A school in The Hague, and a bamboo bike built by hand

Standfirst. In December 2017, a student at a school we work with in The Hague finished building a bamboo bicycle of their own — part of our work taking bike-building into classrooms beyond the UK.

Context

The Netherlands lives on two wheels. Working with a school in The Hague meant teaching young people to build the kind of machine many of them already ride every day — turning daily transport into something they understood from the inside out.

What we did

We ran a school build with students in The Hague: choosing and preparing the bamboo, measuring, cutting, building up the joints and assembling a complete, rideable frame. Several bikes were produced over the project, finished by the students themselves.

The outcome

At least one student completed and kept a bamboo bicycle they had built — photographed proud with the finished bike on completion day. It is one of our early examples of running a school programme outside the UK.

Note: we have not verified the exact number of bikes built. The original "seven bikes" claim is not supported by any primary source and should not be republished without confirmation from the school.

A verified quote

"Build by one of school which we work with in The Hague — one of the completed bikes produced." — Bamboo Bicycle Club, December 2017

(No named individual quote exists, and the photo shows a young person — kept anonymous for safeguarding.)

Why it matters

School programmes carry the craft to the next generation: a young builder who will understand bicycles differently for the rest of their life. They also extend our education mission beyond adult workshops and across borders.

Proof & links

• Canonical original post: Build by a school we work with in The Hague (21 December 2017)
• Related: The BBC Educational Kit — making schools programmes scalable