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Some parents can’t avoid the school run
• CAMDEN council need to recognise that there are countless parents who do not have an alternative but to drive. There are many parents who don’t live locally, have very young children, and who also need to work.
My husband and I applied to state schools for our son within our local borough. We live in NW6 and were hoping to gain a state school place for Reception 2006 but failed. We were extremely fortunate to find a place very late in the day at a school in Hampstead.
I do not have any option but to drive my two young children under the age of five to school and then I need to drive on to work in Luton.
We live too far from the school to walk and even if a private school bus existed my children would be far too young to travel on it alone. In addition, I cannot car share as I drive straight on to work and also do not have time to take my children to school and then get to work on time by using public transport.
Camden council should also realise that NW3 has a heavier proportion of schools in the area then any other postcode close by or next to it, making it very difficult for parents to get a place for their children at schools outside that area. Hence you will find numerous parents come from all over north and north-west London because they do not have a choice.
Camden needs to find solutions that are safe, fair and effective and ones that will not make a simple school run become an even bigger problem for us working parents.
Dr B DE SILVA
Greencroft Gardens,
NW6 3LL
• YOU suggest in your article (Schools blamed for traffic chaos, April 19) that schools in Hampstead have not sufficiently informed parents about Camden council’s policy of withdrawing school run parking permits.
The implication is that this has in some way affected the impact of the policy.
However, this is inaccurate and misses the point. Schools have been going out of their way to tell prospective parents for some time. This has been one of the most talked about issues in schools in recent years and in my experience all parents are well aware of the impending absence of school parking permits.
But more to the point, the argument completely overplays the importance of information given to parents. It seems to assume that knowledge about the policy would enable a parent to choose a different school that would not result in them needing to drive. This ignores the structural problem that is at the root of school run congestion in Hampstead, namely that so many schools are located in Hampstead and so few elsewhere. The inadequate supply of school places in surrounding areas like Highgate, Hampstead Garden Suburb, Golders Green, Camden and St John’s Wood is so extreme getting a place at one of them is like Mission Impossible.
One also should not ignore that many parents from the state sector have to drive their young children to school. Sometimes it is simply because they have moved away from where the child started its education or parents need to continue their journeys to work and the most reliable way is by car. Also I know many parents who have been forced out of the state sector because they have been refused a place at a nearby school. Faced with travel or a failing school, many parents turn to private schools. For many parents that is a hard decision and involves them making financial sacrifices.
Initially, I could walk with my kids to school across Parliament hill and into South End Green. Being able to walk to school was one of the main criteria when choosing a school. However, I have since moved away from there and into Muswell Hill. In nearby Highgate, the two local independent schools are so in demand that you have to have a child down virtually from birth to even get a chance of being assessed for a place. The majority then get turned down in the assessment process
I very much hope that all three of my children will eventually be offered a place at one of the Highgate schools, but until then the Hampstead schools are the next closest. The journey is extremely long and difficult on public transport, especially as the 603 bus is so unreliable and only runs four times a day. It is completely unrealistic for us to do this every day, taking into account work commitments, sick children and after-school activities.
I really hope that when councillors decide their policy on the school run they don’t base their decisions on inaccurate information that seems to have been bandied about recently. Blaming schools for the failure of the policy so far is misleading and ignores the fundamental problem that schools are not spread out evenly, so travel is necessary. The policy is failing because it doesn’t reflect the underlying causes of congestion. Removing parking dispensation will achieve nothing. Solving the transport problems is the only way the situation in Hampstead will be improved.
INA VOLOSHIN
Muswell Hill, N10
• I WRITE to agree with views expressed in the Journal in recent weeks – the great majority of children attend schools within walking distance of their homes, and it should be in exceptional circumstances that parents need to ferry their children to school in cars.
UCS is a fine example. If parents must insist on opting out of the state system in favour of independent schools, they cannot expect to be compensated in the form of parking vouchers or additional spaces provided by Camden.
Public transport has rapidly improved and very welcome were Labour Mayor Ken Livingstone’s reforms of recent years that awarded all under-16s free transport on-board London’s buses and under 12s going free-of-charge on the underground whilst accompanied by an adult. Schools have a duty to ensure that parents make the best use of what is available.
AXEL J. LANDIN
UK Youth Parliament Representative for Camden
Bramshill Gardens, NW5
• VIOLET Elizabeth Bott seems to have become the model and spokesperson for the school run parents.
Rather than screaming until they are sick, they declare that they will continue to drive and park dangerously and illegally no matter what Camden does to tackle the pollution and gridlock in the Fitzjohn’s Avenue area and Belsize during term time, (see STAG deputation material to Camden Executive, Sub-Group meeting 15 Feb 2007.)
What is the lesson these parents are teaching their children? Break the law, drive dangerously and give no heed to anyone else, even your classmates? Younger children learn as much from the family as from school.
While citizenship is not a statutory subject for the under 11s, the DfES and the Citizenship Foundation in their Citizenship CPD Handbook (2006) describes how the subject can be introduced to children from nursery years onwards. Topics include how one’s actions affect others and looking at respectful behaviour.
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