CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » General Edinburgh
"Primary pupils face mile walk due to overcrowding"
(30 posts)-
Posted 10 years ago #
-
A whole mile. The lambs.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Apparently pupils at the original Morningside School (new Waitrose) had to walk from as far as Swanston Village. Now that's a long walk on a wet morning.
Posted 10 years ago # -
“For some parents it could cause trouble if you’re dropping off older children in P3 at the main building and then taking kids in P1 and P2 to Deanbank.”
What kind of trouble? The older ones getting fat? Oh, hang on, I think I understand...
Posted 10 years ago # -
0.6 miles if you walk, 0.8 miles drive due to the one way system.
The problem is that South Morningside Primary is split over three sites. The nursery is 2.1 miles from the new site. Many parents will have to drop off/collect kids from at least two sites. Add in breakfast and after school clubs and this becomes a logistical problem for parents and staff alike.
South Morningside does pretty well in the active travel stakes - plenty of kids walk, scoot and cycle. This just makes that a bit harder to do for some families. The route between the main school and new annex involves some very busy roads. I can't see any parents being happy to let their kids cycle between the sites.
I am concerned that the limited vehicle access to the new site results in some sort of carmgeddon outside - further putting people off walking and cycling.
Posted 10 years ago # -
had to walk from as far as Swanston Village
Robert Louis Stevenson walked from Swanston to Old College and back every day, using Cockmylane (stop sniggering at the back). Made them tough in thoise days. Or wore them out.
Posted 10 years ago # -
"South Morningside does pretty well in the active travel stakes - plenty of kids walk, scoot and cycle"
Ha! I used that to guilt trip the guy who'd parked his tank on the ASZ at the Hermitage Bar the other day. Pointed to the kids scooting up to school and said they were on the pavement because he'd occupied their cycling facilities. Crude, but unanswerable in the circumstances.
Posted 10 years ago # -
@IWRATS In 2 years I'm going to be in the position of child No 1 in P3 (at the school) and child no 2 in P1 (at Deanbank).
My wife works in London often and I have to do the pickups by myself, no other family in the area.
I work 4 miles away, generally don't get out until about 5:10 pm. 30 minutes by bike to Deanbank then 10 minutes getting No 2 coats/bags/toileted and other muckaboutery associated with young children and that leaves me 10 minutes to get down to the school to get child no 1 with more associated muckaboutery before after school club closes at 6pm .It's doable, but rushed, and everything has to go perfectly. God forbid if the P word happens. That's the kind of trouble I think about.
Posted 10 years ago # -
@condor2378
I don't doubt it's difficult, I was just amused by what seemed to be an assumption that parents would transport their children by car.
I started walking to school on my own in P2 or 3 - I can't remember which - and am frankly nostalgic for an era when that was possible and normal.
Posted 10 years ago # -
"I started walking to school on my own in P2 or 3 - I can't remember which - and am frankly nostalgic for an era when that was possible and normal."
My son has been walking to school on his own for over two years now. He's nine. Granted, it is a short walk (1/4 mile tops), but he has to cross a very busy road with four lanes of traffic (London Road/Montrose Terrace junction). It's really not a problem. At all.
He also cycles over 3 miles to music school in Portobello every Saturday on his own bike, carrying his guitar in a pannier on the back (6+ miles round trip). Luckily there is an off-road path most of the way, but he does the on-road sections too.
Kids are capable of all kinds of tasks, given the right training, the ability, and the freedom to do so. 150 years ago, he'd probably have been sweeping chimneys or working down a pit.....not that I'm suggesting we go back to that. At all. Just that children are remarkably talented and can show great determination and aptitude if given the chance. They do not need to be wrapped in cotton wool, nor do they require ferrying everywhere in infernal combustion carriages.
Posted 10 years ago # -
@crowriver
Tell that to the chap next to me now. Two teenage kids who train in the Commie pool at 06h00 every morning before being returned to school, he lives south of the bypass and works west of the bypass. The whole to be achieved by private automobile.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Just that children are remarkably talented and can show great determination and aptitude if given the chance. They do not need to be wrapped in cotton wool
They're a hell of a lot more resilient than adults too. Injuries and scrapes forgotten about in no time compared to their elders.
Posted 10 years ago # -
@IWRATS, could they not get on a flaming bus and spare their dad the trouble? Sheesh!
Posted 10 years ago # -
@iwrats - my parents refusal to provide similar transport for me was exactly what led to me first using my bike for transport.
