School unsure what to do about 'abusive' clashes during pickups/drop-offs

The headteacher of Riverside Primary School – which has struggled with ongoing altercations between neighbours and parents – says he is not sure how to solve the problem.

A resident living in Donnington Gardens, where the school is based, contacted the Advertiser to express her concerns over the behaviour of some parents dropping their children off.

Given the ongoing tension, she wished to remain anonymous, saying neighbours ‘do not feel safe’ in the face of ‘verbally, racially and physically abusive’ behaviour.

Parents are using the street to pull up while dropping their children off, which causes ‘chaos’ and ‘dangerous obstructions’ – but do not react well to being asked to stop, the woman said.

Riverside’s headteacher, Richard Daniels, said he is very aware of this and says there have been issues for at least the six years he’s been headteacher at the school.

He said the drivers are indeed inconsiderate, doing three-point turns in a place where there are children navigating the roads, which is ‘really not safe.’

“We are constantly telling parents they’re not allowed to park on Donnington Gardens – there are yellow lines on the road. They just ignore our pleas,” he said.

The conflict leads to ‘effing and blinding on both sides’ and it is not practical for school staff to go out and intervene twice a day, he said.

“We’ve had police called out a few times to deal with things because it’s got so heated,” said Mr Daniels.

Previously, parents were allowed to drive into the school grounds – but that was ‘a nightmare’ causing ‘a big traffic circle’ directly outside and making the grounds unsafe.

“We encourage scooting or walking to school but a lot of our families come from quite a distance,” said Mr Daniels.

“Looking at it from their point of view, there’s nowhere else for them to park. There’s a business estate on the other side of the road, but that gets really busy.”

Moreover, there is no pedestrian crossing that would allow children to get from there to the school across the busy Cookham Road safely, Mr Daniels added.

Last year, the school did attempt to set up a school street – a road outside a school with temporary traffic restrictions during pick-up and drop-off times.

The plan was to block the top of Donnington Gardens to stop traffic coming down towards the school.

Riverside Primary canvassed neighbours in Donnington Gardens and surrounding roads, as well as parents, said Mr Daniels – but no one volunteered to help manage the school street.

Other ideas also fell through, such as installing an ANPR camera, which was ‘deemed too expensive.’ Riverside also tries to get parking attendants to come out – but that isn’t effective.

“We get a visit maybe once or twice a year,” said Mr Daniels. “And they can’t issue tickets unless the car’s been there for five or 10 minutes. Our parents stop, drop and go again, so that’s not a deterrent. I don’t know what the solution is.”

He said the school is going to ask the council to look into possibly setting up a school street again.

“But I’m not hopeful we’ll get one any time soon,” said Mr Daniels.