Primary school and scooters

[Notunderstanding]

So our school has decided to invest in a scooter park to keep scooters during school to encourage a healthy lifestyle and exercise. I actually don't understand this for a few reasons.

1. Scooters are not to be used on the playground. I agree with this. People still do it though and you have to try and not get run over.
2. How will scooters be identified and trust people to take the right scooter or not get lost.
3. It won't promote a healthy lifestyle as it won't encourage more people to stop driving. They will simply get the scooter our of the car when parked at school and they will scoot around the play ground.
4. A scooter in my eyes is less exercise than walking itself as you only move one let and go at a faster speed so hardly move at all...

Is it just me who doesn't get this 'good idea....? Prepared to be told I'm wrong.

I said this to a fellow mum and got shot down

YABU.

Children will scoot longer distances faster than they will walk in the mornings.

So the school is obviously trying to encourage the e.g. 0.5-1mile drivers to scoot rather than take the car.

People can label/identify scooters in the same way you do other things, with tape, or tinsel or stickers.

The only issue I would have would be them getting stolen, as scooters aren't very easy to padlock.

Lots of kids don’t have strong enough core muscles and can’t even sit up at school - it’s quite shocking

So anything to increase this has to be a bonus

YABU. At my DC's school the scooter park is outside the playground, you can lock your scooter, and you don't have access to it during the day. It just enables people to get to school in a healthy car-free way.

YABU

We live about a 20 minute scoot/adult walk from school. If DC had to walk it would take 30-40 minutes which isn’t feasible. Without scooters I’d be another driver clogging up the school run route. As it is I hate driving and am thankful for scooters for making it possible for me to avoid it.

They’re not as good exercise as walking but a hell of a lot better than sitting in a car.

DC can recognise their own scooter, if there are many the same they put some stickers on it.

Yabu.

Er, you lock up your scooter.

Scooting gives small children much bigger ‘range’.

Anything that can be done to encourage less driving of kids to school is a great thing!

Mine will happily scoot to school but moan and groan when asked to walk.

Can’t see why you’d think it were a bad idea

I hate scooters, they’re an utter nuisance. I haven’t seen any children scooting to school, rather they hop out of the car around the corner from school and scoot into the playground on one getting in everyone’s way as they go. I see a mum do it every day, she lets her 2 year old scoot around running into everyone and she sometimes has to leg it after him when he goes too far away. They do not scoot to school, she parks around the corner. It’s so pointless, I don’t understand why they do it.

yabu even though I think bikes (balance bikes for tinies) are better for balance and core.
any exercise is good.

Scooters can actually be a good form of exercise

It might be (only slightly) less exercise than walking but it's more exercise than sitting in a car. I can't see why a scooter park could be ever be considered a bad idea - anything that gets kids moving in the fresh air and out of cars is a good idea, scooting to school could also give kids the confidence to start cycling to school which is a lifelong healthy habit.

If I walk and DS scoots,to school it takes roughly the same amount of time to driving , taking traffic and parking time into consideration.

If I don't have to rush off to work afterwards I much prefer doing the walk.

Have you ever tried scooting?
Its exhausting :)

Ok fair enough. I can see that. I just see a lot of jumping out of cars and getting scooters out which I thought was quite pointless. But fair enough. I can see how I am being unreasonae

^*1. Scooters are not to be used on the playground. I agree with this. People still do it though and you have to try and not get run over.

1. How will scooters be identified and trust people to take the right scooter or not get lost.
2. It won't promote a healthy lifestyle as it won't encourage more people to stop driving. They will simply get the scooter our of the car when parked at school and they will scoot around the play ground.
3. A scooter in my eyes is less exercise than walking itself as you only move one let and go at a faster speed so hardly move at all...*^

I work at an infant school and we have bike and scooter parking things in the playgrounds.

1. Scorers are not allowed to be used in the playground. Some children do obviously but if they are seen by staff we will stop them and remind the parents they must be pushed. It's really down to parents to keep their children in check though.

1. They are left at the owners (and parents) risk. They can, if they choose, use a chain and are advised to name them. We've not really had any issues though over the years. Everyone seems to use them sensible and not take other people's property.

1. That's not our experience. The children who use bikes and scooters tend to come the whole way on them. I don't know if any who come in the car and then just scoot two minutes into the playground! We do surveys every year on how children get to school and not once has a child said that. The children who cycle or scoot are those who are not coming in a car, bus or taxi in our experience.

1. It's usually, in our experience, those children who travel (without car or public pic transport) a longer distance who tend to use bikes and scooters, or those who have more reluctant walkers. They use them instead of the car. That's certainly what we've found.

As I say we've had them for years, certainly all the time I've worked there so 10 years plus. Never had any issues with the above.

just see a lot of jumping out of cars and getting scooters out which I thought was quite pointless.

I agree that would be pointless but really, at my school that just doesn't happen. And we are fairly vigilant before and after school so do stop children cycling or scooting in the playground.

never seen anyone jump out of a car and scoot 2 mins round the corner.
out my way, lots of children scoot to school, it's a good 20/30 min walk, much faster if the kids scoot.
children learn not to scoot in the play ground, most of the children follow this rule no problem.
never known any instances of theft or taking the wrong scooter at our school, so probably fairly uncommon.

I think YABU. Some exercise is better than none.
But I worry that one leg will grow much stronger than the other and they'll end up going round in circles.

."I haven’t seen any children scooting to school, rather they hop out of the car around the corner from school and scoot into the playground on one getting in everyone’s way as they go."

Surely you can see that this is highly location specific! I've never once seen a child hop out of a car and onto a scooter, it'd be an insane thing to do given the location of our school and the available parking. Neither do any children scoot in the playground, because the large scooter/bike park is located before the school entrance. Horses for courses -this question has no single answer. If our school got rid of the bike/scooter park it'd be total carnage, as it has at least 250 bikes and scooters parked there on a given day!

Ok fair enough. Just our area then..we have a lot of problem with people driving to school when they live a 10 minute walk away.... it's a funny place. I just think for our area it isn't really worth it. Bit I accept I am being unreasonable

1. Staff at my school keep an eye on this, there are egular reminders and parents are expected to parent their children.
2. Label them, put a lock on them. Children cant get to our scooter shed without an adult so to some extent we trust parents not to steal.
3. Scooting to school is much quicker and since getting our scooter shed very few children living within a mile of the school are driven in - mostly because parking is awful so its easier to take the scooter.
4. I don't know if scooting is less exercise than walking but its certainly more exercise than sitting in the car.

A million times better than frigging Heelies

My two scooted to nursery every day, and didn't use the buggy and then they scooted to school as there was a scooter shelter. It's good for balance, core strength. And last time I scooted it was seriously hard work for my legs! Just because you don't lie scooters doesn't mean others can't enjoy them.

Just to add we padlocked ours at school so they were safe.

Ok like I said I accept I am being unreasonable