Not quite.
Bell, yes.
Lights, no. The bike must have reflectors when sold.
When riding a bike between dusk and dawn, then you must have lights, but these aren’t mandatory at time of sale.
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When I worked in a school, I would regularly pass pupils riding bikes with their cycle helmet dangling from the handle bar. Wonder if your cadet had a good set of lights tucked in their bag!
What annoyed me more is the kids wearing the helmet but not clipped up. It’s like putting a condom just on the tip and then wondering how it fell off and she got pregnant.
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It would appear that the cleaning person has accidentally unplugged ‘Google’ in order to plug in the Hoover…
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Still very prevalent - the college very close to us try & mandate it, but after-school, the only thing that most pupils are interested in is catching up with their social media. If that means riding across road junctions, one handed (or even no handed), not looking out for any hazards, yep, off they go. I used to see one of the vice-principals doing post-school traffic duties (taught our kids, likes cycling, quite strict), so good to give feedback to, him but he’s moved on. I have messaged the college several times, but even if they mention it in assemblies, it certainly doesn’t sink in.
Winter time / dark evenings (or very low winter sun into drivers’ eyes), I really expect a serious accident. And yes, as I cycle along, I always try to ask pupils (cycle helmet dangling on handlebars or in bike basket) that when they end up in hospital with head injuries or worse, dead (no bike helmet) - what would their parents think…? A few pupils give sheepish looks & stop to put them on, but the rest don’t care. 
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GMG: Trying to claim BTECs in this organisation.
Tried to claim in Feb, nothing heard. No one replies to the email account you’re supposed to send them to and my WHQ haven’t received it either.
Tried to claim 3 more in August - again, silence. A cadet chased me today to say “where is it?”. I have asked again, ands this time there is an auto-reply saying "Please note that BTEC in Aviation Studies claiming has been put on hold for the foreseeable future.
This is likely to be revised once WHQs are being staffed again."
Well a) WHQs are being staffed again aren’t they? But I don’t see why that impacts claiming the BTEC (but I don’t know the process so maybe there is a reason there) but b) Where did this message go out to? I hadn’t received it locally. Also the tracker on Scarepoint isn’t showing anything new, and shows one I claimed in Feb being awarded in March. But where is it?
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Sounds like you have a bit of a local issue there; we’ve had CVQO very active in delivering TPD in our area, and awards coming through - although I haven’t had a cadet pass master so haven’t tried to put in for an Aviation Studies award - but that is concerning that they said it was on hold.
We do have a very active BTEC officer and good local reps here though.
To be clear it’s the aviation studies BTEC, not the other ones.
That is a worry. I’ve always wondered why wing need to be involved in Aviation Studies - CVQO have access to SMS and so can see cadets pass dates etc on Ultilearn… It has always just seemed to me like somewhere for paperwork to get lost…
CVQO is completely unrelated to the BTEC in aviation studies. That is completely Edexcel.
Also, your Wing BTEC officer will shrug off anything to do with the aviation studies BTEC as it is not CVQO
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Theres a note on sharepoint saying pearsons or edexcel which ever it is arent actioning these during covid. Due staff pressures.
Do you have a link for that please?
I will dig it out and post link shortly.
Just out and about at mo and sharepoint isnt exactly ace on my phone…
I came across it as inwas searching for btec info last week.
Used search on HQAC page, just searched for “aviation studies” it was on first page.
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So the ACTO has been updated to say
So we can still claim, they just won’t arrive yet. But I’m unsure why. The rest of the world is working, and after all we are paying for this service through subs are we not? I could understand that they wouldn’t action them from March-May during the first lockdown but why can’t they now?
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Yes, you are right - sorry. Need to get back to it to blow the cobwebs out!
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Thanks saved me a job
Update - the email address you have to send requests to wasn’t staffed and hadn’t been for a while. But on the plus side someone is going back through the hundreds of emails to acknowledge them and start working towards it with a plan.
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is this the email address for Bader helpdesk??
HQAC publically: “we’re closing the helpdesk portal, please now email for the foreseeable future”
HQAC privately: erm…has anyone been assigned to look after that inbox?
No. It was the BTEC specific one, which is now staffed again.
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