Some advice on biking to school & using their bike shed.

[Puddles]

Can I just say aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh

Thank you, received letter from Head. Now either the LA has not yet written to her, or she is ignoring them or I misunderstand (I don't think I misunderstood) and I quote lady from LA

"I am pro-helmet and would love to make it so school children wear a helmet on their bike on the way to school, but we can't because it is not legal..... I shall write to her with a copy of another local schools policy which is acceptable which says "should" not "must" and advise her to change their policy"

This was Monday afternoon. I then replied to Head's email telling me to talk to LA, saying

"Thank you for your time blah blah spoken to LA they were very helpful, they have told me they will be in contact with you, (I did not put what they said as I didn't want to seem like I was gloating) I am happy to support the school in any policy to get children out of cars on school journey etc but could not support policies that erode parental rights"


I then get this response today

"I am pleased that you found the School Journey team
helpful. I have worked closely with them over the last 10 years and have
always found them to be excellent.

I do understand that your concern is about your parental rights. That is why
the letter about the bike pass makes it very clear what the conditions of
use of the school bike racks are. Any parent who does not agree with the
conditions can make alternative parking arrangements. As the bike racks are
on school premises the Travel Plan team, as it was then, gave me the format
for the letter to promote good cycling practice, which is still used by
them, I understand.

As you rightly say, the school does not have a duty of care over your child
whilst you are travelling to school. it is your parental right to decide how
your child travels to school, the school is not responsible for this
journey - you are, as a parent. You can choose whether to apply for a bike
space or not depending on whether you agree with the conditions of use. Only
those parents who sign to agree with the conditions are given bike spaces
and are then expected to abide by them. No parental rights are removed from
any parent who does not agree with the conditions of use - they simply won't
apply for a bike pass. Parking bikes on school grounds is not compulsory nor
is it a right.

You signed the slip agreeing to abide by the conditions of use of the bike
racks in September. Do you wish to withdraw from the agreement and give up
the space?"

So as I said I can only assume either

a) I misunderstood LA
b) They have not mailed her yet
c) They have mailed her & she is ignoring it

 

[Puddles]

I resisted the urge to reply with "Are you intentionally winding me up?"

and replied thus, I will phone the LA tomorrow

At this point in time I am not giving up Samuel's space, as I said he wears
a helmet, having spoken to the School Journey Team, they informed me that
the mandatory helmet policy was not one of theirs as they can promote helmet
use but not make it mandatory, as mandatory helmet directives are not
legal, I shall speak to them again in the near future when I have the time
to ascertain if I missunderstood Laura Kerrigan, she advised me she would
be writing to you with an acceptable policy used by Shamblehurst Primary
that has the wording "should" not "must" with regard to Helmet & hi-viz.

Please be assured that if I take the decision to no longer require a space I
will hand in Samuel's pass, I have already ensured that should this be the
only option I have left to me that I have the necessary equipment to secure
his bike near the school premises.

 

[Sara_H]

Can I just say aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh

Thank you, received letter from Head. Now either the LA has not yet written to her, or she is ignoring them or I misunderstand (I don't think I misunderstood) and I quote lady from LA

"I am pro-helmet and would love to make it so school children wear a helmet on their bike on the way to school, but we can't because it is not legal..... I shall write to her with a copy of another local schools policy which is acceptable which says "should" not "must" and advise her to change their policy"

This was Monday afternoon. I then replied to Head's email telling me to talk to LA, saying

"Thank you for your time blah blah spoken to LA they were very helpful, they have told me they will be in contact with you, (I did not put what they said as I didn't want to seem like I was gloating) I am happy to support the school in any policy to get children out of cars on school journey etc but could not support policies that erode parental rights"


I then get this response today

"I am pleased that you found the School Journey team
helpful. I have worked closely with them over the last 10 years and have
always found them to be excellent.

I do understand that your concern is about your parental rights. That is why
the letter about the bike pass makes it very clear what the conditions of
use of the school bike racks are. Any parent who does not agree with the
conditions can make alternative parking arrangements. As the bike racks are
on school premises the Travel Plan team, as it was then, gave me the format
for the letter to promote good cycling practice, which is still used by
them, I understand.

