They are shutting the road to the school

[CheckMate2]

My DC school has just announced that the road to the school will be shut at drop off and pick up times to make it safer for social distancing.

This is a huge problem for me as I have 3 to drop off at different schools, they are asking us to park far away and walk.

I think it's down to the residents complaining about the parking but to close it completely seems so ott for the working parents and the parents who have to drive.

What do you think?

Maybe those very important jobs and super tight schedules are affected by the seasons and the weather

My very important job is shovelling snow and erm monitoring drains?

What should parents do where there are not enough childcare spaces available?

Come on. Where's the glib answer to this? This is a real problem in many areas, and not for lack of parents willing to pay the going rate. There are waiting lists for childminders.

What should parents do where there are not enough childcare spaces available?
Come on. Where's the glib answer to this? This is a real problem in many areas, and not for lack of parents willing to pay the going rate. There are waiting lists for childminders.
You do realise that it's not everyone else's job to sort yours (or anyone else's) childcare out. It's not glib to point this out.

If there is a demand for childcare and no shortage of parents willing to pay an appropriate rate to make a viable business then someone would be running it because it's an obvious winner. The fact they aren't suggests that wraparound before school for 30 minutes isn't a viable business.

Literally, a school is removing the ability to park metres from the gate and your reaction is like the whole world hates working parents.

Maybe those parents who can't possibly park responsibly and/or walk a little from a considerate place could get their heads together and lobby their local council, or form a voluntary group, or a subcommittee of the PTA to fundraise in order to pay any support staff who might want some extra hours. A walking bus could be a good idea with parents supervising on a rota. They could look at their hours and their partner's hours and apply for flexible working too.

Then again, I'm sure they would be far too busy to consider doing any of that and will instead continue to moan thay nobody is providing them with easy wraparound supervision for their own convenience, and be terribly upset that they can't bung their car anywhere outside the school gates.

This happens near our school, some parents drive too fast and try and get as near to school as possible, sometimes parking on double yellows or too near to junctions. It stresses me out just watching it! They could park 5 mins further away and walk, which would probably be quicker.

It does feel dangerous sometimes walking, and the fumes aren’t great.

I do sympathise with working parents though as it must be a nightmare trying to drop off and get to work on time.

And, I do worry that pushing the problem further away will cause the same congestion and problems in a different place.

And let’s not forget the thing that has caused these issues at schools isn’t the fact people are parking their cars - it’s the way they are choosing to park the cars rather than parking a bit further away.

Parking on double yellows, parking on zig zags, double parking, parking on corners and blocking drives are amongst the behaviours which have led to schools/councils needing to take action.

Sirzy
Exactly.
It probably comes as no surprise that schools with a high number of parents who think their schedules are paramount are schools who seek to make arrangements with the LA to address this.

The silly thing is that this always seems to be about poor working parents who can't possibly park 5 minutes up the road because they have a very important job, but their actions often make life for residents very difficult, block and obscure access to roads/drives and general behave in a way that prevents the residents from getting to work (because they have to wait for the road to clear as someone stops between two parked cars to drop their child off / just blocks the drive for a couple of minutes etc).

It's a certain type of person who refuses to consider the world doesn't revolve around them and their diary.

Pre-covid our school had this problem and the residents kept complaining. Some were genuine complaints, eg having their driveways blocked, others were just hacked off about cars being legally parked on the road outside their house.

The local pcso got involved, and was there at drop off and pick up, but it was like they only wanted to target the school parents (Don’t get me wrong, the ones parked illegally deserved everything they got), but I found it a bit ironic that outside of school hours, the residents parked all over the place, on pavements and everything, and never heard anything from the pcso!

Ffs it's not 'my diary', it's the school I work at, or do you not mind if I'm late to our child's registration every day and therefore can't sort out any issues, help them organise their day or whatever, because I am enjoying an extra 5/10 min walk from and then back to my car after dropping off dd at the earliest time I'm allowed to. I have no problem getting us up and out earlier if I was allowed to drop off earlier and walk 20 mins each way, but if the childcare isn't there it isn't there. Which is what I meant uptreas and what another pp said about systemic issues. There's no point debating this in abstract, it's not imaginary people with imaginary big important jobs that can choose their own hours, it's ordinary working people with schedules set by others...can some of you really not understand that?

