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Tuesday 15 Nov 2022

Network Rail cycles into partnership with St Roch’s Primary

Region & Route:

Scotland’s Railway: Scotland

Network Rail has taken the next step in building a relationship with a primary school close to their Glasgow maintenance base.

While handing over 22 reconditioned bikes for pupils to use, the infrastructure company announced a new official partnership with St Roch’s Primary School in Glasgow.

The donation of the bikes follows on from work over the summer to construct an outdoor learning space and a bike-storage area. Pupils also visited Network Rail’s Glasgow Delivery Unit (GDU) and took part in safety demonstrations.

The community partnership was forged during COP26 last year, when pupils from St Roch’s Primary and Deaf School visited Glasgow Central station after participating in a competition to encourage people to live greener.

The school produced a video about making Scotland’s Railway greener as part of a COP26 competition run by Network Rail. And while St Roch’s didn’t win the competition, the video they produced left a lasting impression on the judges.

It is hoped that the community partnership will provide an opportunity to promote safety around the railway. It will also enable participation in STEM activities to encourage the young people to learn more about technology and engineering and think about possibilities beyond their school years.

Network Rail staff will volunteer their time and expertise to support the school community with practical skills and assistance with one of the first tasks being to work with the children to improve their cycling skills to keep them safe on their new bikes.

Stephen Crosbie, Network Rail infrastructure maintenance manager, said: “We’re thrilled to be formalising the community partnering with St Roch’s a year on from entering our COP26 competition in 2021.

“We are grateful to the many people in the school community and our Network Rail colleagues who have been pivotal in building the relationship up until now.

“We are confident that the partnership will create exciting opportunities in the coming months and years and we are looking at the different ways we can offer support to the pupils, the school and the wider community now and in the future.”

Pauline Ward, head teacher at St Roch’s Primary and Deaf School, said: “We never imagined when we entered the competition last year that it could lead to partnering with Network Rail and that the pupils would get so much out of it.

“The response from the pupils and the wider school community has been really positive and the partnership has offered new avenues to explore and has opened up opportunities and possibilities.

“The outdoor classroom and bike-shed have been a fantastic addition to the playground and now the donation of bikes for the pupils to use is the icing on the cake. Thank you to everyone involved in making this happen.”