promotion of social inclusion and prevention of early school leaving through sport
In June 2014, thirty-six students between 11 and 13 years old (accompanied by eleven adults) left Liège by bike to reach Brussels five days later, using 250 kilometres of cycle path. Those students are from the specialised school “Robert Brasseur” (Liège) and suffer from slight mental retardation, behaviour disorders or an illness. This project, which means to be “sportive, solidary and civic”, aimed to improve students’ self-confidence. It took three years to organise.
The first step was to gather bicycles (among other through a call on social networks) for each student (who would then keep it) and to teach them how to use and maintain them in a responsible way. The bikes were repaired with the help of a retired mechanics teacher and of students and teachers of the “cycles” section of a vocational school (school Jean XXIII in Beyne-Heusay, near Liège).
Then, with the help of a sport activity leader of the City of Liège, the students learnt how to ride. Many passed a certificate supervised by the organisation “ProVélo and received security advice from the police. Students who could not ride due to psychomotor troubles rode on tandems.
Finally, teachers organised the journey, setting the itinerary, searching accommodation and fostering meetings with people (the residents of a nearby retirement home distributed snacks to the cyclists, the children met a youth association). The trip ended with a bicycle tour of Brussels, provided by a local school they had received earlier. The students were then driven to Eupen, a town near the German boarders, from where they rode back to Liège.
The project also gave the opportunity to address school matters: distance calculation and problem solving in mathematics; discovery of the bicycle in history (including the role they played in the first World War)… The students also managed the website
http://itinerairewallonie.jimdo.com/ where they told their story.
Story told in the magazine “Prof” #22, June 2014:
http://www.enseignement.be/upload/docs/000000000005/000000010719_NXULBCXJ.pdf#page=34