58% of the children at Cherwell secondary school in North Oxford cycle to school, probably the second highest cycling rate for a UK secondary school. In contrast, just 10% of children at Cheney secondary school cycle to school. 41% of children at Larkrise primary in East Oxford cycle to school. In contrast, just 12% of children at Windmill primary in Headington cycle to school. (For the primary schools, "cycling" includes "being cycled".)
This is not a result of different school policies or priorities. Cheney has an active sustainable travel group and encourages cycling; it is a trendsetter with its e-bike loan scheme for staff. And Windmill has a strong commitment to sustainability. Nor is it an obvious result of demographics or catchment size: all four schools were oversubscribed and filled their intakes in 2024/25. Cherwell's 18.3% free school meal pupils is lower than Cheney's 24.1%, but Larkrise's 17.2% is higher than Windmill's 7.1% (2024 numbers). Headington may be on a hill, but there are no big gradients affecting Windmill's catchment and only part of Cheney's catchment is "down the hill" in East Oxford.
Cherwell's North Oxford catchment area consists almost entirely of low traffic neighbourhoods, and the bits of cycling infrastructure along and across Woodstock and Banbury Roads that are needed for the school-run are workable, even if awkward and sub-standard. And Cherwell is connected to its Marston catchment by the Marston Ferry Rd cycle track, one of the few really good pieces of cycling infrastructure in the city. Larkrise has low traffic neighbourhoods covering almost all of its catchment. (And in this case we can observe the effects of infrastructure directly: the introduction of low traffic neighbourhoods in 2021-2022 increased Larkrise's cycling modal share from 23% to 41%.)
In contrast, Windmill's catchment is cut across by streets carrying high volumes of motor traffic, especially at school-run times (there is a School Streets scheme, but it only covers a tiny area immediately outside the school gates), and for many it is impossible to avoid the main roads. The Slade has cycle tracks, but they give up completely at the junctions at either end, and Old Rd, Hollow Way, and London Rd are just awful for cycling. Students trying to get to Cheney from Barton or Risinghurst have to traverse the same area, with the additional challenges of crossing the ring-road, with its substandard underpasses or dangerous at-grade crossings (at Barton Park and Kiln Lane).
If the county is serious about making cycling inclusively accessible, it needs to: fix the key junctions (London Rd-Headley Way, Old Rd-Slade, London Rd-Windmill Rd, etc.); close the Quarry entry from the ring road and put in the Headington low traffic neighbourhoods; put a bus gate on Morrell Avenue and enable cycling along London Rd and Old Rd; and address the ring-road severance problems.
Children being able to cycle to school is also an indicator of broader accessibility. If the streets and roads are safe enough for parents to cycle on with younger children and let older children cycle on by themselves, then they will also be accessible to frailer and less confident adults.
Headington Liveable Streets has more on the school cycling problems in Headington.
This is excellent.
For those of us unfamiliar with those roads / junctions, it would be helpful to have a photo to give an impression of what they are like.