Banning the school run

[AElfgifu]

leading on from driving/walking thread, Gove suggests banning driving children to school.

All schools to be double red lined ( not stopping, unloading, pausing at all.)

all roads within half a mile of a school to be resident parking by permit only during school drop off or pick up time.

parents not allowed to park within half a mile of their school.

(Although most roads round here must be within half a mile of a school?)

That's nothing. Someone up thread suggested 5yo take themselves to school!

In theory DS should be able to walk the route to his school alone by the age of 8, in theory it is safe residential road route. In theory because of the stupid parking outside the school, the people reversing out onto the road without looking and other daftness he will need walking to school for much longer.

no, I think with the right training, children can manage to get themselves to school just fine from that age.
if safe crossings are missing parents (or anyone who needs to cross, really) need to campain for traffic lights.
my dn in germany walks to school and home since they started school at just 6. crossing ar least 4 roads (1 of them the equivalent of an a road). most children do. it's about half a mile walk.

Rideronthestorm I used to have this problem with a local prep school,now closed. I was usually at work, but if I was working from home or on leave and my drive was blocked I always found that I needed to go out right that minute. As you say usually a woman but that is because most of the school-runners are women; if I thought (which I don't) that women were more selfish and inconsiderate than women I would certainly not say so here

I think a lot of this boils down to basic misogyny, actually.

No mentions of dads driving
No mentions of other places or situations where driving / parking is an issue
Apparently all poor school gates driving is down to working mums, not non working mums or working or non working dads
Presumably because men are faultless professional drivers and when they do something it is because it's important. It's just stupid women who need to have restrictions on them.

My nearly 7 yo would be OK.

My nearly 5 yo would not.

Children develop at different rates, some journeys are more dangerous than others. Some places have people who commonly jump lights etc or really nasty dangerous crossings or places where cars mount the kerb etc.

The culture of driving could be charged maybe, but better to do that before sending little ones out on their own surely.

LoveSardines It's a fact that most of the school-runners are women, so most of the inconsiderate school-runners are women too. So if restrictions on the school-run were imposed (and Gove is not suggesting it) it would affect more women than men. Not misogyny; fact.

The most inconsiderate parker at DS school is a Grandfather, he will stop his car wherever he wants with no thought about who he is blocking in and will give a gobful to anyone who dares to ask him to move.

Yes it is a fact that when women do something it is lambasted and slagged off and something needs to be done, and when men do it no one days a word.

Like I said, misogyny

Our fabulous HT stands at the school gate every morning to greet every child, and she also rushes over to any cars parking inconsiderately and tells off the drivers. Regardless of gender :o

What scares me is not Gove, it is the amount of teachers who are seemingly incapable of thinking for themselves, doing basic research or even reading beyond the title of a thread.
It scares me that people like @Kalie are teaching our kids.

Dd could start getting bus ok her own in a year or so snd going too school would be ok. However due to parking issues and lack of consideration, getting herself home would be impossible as it's just not safe to cross a road she can't see traffic coming one way

I don't see headlines saying "people doing school run are shit drivers" I see headlines blaming the "school run mum" is the women.

I don't see headlines about the "work run" although clearly this is the biggest cause of congestion.

Interestingly some posters have decided that it's actually all the fault of "working mums" another phrase used to head up another article slagging women off.

It's quite obvious really

like many others we use the car because of work. We live in one village (with no school at all before I get told it was my choice to bit use the local school) and can and do walk to school over a mile away when we can but we have those pesky job things and the CM lives 2 villages over and it is too far too walk plus she had to get back to her house for the arrival of another mindee after the school run. She has to drive.

There are 2 schools in that village, one has a nursery. nursery opens 8.45, our school bell goes 8.55. plenty of people have a child in nursery and a child in our school. The only way to drop both children off and not be late for school is to drive. perhaps they will have to add a code for the register. . There can be late marks and then "late because gove is a twat who made it impossible to be on time" marks*

*in my personal opinion and in no way representative of the views of the lovely MN owners and staff who I am sure think that gove is a lovely man who is in no way twatish at all.

It is an unenforceable idea for many reasons.

However I do think parking on the yellow zig zags, driving at the Lollypop person so yellow in hivi they must be visible on the International Space station and parking at junctions and across residents drives should be punishable by having your car imeddiately confiscated and crushed. No appeals.

I would happily be the enforcer of these crimes.

And I don't necessarily think its a man or woman thing, it is the fault of another species altogether: The Entitled Gold Plated Nobsters. Classless, sexless arseholes.

I live in London. There are probably 10 primary schools within a mile of my house.
If they all have these exclusion zones around them there will be no parking for miles around.
Because I am assuming parents whose children go to school A will not be able to park in school B's exclusion Zone etc.

Personally I would be fine. I have borough permit so can park anywhere. I still think this idea is badly thought out even if I agree far too many people drive unnecessarily

It is definitely NOT a woman thing a my DC's school. Lots and lots of men do drop offs here.
Interestingly not on foot though. Hardly any men in the playground at drop off and pick up.

I actually think its a good idea tbh, considering how congested and dangerous it gets outside my children's school, but 1/2 a mile is a little ott imho.

But I bet Gove isn't applied the same rules

We have a lot more men doing drop off than pick up. The people parked on the zig zags are disproportionately men.

Yes we have many men (parents and grandparents also) doing the school run.

They seem to fail to attract any ire from certain posters / quarters of the press though.

The phrase is "school run mum" which is certainly not gender neutral. Women (mothers) are blamed entirely for something that is caused by men and women, and not just parents.

Gets on my wick.

Buggerlugs, there is no source for any involvement from Gove that anyone's cited. Yesterday's Times (posted above) attributes it to a councillor in Kent.

My sons school is 3 miles away and I have to work. like shite am I walking!