It's only Downing Road and Lambourn Roads though. @CheckMate2

HugeAckmansWife
The point is that it really isn't the job of schools to be sorting everyone's wraparound care out.

I'm also a teacher so the attempt at guilt tripping about being late to registration doesn't work. Teacher or not, our DC's schools are not responsible for our childcare situation.

The reason some schools are going down this route is precisely because some parents consider themselves more important than residents, other parents and the children.

One school I worked at had agreements with parents about traffic outside the school and because parents were reasonable no further action was needed. At a school I lived near, it didn't matter what the staff did to remind parents to behave with an ounce of decency and consideration because in their mind they were oh so important and busy and couldn't possibly find somewhere to park that didn't involve blocking our drives (because our jobs didn't matter obviously).

As I said earlier, if there was a viable business for morning wraparound care for half an hour then someone would be doing it. If there's not then those parents concerned could help the PTA fundraise, or lobby the council, or look into walking busses or any number of things to deal with any systemic issues. But the bottom line is that the types of parents who moan that they have to park 5 minutes up the road because they are ever so busy aren't going to be doing any of those things because in their mind they are far too busy and someone else should ensure life runs to their schedules and for their convenience.

I'm not guilt tripping, just reacting to the idea that I have any say over when I have to be in work. I also think, as a teacher, that saying 'it's not our problem' is short sighted and doesn't help solve the problem. It's this compartmentalising that stops it working. Moving parking away might solve one problem but creates x others. What we need are solutions that don't do that

Local primary have had a no car zone for years. It freed up the roads immensely, and some even sold their cars as they were only used for the school run (wish I joked).

Of course some students have reasons why they need to be transported in, and they are allowed to enter and park as it's deemed a reasonable adjustment.

HugeAckmansWife
But it isn't our problem! So much of cut back services gets repeatedly thrown into schools without a second thought (and often without money). It isn't the job of schools to solve people's childcare issues.

Why is it the job of schools to solve people's childcare? Why is it not THEIR responsibility to sort it? Why is it the job of school staff to be pushing for wraparound childcare for parents who can't be bothered to do their own lobbying? What's going to be removed from school staff to free up time for them to sort other people's schedules out? Or should it just get piled on?

If parents spent a few minutes choosing not to act like the world will end if they don't:

• block driveways
• block access
• park across pavements
• park on both sides of the road so it's almost impossible to pass
• park on double yellows
• park on the school markings
• slow down right in front of the gates in the middle of the road whilst the kids get out

Etc

then schools wouldn't have to be putting these restrictions in place.

That's my point, it's a certain type of person who thinks their diary, their schedule, their job, everything else about them is the most important thing in the world.

Parking rules are fairly simple. They apply to everyone. There's nothing that says "here are the parking rules, but if you are super important and have to be somewhere then feel free to ignore them, oooh and you can also ignore them too if you are only going to be a few minutes because we all know you are simply much busier than anyone else".

Every school is doing it. X

It's not necessarily the working parents who park badly.

Of course there are some people who park badly.

Of course there are some parents who dont need to drive and just need to get the fuck out of bed 10 minutes earlier.

There are arseholes everywhere.

But as HugeAckmanswife says, it feels like schools dont want to work with parents to find a solution that doesnt have to make life even harder for stretched parents struggling to get to work on time.

Some schools actively do not help. There's a school near me that has systematically shut down any suggestion of a breakfast club because the governors morally dislike wraparound care and do not want to encourage long days for young children. We live in a high cost area that has constant shortages of modestly paid key workers like nurses and care workers because theres no affordable childcare but the housing is much too expensive to survive without 2 full time wages.

Dont pretend we dont have a problem in this country with high childcare costs, low wages etc. All this contributes to the problem and school streets schemes put in without working with parents to help it be sustainable will just make problems pop up elsewhere.