As you rightly say, the school does not have a duty of care over your child
whilst you are travelling to school. it is your parental right to decide how
your child travels to school, the school is not responsible for this
journey - you are, as a parent. You can choose whether to apply for a bike
space or not depending on whether you agree with the conditions of use. Only
those parents who sign to agree with the conditions are given bike spaces
and are then expected to abide by them. No parental rights are removed from
any parent who does not agree with the conditions of use - they simply won't
apply for a bike pass. Parking bikes on school grounds is not compulsory nor
is it a right.

You signed the slip agreeing to abide by the conditions of use of the bike
racks in September. Do you wish to withdraw from the agreement and give up
the space?"

So as I said I can only assume either

a) I misunderstood LA
b) They have not mailed her yet
c) They have mailed her & she is ignoring it

She's a nobber, and all that waffle is a load of bullshit designed to bully you into backing down. She's with holding a facility available to all children except unhemeted cyclists for no good reason whatsoever.

PM me her address, I want to organise a protest involving organic m&s eggs! Mind you, at least she admits she doesn't have a duty of care while you're walking to school, our head insisted she did!

Can I just ask? how does she know which children have ridden with a helmet and which haven't. How does she police it?

 

[Puddles]

I have no idea how she polices it, to be honest we did not ride to school on the day they checked the bike rack that they referred to in the newsletter so I don't know how they did that? I can only assume they stood by the bike rack and as children/adults went to lock a bike they either asked to see their pass or had a list of pupils who had passes and clocked the ones not on the list (as I said it is small school and she seems to know all the children by name & parents (even if they have different surnames)

As to the helmet policing ????? Is all I can say I know children ride without helmets & only a tiny tiny amount of scooterists wear helmets.

 

[Tim Hall]

She's a nobber,

After nine pages, Sara_H hits the nail fairly and squarely on the head.

 

[Puddles]

She's a nobber, and all that waffle is a load of bulls*** designed to bully you into backing down. She's with holding a facility available to all children except unhemeted cyclists for no good reason whatsoever.

PM me her address, I want to organise a protest involving organic m&s eggs! Mind you, at least she admits she doesn't have a duty of care while you're walking to school, our head insisted she did!

Can I just ask? how does she know which children have ridden with a helmet and which haven't. How does she police it?

Well, she now has it worse (and no I am not about to get naked) my Mother is back from her hols and boy is she mad, she asked me if she needed to round up the mothers from my time at school and get them protesting again.

When I said Again? she told me how they had all formed a line across the road in the late 70's in protest to reduce the speed limit around the school and get a zebra crossing put in, NAKED! That was when the then head proposed to make parents walk with their children to school as the answer to "keeping them safe" , I apparently joined in at the tender age of 3 1/2 naked! My Mum said she had photos of it somewhere I made her promise to go find them!

Who knew a sleepy village has such militant mothers in their midst!

 

[Sara_H]

Well, she now has it worse (and no I am not about to get naked) my Mother is back from her hols and boy is she mad, she asked me if she needed to round up the mothers from my time at school and get them protesting again.

When I said Again? she told me how they had all formed a line across the road in the late 70's in protest to reduce the speed limit around the school and get a zebra crossing put in, NAKED! That was when the then head proposed to make parents walk with their children to school as the answer to "keeping them safe" , I apparently joined in at the tender age of 3 1/2 naked! My Mum said she had photos of it somewhere I made her promise to go find them!

Who knew a sleepy village has such militant mothers in their midst!

Yay! A protest! If you wait til I'm down for my hols I'll definitely be there!

 

[summerdays]

You have form obviously ... and it worked last time (phew very glad my kid's primary school head was much more reasonable!)

 

[Puddles]

I am hoping with crossed fingers, that it is just she has not heard from the LA and so is unaware

I shall be asking one very straight question to LA tomorrow, can she do this as if she can I am handing in bike pass and I just need a yes she can do this or no she cannot and we will sort it.

Then when I get an answer to that the fun will really begin if I have to hand in bike pass...

 

[Fab Foodie]

Yay! A protest! If you wait til I'm down for my hols I'll definitely be there!

