SECONDARY school pupils are to get a new workshop where they can learn how to fix bikes.

Andy Barber, a teacher at Larkmead School in Abingdon, is setting the space up to give youngsters more useful vocational skills.

The project has been made possible thanks to £1,000 from Oxfordshire housing agency Sovereign.

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Mr Barber, a vocational studies teacher, said: "This workshop could also be used to help students who already ride to school to get their bike serviced and maintained at a reasonable rate, making them safer road users.

"Ultimately we could build a vocational qualification around bike maintenance work, supporting students otherwise disengaged with learning to have a hands-on practical qualification that could support their future."

The £1,000 grant will be used to purchase tools and equipment to equip the workshop.

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Bikes have already been donated by other partners and one of the aims is that students can be supported to 'build a bike' and possibly take that bike away if they haven’t got one, giving them a free mode of transport that could also lead to a source of income like a paper round.

The longer term plan is that bikes they refurb can be sold on, so the funds can be ploughed back into the project.