Head teacher closes school over parking issue

[Wowbagger]

Southend Echo

Residents' permit parking scheme is due to come into effect on Monday. The school in question, a secondary with over 900 pupils on roll, and a full staff of about 120, has no car park of its own. A new one in my experience.

[Cudzoziemiec]

In the letter to parents, she said: "A member of staff shared with me on Tuesday that posters had been put up by the council in the local area to say that parking restrictions would be coming into force from Monday.

So no one in the school was aware parking restrictions were being brought in until less than a week before the start date? Really? No letter from the council? None of them ever look at a local paper? None of the teachers had heard anything from parents?

[Kim]

In the letter to parents, she said: "A member of staff shared with me on Tuesday that posters had been put up by the council in the local area to say that parking restrictions would be coming into force from Monday.

So no one in the school was aware parking restrictions were being brought in until less than a week before the start date? Really? No letter from the council? None of them ever look at a local paper? None of the teachers had heard anything from parents?

Seems ridiculous, but also entirely possible.  I expect the residents will have been informed by the council, but unless you happen to be a kerb nerd, how much attention are you going to pay to parking arrangements elsewhere^[1]?

Closing the school seems a bit dramatic.  The comments talk about nearby car parks, but I don't know the area so can't comment on how practical they are.  I know teachers often have to cart crates of materials around, something which has only become expected because they're assumed to have cars.


_{[1] Case in point: I failed to pay sufficient attention to the parking restrictions here during the Commonwealth games, because cyclist.  I belatedly realised that I'd booked a hire car for one of the weekends, and had to work out how to obtain a permit - information that you'd expect would be on either the council or the Games' websites, but only appeared to exist on the letter that I'd recycled some weeks previously.}

[ian]

I imagine lots of workplaces have no parking.

Getting a TRO takes loads of notification, trust me, it took about 18 months to get double-yellows parked on the dangerous corner outside. That involved letters and notices. Hard to believe the school heard nothing.

She doesn't seem the most competent of head teachers.

[Wowbagger]

I found that on FB. A Southend Councillor (who I believe is portfolio holder for schools/child related stuff) commented that the school was consulted and kept informed. She also mentioned, without further explanation, “New head teacher”.

[Cudzoziemiec]

I know teachers often have to cart crates of materials around, something which has only become expected because they're assumed to have cars.

As if to demonstrate this, the following has just popped up on the "Bangalore Bikers Club" googlegroup:

Kavita
unread,
3 Nov 2022, 08:35:35 (yesterday)
to Community Cycles, bangalor...@googlegroups.com, geb...@velorobicycles.com
I have a cycle and it needs to be repaired .
Tyres ( new ones ) , brakes , wheel alignment, cycle bell and lights .


I teach English and sciences in a school and cannot afford to fix the cycle

Location - Kilpauk, chennai ( india )

Available on what s up and email.

Kavitha viziakumar

[Cudzoziemiec]

When RPZs were introduced in Bristol, there was a similar story about one of the primary schools. "How will my staff get to work?" cried the head. I can't remember what solution was eventually reached – maybe they were issued with "essential parker" permits, or more likely they just appropriated the playground, but the school is still open several years later.

[CrazyEnglishTriathlete]

The infant school in Basingstoke where my wife worked until recently had some teachers travelling from as far as Eastleigh - 30 miles way.  High housing costs makes it difficult for junior teachers to get on the housing ladder, and/or they are living with someone who works elsewhere.  Yes, there is a train service, but by the time you've added the (crap) buses either side it makes for a pretty impractical journey, and although I'd be up for cycling it, I doubt that's practical for most.

[fd3]

The college I worked at had no parking, which was an issue for many staff.  While I have cycled ~40min each way to schools, with panniers full of books to mark, I don't think that most teachers will do this.
If you build a business you should consider how your staff will get there and how you will not just shit on the locals; however schools are there to serve the need of the locals.
It could well be that the old head saw this pile of trouble and just figured the new head would have to deal with it...

[Wowbagger]

According to Wikipedia, the school was founded in 1910. Most of the housing nearby is Victorian. Not surprised it doesn’t have a car park.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Seems a typical age for a school building and lots of them are in RPZs. They cope because they have to. Maybe some areas issue special permits, other schools turn the playground into a car park, others reach an agreement with some other premises which has parking. So solutions exist even if all are a bit crap in one way or another. Partly because no RPZ to my knowledge addresses the fundamental issue of there being too many cars for the available kerb space even if it's just the residents parking there.