As I've already done one naked cycle protest this week, I'm 'up' for another .... cue Fnaar ....

 

[Sara_H]

I am hoping with crossed fingers, that it is just she has not heard from the LA and so is unaware

I shall be asking one very straight question to LA tomorrow, can she do this as if she can I am handing in bike pass and I just need a yes she can do this or no she cannot and we will sort it.

Then when I get an answer to that the fun will really begin if I have to hand in bike pass...

I think she probably can, because to a point, she is the manager of what happens on school premises. It's not reasonable, though, and if I were were you I'd be tempted to take it through the formal complaints procedure before handing in your pass, for the simple reason that she's trying to bully you into submission.

 

[Puddles]

Oh I shall take it through the complaints procedure, but, I may hand bike pass in before that only because if she starts being OTT with me first thing in the morning when we lock his bike in when I am usually not calm & serene having just said the same things a million times in the space of two hours, eat your breakfast, get dressed, no don't take you clothes off again, where is your book bag, get your shoes on, where is your football/tae kwon do/swimming kit I gave it to you 10 seconds ago. No dog you are staying, etc etc etc. I am liable to explode literally at her & it won't be pretty.

Having said that is she makes a fuss over if he is wearing a helmet, that could work to my advantage in getting the word out.

But, if I park his bike where I intend to park it I can have a nice sign on it saying why it is there & all 90% of the parents would walk past it, in school I suspect they could remove that sign, outside they cannot

Anyhoo I am trying to just keep one step at a time, today's job is to contact the LA again and ask the question.

 

[Puddles]

Aha - The LA's email was down and so nothing had been sent to her, it now has & I also have a copy

When I asked the blunt please tell me without the legal flim flam etc, Can she do this as I need to know whether to hand in bike pass or not the answer was a resounding NO

Here is an extract of what she has been sent by the LA

"I liaised with my colleagues in the School Travel Planning team at Hampshire County Council and both Helen Harris and myself agree that this can be a very ‘grey’ area in terms of wording and what a school can and can’t enforce and we appreciate that pulling together a policy on a topic such as cycling to school is obviously a very difficult task for schools to do and a difficult judgement to have to make.

The topic of cycling policies in schools has recently been discussed at length by the School Travel Planning team, the Road Safety team both from Hampshire County Council and Sustrans staff (Sustrans is a sustainable transport charity). All parties have reviewed and revised some of the suggested wording in the cycle guidelines issued by the Road Safety team on theirwebsite (http://www3.hants.gov.uk/roadsafety/children/cycle_training.htm) and have also signposted other suggested policies by organisations such as Sustrans so that schools can choose what is appropriate for the age of their children, the local environment and the cycle routes available.

The suggested policies focus on using words such as 'should' and 'encourage', particularly on the topic of wearing helmets as they are not required by law, and there is a view held by some that insisting on wearing a helmet can act as a deterrent to children cycling and imply that cycling is dangerous. However, we do appreciate that schools often feel in a difficult position as to how much encouragement they give to cycling, even though it is ultimately a parent's responsibility to ensure their child arrives at schools safely.

Like schools, we as local authorities would like to encourage as many families and children to be safe cyclists and encourage them to wear cycle helmets wherever possible. However, as cyclists are not by law required to wear a cycle helmet, we as local authorities are therefore not permitted to enforce that pupils cycling to school wear helmets to and from school, but where possible we do encourage as many families as possible to consider the safety aspects of cycling and what possible precautions they can take to reduce any potential risks."

 

[Schmilliemoo]

Ooh. Interesting to see what happens next. I'm loving this, far more exciting than corrie.

 

[Puddles]

Good. Have you tried asking why they don't similarly encourage parents to put helmets on their children before driving them to school and the basis for that decision?

In short - no. One thing at a time, first they make the (usually nice) Head change that schools policy and give them the lots & lots of help they are promising to get rid of the cars then perhaps more.

As an aside I growl when I hear Sustrans they advised the local country park to put stupid barriers across the cycle tracks so that it is damn near impossible to get on to them with a bike trailer - oh so helpful!