Near miss outside school - Please drive & park considerately

We would like to stress at the start of this communication that the vast majority of our parents drive & park sensibly and considerately around school during drop off and pick up times and we would like to take this opportunity to thank you for doing so every day.

However, there is a small but significant minority of parents from our school who do not do this and in fact are dangerous in their driving, inconsiderate and abusive towards other parents, neighbours in the surrounding area and are also in breach of The Highway Code.

Last week this escalated when 2 children were very nearly knocked over outside school due to the reckless driving of one of our parents dropping off their children. The Police & Stockport Council Road Safety Department were informed and traffic enforcement officers were present this morning and will continue to be present at school on an adhoc basis.

Sadly, this is no longer an isolated incident but a worrying trend in behaviour that can no longer be tolerated. In the past, we have been alerted to incidents involving verbal attacks on our neighbours from parents parking inconsiderately or illegally at the start or end of the day.

We appeal to our school community to behave as responsible adults to follow The Highway Code and:

1. Be mindful of the safety of all our children, not only your own

2. Stop parking on or across our neighbour's drives

3. Stop parking on double yellow lines outside school

4. Stop using the staff car park at the start and end of the day

5. Be respectful to our neighbours and each other when parking and driving during pick up and drop of times

As some of you will know, the council has worked with us as a school community to improve traffic calming provision around the school and through tireless campaigning by many of our parents, a crossing patrol officer has been instated outside the school which has improved parking and crossing safety considerably.

If any parents or carers have any concerns over parking or driving around the school our advice is to phone Stockport Council Road Safety Department.

The police have advised us that if any of our parents, carers or neighbours are verbally or physically abused or threatened then they should report this to the police on telephone number 101. This is what we will also be doing as a school from now on to try to curb this worrying trend in what is essentially anti-social behaviour.

Finally, we would like to remind all parents and carers that the main concern around parking at the school for all of us should be the safety of your children.

Thank-you for your continued support in this matter