[L CC]

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that maybe the residents wanted the RPZ precisely because of the 120 staff cars cluttering up their streets in term time.

[Kim]

“New head teacher”.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that maybe the residents wanted the RPZ precisely because of the 120 staff cars cluttering up their streets in term time.

I reckon these are our answers...

[Beardy]

We live on a road that backs onto the local high school with a student roll of 2000+ and the associated teaching staff. The recently repurposed part of one of their playing fields as an extension to their car park, but I’m not sure 6th formers are allowed to park on site.

Obviously it’s chaos at 8:30 and 3:30 but the worst issue is having to educate the new drivers every year that parking right up to my gate, while legal, is inconsiderate and they shouldn’t do so. I do so politely and none of them has kicked off yet.

[sizbut]

If you build a business you should consider how your staff will get there and how you will not just shit on the locals; however schools are there to serve the need of the locals.

Unfortunately, schools are viewed as businesses now. And unfortunately schools are not 'local' anymore. There's a good chance that many local residents have no support for it as its not their kids school, instead their driven to a different school somewhere else. That's the crazy system we've all allowed and encouraged.

[ian]

What he says. The problem isn't parking, it's shipping in pupils across town and teachers from Farawayland.

Also building schools in stupid places on the edge of towns so the spaces in the middle of towns can be turned into more important stuff, like the eighth supermarket, or luxury overpriced fuck hutches that probably wouldn't fit a rabbit.

That and the fact that few people can walk for more than then minutes without worrying they might, in fact, die.

[barakta]

I think schools will always need some amount of parking because some of the workers are peripatetic e.g. teachers of disabled kids who come in and out or indeed disabled staff e.g. blue badge holders. Some families will need a safe secure parking space for a disabled kid (my friend has this issue).

Sounds like this is a major comms clusterfuck between council and school.

School should also not have been relying just on street parking for that many people - as that is just asking for residents to hate it and a residents only scheme to happen.

The whole distance travelling to schools is also a shitshow and where I grew up they've closed about half of the primary schools so there's larger distances between them so it is getting onto too-far for most kids/families to walk and you wouldn't let a child cycle on those roads cos they're lethal and almost vertical.

[Cudzoziemiec]

If this school was built on the edge of town, the intervening 112 years of development mean it almost certainly isn't now.

[Jaded]

If you build a business you should consider how your staff will get there and how you will not just shit on the locals; however schools are there to serve the need of the locals.

Unfortunately, schools are viewed as businesses now. And unfortunately schools are not 'local' anymore. There's a good chance that many local residents have no support for it as its not their kids school, instead their driven to a different school somewhere else. That's the crazy system we've all allowed and encouraged.

Surely you cannot be arguing against 'Choice'?

[MikeFromLFE]

If you build a business you should consider how your staff will get there and how you will not just shit on the locals; however schools are there to serve the need of the locals.

Unfortunately, schools are viewed as businesses now. And unfortunately schools are not 'local' anymore. There's a good chance that many local residents have no support for it as its not their kids school, instead their driven to a different school somewhere else. That's the crazy system we've all allowed and encouraged.

Surely you cannot be arguing against 'Choice'?

We've lived here for about 35 years, next door but one to a primary school.
It was rebuilt about 7 years ago and taken over by an Academy Trust.

The old local authority school was fully engaged with the residents and community - we rarely had parking issues with parents or staff.
The Academy never contact the residents and have zero interest in the community. There are constant issues with parking - mainly staff and with taxis picking children up.

Children from around here seem to be transported across the city and county rather than walking (or cycling) to the local school as they used to.

Choice? For who?
Certainly not those who are affected by the business practices of the Academy. And I'm very doubtful about the value of choice in primary education where friendship groups among both children and parents are forged in the playground, at the school gates and on the journey (walk) home.

[Jaded]

Choice!

For the voters, the people that didn't think they wanted Choice, they just wanted reasonable services, locally. But if you give them Choice, they have control over their lives. They can decide what kind of Tank to buy and where to drive it! And what flavour of Public Transport is no good for them!

Same applies to the Health Service. Choice and Choose and Book.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Choose Renton.

[rr]

It's also a Catholic school so draws its pupils and teachers from a larger area than a local one.

Sent from my motorola edge 20 using Tapatalk

[fd3]

I would have thought the issue is teachers not pupils.  Most secondary schools, as they need subject specialists, have a quite large catchment for staff. 

[Kim]

There's a point of overlap, which is student teachers (see also: nurses, social workers, etc) on placements.  They get stuck with placements in areas only accessible by driving, which they often can't afford.

The whole system stinks, tbh.