Frequently Asked Questions

Appointments

Most kids are up and running to an acceptable level in three lessons.

Booking one lesson at a time can lead to long gaps between lessons as we are typically booked out a few weeks in advance.

It’s much cheaper when you book three lessons.

The lessons don’t go to waste. If they do get up and running in two lessons, we move on to more advanced skills.

What if we think we might need more time?

We’ll discount our lessons by a further $10 if you need more than three lessons.

While most kids are up and running in three lessons, some are dealing with greater challenges.

Many of our clients are anxious. It may be after an unfortunate incident while trying to learn at home, other times its for no apparent reason.

Some riders are dealing with additional needs that require more time. Our staff have many years of working with kids who are dealing with ADHD, anxiety, ASD, and dyspraxia, among others.

We pride ourselves on putting parents first. For example a family might have a child dealing with demand avoidance or Pathological Demand Avoidance (PDA). The parents might spend most of the hour coaxing their child out of the car during lesson time. If this happens we offer you options including;

A delayed lesson start -assuming we have capacity in the next hour.
Treat as a “no-show”. We absorb the costs, except the deposit -so that we can pay our instructor.
Micro lessons -where getting the child’s concentration for an hour is not an option.

The options we agree on will vary depending on the child and our available bandwidth.

Students

Do you teach kids with additional needs?

Yes. A lot of our work is with kids who are living with ADHD, anxiety, ASD, cerebral palsy and dyspraxia.

What are the limitations for kids with additional needs?

That’s answered best by you. At a minimum we’ll need some basic;

Communication
- Comprehension -an understanding of simple language.
- Response -it doesn’t need to be long a winded response, but we do need to ask questions to see if they have understood what we just explained.
Focus
We need to be able to get them back on track if their mind wonders away. Perhaps they want to tell us a story about XYZ. -We need to hear it briefly and then be able to draw their attention back to the task at hand.
Physical Contact
At some point in the session, we will need to make physical contact by touching their shoulder, back or sides (not below the lowest ribs).

We don’t need any of the above to be 100% perfect, but we do need a little of each.

For example; someone with ASD might not be comfortable with physical contact. For some, it could be;

they may not be touched at all. -An issue in our teaching model.
are ok with touch through clothing (our case). -No issue for us.
not comfortable with touch, but can push through when necessary. -No issue for us.

How young is too young?

Five and up is normally fine.

We’ve had plenty of four year old kids come through the program with great success and even a few younger ones. You’ll be the best judge of what your kids can do at a younger age.

Young kids begin to lose focus around 45 minutes into the lesson, however we have techniques to keep them engaged to last the hour.

If your kids are under five, you need to consider both the physical limitations and the developmental limitations on a very young child.

Physical Limitations

Younger kids can lose focus much sooner particularly on hot days. For kids under 6, we recommend the following in the warmer months:

- book an early session to avoid the heat. -Young kids fade sooner.
- keep kids cool and out of the sun in the days leading up to the lesson. -Set them up for success. A child who is already exhausted from an activity the day before will not survive direct sunlight on the following day.

Developmental Limitations

Ask yourself a few questions about your child;

1. Does your child generally go along with what is being asked of them?
  -Are they extremely shy? Eg, the kid that will hug mum or dad’s leg and refuse to start.
  -Will they refuse to participate without reason?
2. Can they comprehend simple instructions or questions?
  
  If I ask “what day of the week is it?”, I’d expect to hear a day, even if it’s the wrong day.
  If they answer “Mary”, they may not be ready to learn.
3. Can non-parents understand them?
  
  We’ve all come across infants who can hold simple conversations with their parents, but others around them can only understand the parent side of the conversation.
  If their speaking skills are not mature enough for non-parents to understand them, they may not be ready to learn.
4. Can they execute simple instructions?
  
  We don’t expect them to have a large vocabulary, but they need to be able to follow simple instructions. Eg we wouldn’t say “hold the handlebars” and expect them to know what they are, but we would expect them to understand “hold the bike with your hands here”, while pointing at the handlebars. Depending on the child, we might say “these are called the handlebars.”

Do you teach adults to ride?

Yes, check out our adult lessons page.

Do you teach multiple students at the same time?

Yes. We schedule multiple instructors simultaneously so that everyone receives a one-on-one lesson.

Booking into the future normally reveals more time-slots. –Give us a call if you still can’t find enough time-slots as we often have additional capacity in reserve.

Do you offer Group Classes?

Group classes are best suited to kids who can already ride. See our Group Classes Vs Individual Lessons page for details.

Logistics

What should I bring?

Your child should have:

a helmet
a water bottle
closed shoes

Do I need to bring bikes?

No. We are happy for you to bring your bike but please don’t set the expectation that we will use it in the first lesson.

The bikes we use are easiest to learn with. We can transition riders to their own bikes towards the end of their lessons once they have learnt to ride on ours.

Where & When

Where do you run the school holiday program?

We run the school holiday program at Heffron Park, Maroubra from Monday to Friday during school holidays.

You can still visit us on most Saturdays and Sundays (even in school holidays) at Sydney Olympic Park and Concord.

Are you available every day during school holidays?

Almost. Well before the school holidays we only make a couple of days bookable in our system. As our instructors become close to 80% booked we open a third, fourth, or fifth day for bookings.

Give us a call if you know that you’ll only be available on certain days. We may be able to make the next available day one that suits you.

Cancellations

What if I cancel my booking?

You may cancel/reschedule* your booking at no cost with 14 days notice. There is a $30 fee for cancellations with less than 14 days notice.

It is understandable if a child or parent can’t attend due to illness -or for many other reasons.

In such cases, we absorb the financial losses on the venue hire, booking fees, merchant fees, management overhead, transport costs etc. That said, the deposit is used to pay the instructor for their time.

*Bringing an appointment forward is always possible without any cancellation fee.

What is the wet weather policy?

Rain

Please don’t cancel if you think it is too wet. -See why above. If Sprockets Ride School cancels, there is no financial loss to you.

Please don’t assume that lessons are not running just because it’s raining in your area. We make the decision based on the weather conditions at the lesson venue.

The Bureau of Meteorology normally gets predictions right. However, their timing can sometimes be out by a day or so.

We don’t announce lessons as postponed until two hours before the first lesson. We do this by SMS. We contact clients in a specific order, with a selection of possible time-slots to choose from.

Please keep your phone nearby if we cancel to ensure you get the earliest opportunity to reschedule. Some slots may be consumed by other clients if you take a while to respond.

Lightning

Sometimes it may not be raining where we are, but lightning is observed in the distance.

The 30 second rule applies. If the time between seeing lightning and hearing thunder is 30 seconds or less, the storm is close. We will reschedule even if it is not raining where we are. As a general rule, we pack up and leave rather than seek shelter and wait for the storm to come and go.

Miscellaneous

Where to next?

We recommend putting your new rider’s skill into practice as soon as they graduate from the Learn-To-Ride program. That means going for a ride with them in a safe environment or continuing through a very affordable group environment program.

This helps to reinforce their skills while they are still fresh in their mind.

The right size bike changes depending on ability and height. While their height may not change over the next three lessons, their skills will. They often go up one size by the end of the program. -Sometimes two sizes! If your keen to start researching see our Kids Bike Selection page for details.