Do you have a car drive through drop off at Primary School? How does pick up work?

Counting_Pennies_2

I wonder if you can help?


I am trying to help my school with a drive through option for drop off and pick up.


We live in a particularly built up area, with really poor parking, and the neighbours are at breaking point with not enough parking, and most parents screeching to a halt to be able to drive straight on to work, or just arriving back to pick their children up. All the walking trains and other walking options have been explored, but we need to look at ways of accommodating the cars with the minimal impact on the neighbourhood.


Our committee have heard about drop off and pick up facilities where parents drive through a one way driveway at school and a teacher welcomes the child and after a quick kiss mum/dad is safely on their way to work/other and child is safely in school.


Does anyone have this system operating at their school? If so could you let me know how it works for you, and also how a similar pick up option works.


We are trying to get our heads around it!


Thanks

double_mummy

mum drives into the lane gives teacher kids name teacher radios it through to teacher 2 in the hall with all the kids - kid gets up and goes to car

or do it by reg recognition each parent can register 3 or 4 regs that can pick up their kids (extras can be added with reception for an emergency) - teacher 1 has a tablet searches the reg and it pings up on an order board like at the doctors and the kid runs out (or calls it through to the hall like in previous one)

daveyjp

My advice is to walk away from any attempt to micromanage parking or drop off arrangements at schools.

Parents are adults, let them sort it out themselves.

theoretica

daveyjp wrote: »

My advice is to walk away from any attempt to micromanage parking or drop off arrangements at schools.

Parents are adults, let them sort it out themselves.

Which they demonstrably do, very badly! And then the neighbourhood gets annoyed with the school, which would rather like local goodwill...

One option is to have the kids getting some fresh air. It's what I remember from my primaryschool days - standing outside until I saw the right car and then going out the gate.

valk_scot

It won't matter what plan you put in place, they'll be back to clogging up the street outside within a term. Our school came up with a brilliant idea where they obtained the use of a large, free car park (local football grounds) for the relevant times of day, it was only a couple of hundred yards from the school gate and the idea was the parents parked there and then walked to the gates to pick up/drop off their child. It started off okay but within a few weeks it was back to double parking outside the gate, it was just too "inconvenient) to walk that 200 yards apparently.

Spendless

valk_scot wrote: »

It won't matter what plan you put in place, they'll be back to clogging up the street outside within a term. Our school came up with a brilliant idea where they obtained the use of a large, free car park (local football grounds) for the relevant times of day, it was only a couple of hundred yards from the school gate and the idea was the parents parked there and then walked to the gates to pick up/drop off their child. It started off okay but within a few weeks it was back to double parking outside the gate, it was just too "inconvenient) to walk that 200 yards apparently.

Totally and utterly agree. I live 2 minutes walk from the nearest gate to the local Primary school, on my street but 2 minutes further away from the gate is a car park, a free one available to use at pick up and drop off times, ok it won't accommodate every car, but it frequently has spaces whilst the roads are all clogged up. My daughter's friends mum, blocking up a cul-de-sac when told she could use the car park, first expressed surprise about it, her daughter was in yr 6 at the time and it's been mentioned on newsletters since her child was in nursery, then told the HT it was a 'bit too far to walk, especially if raining!" Don't know what she thought I did, in the 11 years I had a child there, I never drove round!

OP- Some parents may do it, but plenty of others will say 'they don't want to/can't wait' for their turn at the pick up point.

jackyann

Daveyjp has a good point (no good deed ever goes unpunished!) but if you have no option I advise that you involve the following in coming up with solutions:
the neighbours
relevant council officials (depends on your area which council is responsible)
local councillors
inform your MP
ask your education authority for help & support

There is a local school who use a "voluntary one-way system" clearly signposted which in our case has helped.

Recently, a young family that I know well was looking at a primary school. At the top of selection criteria was "home - school distance" and they stated that as they were in a dense residential area, their furthest away child lived only 200 metres from the school.
Later that day I saw an article in the local paper about building work being done at the school, and how parking space had been negotiated for "parents to drop off / pick up".

Janepig

valk_scot wrote: »

It won't matter what plan you put in place, they'll be back to clogging up the street outside within a term. Our school came up with a brilliant idea where they obtained the use of a large, free car park (local football grounds) for the relevant times of day, it was only a couple of hundred yards from the school gate and the idea was the parents parked there and then walked to the gates to pick up/drop off their child. It started off okay but within a few weeks it was back to double parking outside the gate, it was just too "inconvenient) to walk that 200 yards apparently.

We have a large car park right outside the school gates (school is at the end of a cul de sac, no through road). It doesn't accommodate all the cars, there are about 800 kids between two schools on the same site, however I never have a problem because I'm patient and as soon as someone pulls out of a space, I pull in to it. However, a great deal of parents park in the street, therefore having to do three point turns while children of 3 upwards are wandering around, and also the flow of traffic is slower than it otherwise would be by parents double parking in the street.

Lots of things have been tried, traffic wardens, Police, the head teacher sending out letters begging parents to park considerately, etc.... However, some parents would drive their precious offspring into the school hall if they could!

Jx

sooty&sweep

Hi
My daughter is at a Primary school & yes I drop her off on my way into work. I either park & walk her to the lollypop lady or pull up & let her get out where she can cross safely. I always make a point of parking safely & considerately but alot don't. The issue we have is parents parking on double yellow lines & blocking driveways.
I notice more of a problem picking up because parents generally park up & cross over to meet the child coming out of school.
There is a 5-10 min time difference between the infants & juniors coming out in the afternoon. I do wonder why the school doesn't tier the finishing time so that all parents aren't trying to collect all the children at the same time.
Jen

baza52

can you imagine a queue of 100 cars waiting to drive through? If you got there late your child could be waiting half hour.
The parents would soon resort to just parking where they can.

Counting_Pennies_2

Thank you all.


I do appreciate all will have a view. We are in a situation where people do have to drive, that parking in the local streets is not an option as it is causing problems. We are aware the drive through does happen across the country and is successful, so I am hoping to get accounts from people who do this system in their primary school.


I understand that drive through pick up does tend to be a timed affair so you don't have 100 cars turning up at the same time. So it would be staggered over a half hour period or maybe more. So is that alphabetical so surnames of A-E turn up in a 10 min period etc. Where does everyone else hover in this time?


I am generally interested in how it works from people who run the system.


The MP, the Councillors and the neighbours are all involved. We are currently looking at the drop off pick up drive through option. Hence wanting to understand it further, so thought if I posted I might hear back from people who do this already.