Parking...

[picklemepopcorn]

Does anyone know of a school where parking works? A new school is being built in my area, and everyone is up in arms about the parking plans. ie. there is none.

The school is going to be accessible by lots of footpaths, and the people living near the footpaths are worried about people parking on their road, getting blocked in etc. They don't like any of the suggested solutions, either. They basically want all the children dropped off at a turning circle and walked in by staff.

Any one know of anything that works?

Maybe parking just never works...

We had drop and run after year 3, pull up at gate eject child from car, drove off. Though in the last few years it has begun to fail by parents getting out the car putting little suzie's coat on, adjusting coat, getting rucksack on, giving little Suzie a kiss, readjust coat, another kiss etc. Only work if parent genuinely pull up eject child and drive off.

They basically want all the children dropped off at a turning circle and walked in by staff.

This is indeed the only realistic option to prevent illegal and anti-social parking where there isn't actual room for parking, of course it's not really a solution. Too expensive and impractical, and probably makes actual driving even worse as the queue for the dropping off grows.

Actual, super strict enforcement of parking is the only realistic option, as that is the only thing that will actually change the behaviour, I would've thought that would even be self financing initially, but it wouldn't be popular with the those dropping off.

As a mum who has been bullied by other parents for parking near school, please suggest a provision for disabled parents and carers. A turning circle would work well for yr3 and up but infants do need a little more help and reassurance in the morning.

That's a really good point, disabled carers. However, I know there will be two spaces in the school Car park, so maybe school will make them available.

Thank you! I'm not at all sure their is a solution, but I thought I'd ask!

@Lonecatwithkitten, is the drop and drive a purpose built area?

In my experience it's not the drop offs you need to worry about, it's the pick ups. There will always be parents who rock up a couple of hours early, park smack bang in the middle of two parking spaces on the nearest road then sit and wait while playing candy crush, or whatever it is that they do with their time. You will usually find that these are the parents who live two streets away.

At DD's school, there are a couple of spaces onsite for disabled parents/children - you can apply for a permit if you need it. Otherwise the school has an agreement with a local church for using their carpark (not a church school). Plus the catchment radius is about half a mile, so very few should really need to drive in.

Picklemepopcorn purpose area on school property but as I say as the years go on it would appear it is becoming less efficient. Is actually an 6months to 18years school. There was a period where nursery parents thought they could use the drop-off box to get out and walk off. This has been stopped.
But DD is in year 9 now senior drop off is very swift, but junior drop is chaos every morning now. When she was in juniors it was much better. Don't get started on sixth form drop off apparently their parents are total exempt from drop off rules including pulling into area right in front of main drop blocking pedestrian to school.

Sorry 'front door' not front drop.

At our primary those with mobility issues get a permit for the car park. Pedestrian access is down a winding path and parents are expected to park in the surrounding residential areas. To ease congestion in the morning children can go in to class anytime between 8.45 and 9.00. This staggers it a bit and combined with a popular breakfast club means a steady stream of people arriving between 8 and 9.
In the afternoon it is trickier. Nursery class finishes earlier so that is one set gone before main pick up but everyone just has to park and walk (or just walk ofcourse, small catchment area).

*They basically want all the children dropped off at a turning circle and walked in by staff.

I’m sure the school staff will be thrilled by having to walk hundreds of children from the street into school in dribs and drabs trying to keep them all safe! Will they have to see them to their individual cars after school as well?!

This is all really helpful. I'm going to gather all your points and make some suggestions- more disabled access for a start.

The funnelled drop off zone sounds interesting.

The staggered drop off times and collection times should help, as well.

I'm torn between making it so hard that it's easier for everyone to walk (most people can), and putting in some provision to ease the situation- but I think whatever is provided will be used to breaking point so why not proved nothing (apart from disability access).

I drive past a school on my way to work that seems to have an arranegment with the pub next door but there are always a small number of parents who park on the main road effectively making it a one lane road as it's not wide enough for 3 cars. I assume they can't spare the extra few minutes to drive in and out of the pub

Do the turning circle/drop off zones totally work anyway? As you can't force all children to be dropped off by car so what's to stop parents parking on the streets if the drop off area is too busy?

I think the plan would be that if some parents can drop and drive, that relieves the pressure elsewhere.
I don't know. It's a quandary!

