AIBU to continue turning in the school gate?

[NortonBuns]

I drive my dd to school everyday and once I drop her off I turn around and drive home. I approach the back gate of the school and use this entrance to turn my car round so I can head back home.
The school have now put up a sign saying keep our children safe, no stopping, dropping off or turning in the entrance.
So where am I supposed to turn around? If I carry on I reach the front gate which is busier and has the busses. If I turn before I reach the back entrance I am doing a three point turn in busy school run traffic with lots of children walking and cycling.
So AIBU to say I am safest turning in the large double gate and ignoring the new sign?

So,there is another way out of this road beyond the front gate. You came this way when you went to town

“Other parents do it so I’ll continue to do so”.

My daughter tells me other children wear make up to school and break rules, doesn’t mean I let her do the same. You’re teaching your child selfish behaviour.

Were you offered transport options to school?

No. You adhere to the sign. No turning.

You also have options.

Drop your dd further away from the school at an earlier time and she walks the rest of the way, she is in secondary school and should be more than capable of doing this.
Drive your daughter to a bus stop and she gets the school bus.
Drop her off much earlier before the buses arrive so that you can continue past the main gates and have been and gone before the chaos.

Cannot believe that someone has asked if they should continue doing something that a school has actively told parents to stop doing, for safety reasons. Honestly 🤦‍♀️

Park further and walk? 🤨 Quite disgusting you're willing to comprise the children's safety due to your laziness. Are you ok for other parents to do the same in regards to your daughters safety?

I assume the school is private or not the closest one to you as if it were you'd be entitled to free transport. www.gov.uk/free-school-transport#:~:text=Children of compulsory school age,child is 8 or over

All the other parents do this..
So if all the other parents drove on the footpath you would too?
Such a playground argument
As I posted yesterday, it's always the *holes doing the "it's only 2cmins" "it's only a little turn in the entrance" "it's only...."
But your "it's onlies" and "everyone else does" which makes one selfish, arrogant and entitled.

My children’s catchment school is 10 miles away

we aren’t entitled to free transport as “it’s too far away”

No shit Sherlock

Is it the nearest school?

You need to get over that. If you drive at all, you have to be prepared to do it in less than ideal conditions.

Are you serious? It's not the school's responsibility to hold shitty entitled parents' hands and help them adult.

I want to know the answer to this, too.

@NortonBuns - ALL I am hearing from you is "My convenience matters far, far more than the safety of school children who are put at risk by me and other drivers turning at the back gate!"

Shameful.

OP, I would ask the school to provide a safe dropping off area. If there is literally no where within 2 miles to safely drop your child then I think the school need to make provisions.

Same reason you'd give someone a lift to the train station.
It's not as far as the whole journey.
It's more sensible to do the first half by car and the second half by public transport.

there is a private school near me which is starting to sound similar. You come to it in one direction coming off a major A road. If you go forward there’s there’s a town centre which is a fucking nightmare.
That’s not the schools problem though. If you choose to go to school/live there. That’s the issue everyone deals with.

Park somewhere close by to the school and walk a short distance to drop your child. It gets too congested directly by the school so I can see why they're trying to dissuade people from driving up so close by.

I was going to join in with the pile on, but your school’s circumstances and your long drive does make it tricky.

The adult solution is for you and other affected parents to talk to the school about the problem and potential solution.

They might be able to get the council to create a mini roundabout or other safe place to turn. You really don’t want to be involved in an accident in the school, regardless of fault.

If you live 6 miles from the school and it's your nearest school, then the Local Authority have to provide transport.

If it's not your catchment school then you should have thought about this before choosing it. Park 2 miles away and your DD can walk/cycle the rest of the way.

I've never known a town or village with a 2 mile long High Street (or any street) without side roads.

I can’t carry on to do a loop as I would then hit the full front of school traffic and children walking and cycling to school.

Tough shit. That's the consequences of your refusal to park further and walk.

Just carry on along the road after dropping your child, and if you have put up with the chaos and buses at the main gate, so be it. The school has asked you not to turn in the entrance to the back gate, so you have no choice. It might add a bit of inconvenience to you, but it's keeping other children safe.

If it's that much of a big deal, go earlier so you arrive before most of the children and buses. This is what I used to do. My kids all went to school 13 miles away, no direct buses. So we didn't get stuck in rush hour traffic, I dropped them off at just past 8am. They were able to go into school, hang out, have a drink, do some homework etc.

We had similar problems in our village primary school. A front and a back entrance. Front entrance was the teachers car park but it was on a narrow and winding road that got completely clogged and congested twice a day because parents were turning round in the main entrance gateway. The "back" entrance was on a footpath and was a normal width gate - no vehicle access at all.

The school and local council finally agreed to close the main gate, not just to cars but to pupils too, and a high fence/gate were erected so pupils couldn't climb over. It was closed and locked at school start and finish times.

All the parents who were driving then had to park properly at the other end of the village in a car park and walk their little darlings to/from the school gate via the footpath.

It worked a treat! Ended the dangerous driving and traffic congestion overnight.

Sounds like it's something they should do at OP's school and then she'll have to park and walk her child rather than lazily expecting to drop/pick up right outside the school gates.

That’s great for you but op’s kids would need to do 4x that distance. That is clearly too far

I'm not sure that's completely true, and houses don't mean parking is available.

My secondary school (which had an infants and junior schools very close by so complete chaos at times) was by a roundabout, four exits, two leading to A roads, I don't recall being able to park on the third, the fourth was a terrace that you could technically park on, if there were any spaces, but they were rarely available.

Slightly further away, it's all terraces with the accompanying parking issues. There is a housing estate, but you'd have to go out of out of your way and I'd guess they wouldn't be happy with potentially 100s of people turning round in their drives. The other place you could turn off had a primary school on the road so had its own parking and congestion issues.

Fortunately, despite being just under the three miles, buses were provided.

No, they could just drop them off a bit further away and let them walk so as not to add to the unnecessary congestion.

well biking probably doesn’t work as they would need to take the bikes the 4 miles in the car first which wouldn’t be convenient.

The op would need to do a 4 mile walk twice a day on top of 16 miles of driving. That’s quite a lot out of her day if she also needs to fit in her job. It doesn’t sounds as easy as you make out.