WATCH: Cork students get in festive spirit with Santa cycle bus

Christmas has made its way to Beaumont National School after 50 plus students rode their bikes to school this morning during a special Santa-themed cycling event.

Donning festive costumes and lights, the children made their way from Blackrock Hurling Club to the school alongside Frank Fitzgerald from Cork City Council and Tom Hennessy of the Cork Cycling Campaign, who provided a speaker to play Christmas music.

“We had a great time. The kids went to great effort to decorate their bikes and we had nearly 60 kids take part and they were from junior infants all the way to sixth class,” said parent and cycle bus supervisor Rosemary Hogan.

“Frank and Tom came out to join us and Tom came with a speaker to play Christmas music. The school was so supportive and another organisation actually donated bike lights for the kids as well.

“It was brilliant, a much bigger success than we had anticipated.” 

The supervised cycle to school, known as a cycle bus, was organised by the school’s Parents' Association Travel Safe Committee and takes place monthly in order to promote healthier ways to travel to and from school for students.

“We started it this year to promote cycling to school as part of our overall initiative. We invite kids to meet us at the hurling club, which is close to the school, and we go from there," Ms Hogan said.

“It’s just an opportunity for the kids to experience cycling and have a bit of fun and it’s worked out really well. We usually only have maybe 20 to 30 kids and today we got double that. 

"We’re very lucky as a school committee to have all of the support that we do.”