@copperoliver

Every school is doing it. X

Oh after this thread i kind of wish a law was bought in to make it compulsory everywhere.

Just to watch all the threads with parents (especially the ones with 4 x 4s - a dacia logan is enough for kayaking btw, you dont need to park off road to kayak) spontaneously combust.

It’s a good idea because there is so much traffic - but I completely understand that the system doesn’t support working parents.

When we were kids (never mind the fact that it was the exception rather than the rule to be driven to school) the PTA would have stepped in and parents would have organised walking buses from specific points. Can’t more parents organise now to support each other? Car pool, take each other’s kids? We live such atomised, individualised lives. I know it’s more difficult under current restrictions but as PP said this is a pre-covid issue.

The problem is that those kind of arrangements need to be reciprocal and I could never take my turn. I feel guilty as it is never doing any PTA type stuff but single working parent, two kids in different schools, I just can't. I agree with the pp who said maybe a different answer is tougher enforcement by traffic wardens to stop the dickheads.

revolutionary idea, I know.
but imo children from 8years old so should walk to school themselves in most situation.
apart from very rural primary school often have very small catchments and the journey would be half a mile at most.
without the bad driving we see around school run time that would be absolutely feasable and quite safe.

what the heck has happened in uk in the last 20 years that their own feet are not acceptable mode of transport anymore?

@HugeAckmansWife

The problem is that those kind of arrangements need to be reciprocal and I could never take my turn. I feel guilty as it is never doing any PTA type stuff but single working parent, two kids in different schools, I just can't. I agree with the pp who said maybe a different answer is tougher enforcement by traffic wardens to stop the dickheads.

It's a problem with every single school. There aren't enough traffic wardens to police them all. They do a blitz on one school and a week later it's just as bad.

The only solution is a total ban.

There's a police website where people can upload photos of people breaking the rules and prosecution follows. This has happened with the illegal parkers but has led to threats and abuse if residents are seen with camera phones.

pinkbalcony If that were true, yes. But the last 3 places I've lived, all medium sized market towns, kids have gone to schools 2/3 miles away across numerous roads. This time of year its still quite dark at 8am when my 9 year old would be walking.

What self righteous replies on here. The poor OP obviously has a full on life (3 kida then straight to work) and is just fed up abmnd frustrated. Let the poor woman have a moan!

I’m sure in some areas the lack of extra work by schools is a part of the the issue however Ds school have breakfast club (reasonably priced), they have an arrangement with a pub and a church within less than 5 minutes walk for parking, they have a walking bus.

We still have ongoing issues with peoples selfish parking.

Sohardtochoose - 'the system doesn't support working parents'?! surely that depends on your mode of transport and/or where you live in relation to school and work. It supported me very well but then we walked to school and I cycled to work

It's not necessarily the working parents who park badly.
Of course there are some people who park badly
But anyone who comes on here to complain about parking chaos around schools is almost always told that the reason there's so many cars and the reason people are parking everywhere (including blocking drives the yellow lines for a 'few minutes') is because people have to go to work and need to drop off on the way. Even through this thread people are arguing it's outrageous for parents to park a little further away and walk for 5 minutes because they are simply so busy they couldn't possibly manage it.

Now it's ' but it isn't necessarily the working parents', so why is there always a scramble to defend the chaos outside some schools on the grounds that people are busy and have to go to work? It feels like one of those situations where some people decide it's the other parents who are the problem and never them.

Dont pretend we dont have a problem in this country with high childcare costs, low wages etc
I'm not. I just don't think the price of childcare and wages etc is a surprise one you have a school aged child, and I dont think it is the responsibly of schools to set childcare.

If people want to lobby government for better childcare then I'm all on board with that, same for more normalised flexible working. I'd be happy to support campaigns for local authority wrap around care, paid for by parents who use it with some financial support for those who need it.
My issue is people deciding that schools have an obligation to sort convenient childcare for them and that everyone should suck up often unsafe parking chaos around schools because they are apparently far too busy to consider walking a little further.