A school in Harrow is to launch its own parking buddy scheme and safety video following a drive from the Pupil Leadership Team and School Council.
Pinner Wood School in Harrow presented their plans to David Simmonds, the MP responsible for Pinner and Norman Stevens, Local Councillor for Pinner.
They asked for their support in combating the safety concerns they had. The presentation from the School Council and Head Squad, who have spent months researching parents and children’s concerns about the ‘very dangerous’ threat of illegal parking, took place on 27 January after Headteacher Sarah Marriott challenged the children to follow the Pinner Wood values and use their voices to help improve safety.
For many years, the school has received weekly phone calls, emails and photos complaining about people illegally parking. The police and local traffic enforcement units have been involved on several occasions.
Since November, the pupil leadership teams have observed, tallied and questioned parents, local residents and students about the parking situation at the school. They identified several issues – mostly related to the large number of cars trying to use such a small space to access the school.
Mr Simmonds watched and listened as the children – from year 2 to year 6 – presented their findings to interested families at the school. They discussed the issues and tried to think about solutions. As a result, the children will promote a ‘parking buddies’ scheme and a share their promotional video.
Mr Simmonds promised to look into the issue and see what the local council can do to support the initiatives.
Kiara, Head Squad said: “We want to thank Mr Simmonds for taking the time to visit Pinner Wood and hope he will be able to take action to make a change.
“We want to work together to make the roads and streets around Pinner Wood safer for everyone – whether they walk, cycle, scoot or use a car to travel – to enjoy coming to school. We hope everyone will watch our video and get involved with the Parking Buddy scheme to make a real and noticeable difference”.
Miss Marriott said she was delighted with the pupils’ work. She said: “The children really did Step Up to research this very important subject. They also put their skills in Oracy, a subject close to our hearts at Pinner Wood, to excellent use.
“Their time and effort has escalated very real concerns about safety and parking to ears which might be able to offer some help in the future. In the meantime, the fact the children have come up with their own ways of tackling the problem is something we are very proud of – and we hope everyone will show their support.”