Posted 10 years ago # -
This annexe is specifically for P1 and 2. I think its safe to say that all the kids will be being dropped off and collected by their parents.
Traffic has increased massively over the last 20 or so years. It really is more dangerous for kids crossing roads than it used to be.
The annex is also odd in that it is just outside the catchment area of the school. This means most kids will have to travel further to get to it than the main school
Posted 10 years ago # -
@crowriver, @SRD
I don't have kids so I don't understand the pressures today. My cohort would have been mortified to be driven to school, and a sports event had to be a long way away to justify a lift.
My colleague is adamant that his children will die by murder or road accident if he does not transport them. He is very intelligent, but this belief is an ocean-going idée fixe.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Not my sons school so not an issue, but the timing is always an issue - different entry and exit times for different year groups are what makes it difficult - not the distance.
Being honest, if I had a kid at that school I am not sure I could work out how to stop a car safely (or is there an entrance round the corner?).
Posted 10 years ago # -
and still they won't look at catchments? ridiculous
Posted 10 years ago # -
@Nelly Pull up and stop in the bus lane seems par for the course. Don't worry about anyone else.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Bonaly annexe is bit of a trek from older end of the school
The nursery in Balerno is a bit of a trek from the school
South Morningside nursery has always been a schlep from the school
Logistically tricky of course but not new nor specific. Different starting times can be helpful?
I walked to school from age of six but I am very old and everyone walked. No one was driven. Indeed it would have been considered bizarre in our village to get a lift anywhere within the village boundary, everyone just walked. No family had more than one car. It was gone in the morning with the breadwinner. Only one teacher had a car because she came from Kilmalcolm. Though what a car it was - a purple e-type jaguar. Then a new teacher came with a very odd vehicle called a Volkswagen golf. Mrs aitchison from Beith. She had quite a go at my parents in my p6 report card. You would not get that sort of thing now. Though most teachers have cars and 23% of morning traffic is teachers driving to school. (Made up stat)
Posted 10 years ago # -
there certainly are issues about 'catchments'. As a planning officer we just used to put a pin in the map at the school and draw a circle around it. Obviously this takes no notice of any barrier at all other than direct distance. Nothing about main roads, what cycle routes were available/could be developed/travel access to other services from the home/dark places/un-overlooked places etc. The whole is just a complete mess both in planning policy and in community planning.
Aside from that I do think the media hype about how dangerous anything other than ferrying your kid around in a tin box is fueling a mania in all areas of life for kids and drives parents into this treadmill of fitting in the school run alongside all of the other things the media tells them they must do to show they are good parents. Its a whole vicious circle, and frankly its not just the lack of infrastructure that deters parents from allowing their kids to walk or cycle to school. Its the whole media hype of the threat of a whole range of 'dangers' (such as kidnap, sexual predation, violence etc etc) and the pressure of what it means to be a good parent, and (probably more especially) what it means to be seen to be a good parent.Posted 10 years ago # -
It's going to make life interesting for us at the afteschool club.
As coincidence would have it, there are no less than four children in the same class of SMPS in my care, all of whom have parents who are either CCEers or who I met because of CCE.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Dublos postos mistakeyos.
ADMIN EDIT
Your posts are never a mistake...
Posted 10 years ago # -
I used to walk a mile to the same school as Gembo - it was all downhill in the morning and almost vertical on the way home!
Posted 10 years ago # -
"almost vertical on the way home"
You should have had a jetpack.
Posted 10 years ago # -
I confirm the hill was almost vertical, just after the Tattie Brig, which often had a fierce bad dog sitting in the middle of it that had to be negotiated.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Cycled back up the hill last summer in a bid to recapture my yoof. I did it but only after some base training in the Pyrenees!
Posted 10 years ago # -
Usually when we do these return trips the dimensions are smaller (the church hall where they ran the Sunday school tiny). But the road up the Linthills remains steep, almost vertical.
Posted 10 years ago # -
A new primary school and nursery will be built in Morningside - powered by renewable energy and without a single car parking space or drop-off facility
Posted 5 years ago # -
Having no car parking spaces is fairly (surprisingly, perhaps) common amongst Edinburgh schools.
Preston St, Victoria, Royal Mile, Wardie, Abbeyhill, Prestonfield, Tower Bank...
(I only had a quick look around Google Maps in the east of the city. Some of the above may well have some parking spaces, and there are likely other examples in the west.)
Posted 5 years ago #
Reply
You must log in to post.
posts
