Staff vs students cycling in fundraising for Turkey-Syria Earthquake Appeal

24 March 2023

Staff and students at Birkenhead Sixth Form College took to the bikes in a competition to ride the furthest in an all-day event to raise money for the Turkey-Syria Earthquake Appeal.

In the seven-and-a-half hour cycling challenge, 461km were covered on the College’s exercise bikes, with 45 students and a dozen staff taking part in the round-robin.

The students had two people on the bikes at every stage of the day between 9am – 4:30pm and rode out eventual winners, covering 241km compared to the staff’s 220km, much to the displeasure of the teachers.

Of course, fingers were pointed at the fact that students had two bicycles compared to just the one for the staff, but the teachers eventually agreed to not use mathematical equations to work out the technicalities of the unfairness and accepted their loss.

Physics teacher Richard Newby was the star of the show, clocking up a truly impressive 55km on his own, while College Principal Mike Kilbride also took part in his favourite sport and pastime of cycling.

Along with having some competitive fun in the College community, the event was also an opportunity to highlight the extent of the crisis caused by the 6th February earthquake that devastated Turkey and Syria earlier this year. Nearly 60,000 people died as the result of the impact in the two countries, and 14 million people were affected.

Organising the event was Head of Year 0, Claire Morgan, and Sport teacher, Nick Whittaker, who explained: “It’s vital that our students understand events outside of our own lives and work, so raising money and awareness of such a tragedy was extremely important. Volunteering and fundraising is also part of our Year 0 programme for students studying to step up to A Levels next year, so it was great to see so many of them involved.

“As well as donating though, these sort of events create a real buzz around College and contribute to our College community. Competitions between staff and students is always great fun, and no one ever likes to lose – not least teachers! Everyone put in a great effort though, and it was fantastic to see all of the bikes occupied from the first minute until the last.”