As one of the most outbreaking activities within the whole project, the RIDE&SMILE partnership will do something that nobody has ever been doing within an European project, a symbolic bike trip from Rome to Brussels: a zero-emission 1.600 km ride on two wheels across six countries (Italy, Switzerland, Germany, France, Luxembourg, Belgium) to bring the project results directly to the heart of the EU. In the travel panniers, the cyclists will be carrying the policy recommendations produced by the pupils as a final result of their learning process. These recommendations will be delivered to the EC officers and decision-makers responsible for education and environmental policies.

The first edition of the Bike to School Challenge took place in May 2022 and several classes of the schools involved in the project, from Italy, Romania and North Macedonia, have actively participated, having fun and using sustainable means for their daily journeys and beyond.
The Bike to School Challenge is a playful 1 month competition among European school classes, in which the pupils can earn points going to school by bike or on foot instead of using a car, thus contributing to a better urban environment. We are so amazed! Together 394 primary school students from our partner schools from the three countries collected more than 20.000km of sustainable mobility of which more than 6.000 km were done by bike! All data and routes were recorded thanks to the use of the digital platform that was developed by the partners in the months prior to the competition.
Below in the charts are the statistics and results.
Children were very happy to participate in this challenge and during the joint staff training event in Romania, the winning Romanian class was awarded. The award ceremony in Italy will instead take place during the multiplier event on the Friday 16 th September in Rome. And now?
We are so excited since we are already collecting new memberships from
European classes and schools that are ready to participate in the second edition of the challenge to be held in May 2023! If your school or class is interested in participating do not hesitate to contact us!

On July 20th partners met to discuss several points of the web platform including:

1. Protection of sensitive data / privacy issues concerning the involvement of children

– Collective class account managed by the teacher
– Confidentiality of addresses/routes
– Attention should be paid to avoid any forms of discrimination among children

2. Use of smartphone/ICT tools

– Responsible and safe use of ICT tools should be taken in consideration within the planned didactic activities

3. Safety on the road

– Preliminary activities should be organised to provide the pupils with basic notions concerning how to ride a bike safely in the city
– A partnership with the local police could be evaluated

Discussions were also held as to when a ‘Face to face’ meeting would take place, given current Covid restrictions in several partner countries this will be decided at a later date.

Partners in the RIDE & SMILE project have been involved in starting the project online because of travel travel restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. A series of early discussions have taken place using videoconferencing technologies where partners were able to meet one another, share ideas and discuss the two outputs to be produced from the project:

Output 1 is an interactive web platform that will include an innovative bike competition tool  and learning materials 

Output 2 is a series of educational activities on environmental awareness, teacher training modules addressed to primary schools and tailored to their specific needs.