DS's school is a 3 form entry in a residential area with quite a large catchment area so there is a significant number of parents who choose to drive. They have no provision other than a couple of spaces for disabled children. In general most parents don't park irresponsibly, though occasionally a couple of police officers do turn up as a reminder. I have no doubt that some of the local residents would rather parents didn't park outside their houses but it's not all the time and they don't own the road anyway.

A turning circle doesn't necessarily work, it depends on the access to and from school.

We do have that kind of arrangement where cars can drop along a short lane, 2 members of staff open the car door as it pulls up, help child out and escort 5 or 6m through school gates. Car pulls off without turning off engine.

It doesn't work I'm sure (from residents' point of view) as cars just queue up outside school until the gates open so the residential streets surrounding school are gridlocked - no-one can move as there's just a line of static traffic in every direction. Other parents at the back if the queue then think they'll be late and park anywhere and everywhere (blocking driveways or making the road effectively a single carriageway) running in with little Johnny. It's really quite ridiculous. The sense of entitlement some people have just because they have A Child That Needs To Get To School is unbelievable.

Having said that, it's a nightmare for possibly 40 minutes twice a day.

Drop circle only work if there are sufficient staff on duty to cajole parents into driving carefully, parking sensibly and then getting their kids out of the car to a safe pedestrian area. If your do not have the staff, chaos reigns and parents just park anywhere causing hold-ups while they attend to their "darlings".
I think it is totally in-appropriate that members of the school staff should be acting as police to patrol the drop area. I cant believe it will ever work without lots of yellow bibs in attendance and I for one, as a governor, would rather spend funding on educational equipment and not staff time on acting as police.

2 members of staff open the car door as it pulls up, help child out and escort 5 or 6m through school gates

I have never heard of this happening outside special Schools!

In my school-due to funding cuts, there are so few LSAs left (only now really attached to specific children with EHC plans) that this would simply not be possible.

What do you mean by "staff?" There's not a single member of staff (teaching or otherwise) at my school who would be available for that task at that time of the morning. Nor are there available funds to employ people specifically to do it.

I have visited schools as an advisory teacher and worked in primary and secondary schools. I am yet to find one where parking actually works. Older schools in residential areas were never designed for the number of cars there are currently and new schools are subject to the restrictions placed on them by councils.

We live near to a school that has been open for three years. It's a primary and has only 12 car park spaces in the car park, plus one disabled space. That isn't enough for the staff, let alone visitors. There's a drop off zone, which is now used as parking, although there are definite rules about no parking, which are ignored. There's also a turning circle, which is actually too tight to be called that, so the idea of 'stop and drop' just doesn't work. There are regular near misses and it could all have been avoided had it been properly planned in the first place.

That's what we are trying to do in our area, Foxy. Come up with a decent plan before they start.

We're a school in a cul de sac so one you have the on road parkers the road is down to a single lane and is chaos. Restrictions to keep it clear would help hugely but it only takes one "only two minutes" type to foul it up.
Last week I watched a car do the stop and drop thing only for the child to leave something behind whereupon the parent got out of the car, blocking the road to run after the child.

One way forward might be to identify every site - churches, village halls, shops, pubs, playgrounds, small industrial estates etc etc - with a car park within the school area, and to really, really heavily push 'park and stride' using partnerships with these sites.

Minimise, or prevent, car parking next to the school except for disabled pupils / parents and for staff (who will generally be there much earlier, and stay much later, than drop off / pick up) but ensure that there are enough spaces in the sites a short distance away. I have seen school areas where the rules for on-street parking in bays etc exclude 8-9.30 am and 2.30 - 4 pm, although it is fine outside those hours - so residents and visitors can use on-street parking overnight or during school hours, but there is no parking at drop off or pick up times.

IME, school gate car parking is more staggered, and less of an issue, at schools which have onsite before and after school childcare at a reasonable cost, as more working parents, rather than dropping children off at 8.25 [if the gates open at 8.30] and haring straight off to work (and then reversing this at the end of the day), stagger arrival / departure times by using breakfast / after school clubs.

Possibly worth thinking through how families with different needs - those needing to drive to work from drop-off, those with mixed age siblings, those who are disabled or have a disabled child, those who could walk but don't - might need / want to use parking, and think not only of rules / physical provision, but also incentives to behave around parking in a way that works for the school and its neighbours.