.
Watch for more information on these programs coming soon!
