Saturday Scooter Disco
An empty school car park. A bunch of children in need of fun exercise. Parents looking for a Saturday activity for them away from screens. And a new collection of scooters waiting to be used… the perfect ingredients for a Saturday afternoon scooter disco!
Team Brightwayz recently headed for Greenfields Primary School in Kettering to take over the car park and run a two hour event.
With local DJ Dale, community champion Kelly (who knows EVERYONE) and skate trainer Ethan to join us, we were well set up. We had the scooters (purchased from James at Scootfit), the protective gear and our set of pop up barriers and cones. The pop up disco was bringing the beat and the bunting and gazebo were up to attract attention. The sign up process, ‘make it safe for everyone’ rules and risk assessment were all in place… so off we went.
From experienced, confident scooter riders to first-timers the course was big enough for everyone… with a slight slope to give a chance to practice using brakes! One of the scooter newbies started off tentatively on a three wheel scooter and we loved seeing his confidence and joy grow as the session went on. From a wary start he finished by saying ‘This is awesome. Can we do this every day after school?’. Well we couldn’t meet that request but we agreed afterwards with his mum to lend him the scooter so he could build on his newfound confidence.
Whilst parents were waiting around it was the perfect opportunity to ask them to complete our short travel surveys about travel habits and needs for the area. (Yes, we know from experience that if you want busy parents to give you the time and attention to fill in your surveys you first need to make sure the kids are safely entertained!).
This event was one of our local activities funded by the National Lottery Community Fund as part of our ‘Up a Gear North Northants’ project. It also fitted well into our Highfield Travel project which brings a hyper-local focus to identifying and addressing travel related needs for this local housing estate. This need was clear - some active travel, fun activities for local children in a local venue.
Another reason for choosing this venue was that the Greenfields Primary School was the first this year to achieve Modeshift STARS in our county. The Head teacher and colleague Molly were really supportive in letting us use the carpark on a Saturday and it was a really great example of school and community collaboration. Schools have great assets like this that can be used to support delivery of travel plan initiatives if there are good links with partners like us. One of the children summed it up when he said: “This is usually full of cars but today it isn’t and we are allowed to play here!”.
So if you are looking for a fun event to boost active travel skills and add as an initiative to your school travel plan, take a look at where you could organise your own scooter disco and which partners you have in your community who can help.
Here at Brightwayz social enterprise we love to provide information and tips to help you, your colleagues, friends and family travel in safe, active, sustainable ways for everyday journeys.
Our unique range of products is here to help support your active travel campaigns and 100% of profits from sales is ploughed back to support the work we do. Take a look at our range here and find something to help you inspire others to travel in good ways.
Reflector Shop pack
High Vis Child Waistcoat
Brightwayz Bike Bell
Scooter Zip Clip 
Walking Bubble Bunting 
Scooter Activity Book