To think these parents are being overprotective and mistrusting

[Dancergirl]

Parking is a major issue at my dds' school and is a real bugbear of mine. One of the problems is that it is a very narrow road and you get people parking on corners, on the kerb etc causing a lot of congestion.

One of the ideas we have had (I'm a parent governor) is a walking bus from the top of the road. I think this is a great idea and parents could be on a rota to walk with the children. It would mean crossing the road outside the school but is a short walk, about 3/4 minutes.

When I have discussed this with parents I am amazed at the number of parents who insist on going with their child to the classroom door and wouldn't want anyone else doing it. Hence they wouldn't be interested in a walking bus unless they walk every day with the children.

Am I missing something here? I think it would be great to drop them and be able to drive off knowing they were being walked to school. We're all parents, it's a small friendly school, I don't see the problem. One mum said she would only do it if she knew the other parent very well. And another said she felt it was her 'job' to walk them down

Your thoughts?

Yes Altinkum

YOU need to speak to the teachers most days.

Most people don't.

Insurers are very unlikely to care as they have no responsibility for children until they arrive at school - which is exactly the same whether we take them or a friend does.

Walking buses work in many areas. They are not a weird or difficult idea

Our Primary ran a walking bus (in fact I was one of the rota parents) it was great really helped cut down on the car traffic.. but we did suffer from the PFB parents who seemed to think their little darling was unable to be safe in that environment...

We really enjoyed it and often some of the extra mums would walk anyway if the weather was nice - it all helped to keep the cars away from the school...

But people can't see that and there's always some who'll want to drive their precious child right to the door! (Blocking the road and making the walk worse by their actions!!)

We're now safely in Secondary school and DD walks to and fro every day !

YA definately NBUR - the sooner people let their children learn road sense the better!

Altinkum - obviously if your child has specific needs then the walking bus isn't appropriate. This isn't yhe case gor most kids.

The buses I've seen have appropriate parent/ child ratios and all children wear a high visibility tabard and walk in pairs. It is very ordered and organised.

My DD vould wk to school herself now if it wasn't gor the parents hurtling down our street to the local private school.

YANBU.

Some parents might need to talk to the teacher every day but most of them don't (but still do ).

We have a walking bus - i choose NOT to use it. I still hold my 6yo old hand, and think he cannot TOTALLY be trusted NOT to run into the road to catch a blow away piece of paper or soemthing. Not enough adults on a walking bus to supervise the little ones adequately IMO.

We would be entitled to use the free coach to school - I choose NOT to use it. It is full of unsupervised teenagers/older kids and driver cannot possibly drive and supervise behaviour. I have seen primary kids dropped off when for whatever reason a parent has NOT been at the stop to collect them. who has responsibility for that child then?

We have a "drop and go" option at school in the mornings - i choose NOT to go till the whistle, so i know my DC go into school safe and well and happy

I WANT to do all these things with my children and who should say i should not want to - they are not some inconvenience I cannot wait to get rid of, after all!

Oh, and I also CHOOSE to park away from the school to ease congestion and walk the short distance. I am in a minority on that one

I think you should do 2 things

1. Make sure the parking laws are enforced - maybe get in touch with the local police/traffic wardnes to have a blitz for a week or so to get the message through?

1. Arrange the walking bus for those who want it - once it's been in place for a while, many parents who are doubtful will see that it works, and their child may even ask to join in.

There will always be parents who will not join in - either because they need to see the teacher, or their child really can't be trusted to walk safely in the group, or just because they don't fancy it for some reason. But it will be a good service for some children at least!

Could the governors contact the local traffic wardens and ask them to help improve the situation by patrolling at drop-off and collection time? They regularly do that round here and either ticket or move on people who park dangerously. The PSCOs might be worth a try too.

I wouldn't use a walking bs for my 5-year-old DD because we walk the entire 15 minute journey to school together every day anyway; me as a teacher and she as a pupil. We have a few parents who park on the zig-zags etc. but a few parking tickets later and that has eased massively.

I don't think anyone is trying to impose the walking bus, Altinkum.

I asked someone else this earlier, BigFatSepticToe - if you don't trust anyone to walk your DS to school, do you allow him to go on school trips?

Altinkum - the schemes I know of are not officially organised by the school, and therefore do not affect school policy or insurance. The school do carry out CRB checks, in the same way as they would for parents coming along on school trips, but other than that the walking bus is simply a group of parents arranging to walk each other's children to school, which they are free to arrange between themselves if they want to.

Altinkum
No - The school is not responsible for how parents get their children to school. The walking bus is the same as if you ask a friend to drop your child , or indeed when you walk your child yourself.
Insurance is irrelevent.
You are of course welcome not to use the scheme. But lack of insurannce would not make the scheme unworkable

I would love it . I walk DD anyway but the idea of her walking with friends would be great for her and for them.

Ok I would trust most people to walk dd1 to school, but I like to do it, I like to go innto the classroom with her, we walk all the way to school although lots of people people don't. I enjoy those times and so does dd, I am in rush to hand her over to someone.
We chat and mess about, and learn about road safety, and she tells me about plants and animals and what she has been learning.

re: the question about school trips - not the same - no school trip any of my 3 have ever done involves a 15 minute walk alongside a narrow main road, with lots of side roads and driveways to cross, in the rushhour, with inconsiderate driveres (also on the school run) nipping in and out, doing u turns, not indicating, parking ON the kerb etc

Insuring a group of adults to voluntarily walk children from their own DC's school into the premises? Ridiculous! What next, should I take out insurance whenever I take DD and her friends to the park with me?

Goodness, how many of our children are covered by insurance when we walk them to school ourselves?

If my child was run over or tripped and fell over a pothole, the last thing I'd be worrying about is whether she was insured on the journey.

There's a walking bus at my girls' school in Belgium, about 10 children participate regularly but probably fewer parents help.

The walk is about 15 minutes along a narrow pavement next to a busy street. All the children wear fluorescent vests and leave at the same time each day. It has to be very well organised.

My children don't participate because it goes the wrong way and I have to admit I wouldn't want to be responsible for other people's children along a busy road, and I imagine many parents feel the same as me.

it would take a massive amount of organisation and CRBs - honestly I wouldn't go there, but for health & safety encourage school to restrict (ban) cars from outside school - emergency vehicles must have access, including deliveries etc and all those cars and kids are a nightmare. Everyone parks away from gate, everyone walks down road. Could be social highlight of the day.....

It depends on your child i think.

I probably wouldn't let any old parent take my children into school for the simple reason that DS2 needs to hold an adult and or he will (and has) run into the road. Because he spends most of his life in a daydream he also walks into trees/lampposts etc ....

DS1 (7) i would trust to do it but what happens when they are in the grounds? Does the parent then go off with their own child leaving all the others to fend for themselves? WHat if one of those children wanders out of the school gate (thinking of DS2 here) and god forbid gets hurt in some way?

And even with a walking bus parents would still have to park to drop their children off wouldn't they?

schools are powerless about parking issues outside and around them though

even our community warden stands and wacthes AND DOES NOTHING when people are driving all over the place without indicating, double parking, parking across drives and obstructing corners etc etc

it cannot be policed, too many schools, other more importnat priorities

it relies on the good will and common sense of the parents driving to and parking near school. every newsletter conatins a plea to use the local FREE carpark and walk the short distance through the village to the school, very few do so. peole who live closer than there still drive to school!