We were contacted last week by a collection of parents – organising under the banner Drive To Survive – who were concerned at the practicalities of living with the proposed changes to the school system on the Island, in particular the impact of having to get children to new schools.
Their idea, to give parents – and importantly those who do not have children at school on the Island – a view of how the changes will effect Islanders lives, with the inevitable rise in cars on the Island roads, if half of the primary schools are closed, and people have to get their little ones to the new, further-away schools.
To give a taste of how it would lengthen drive times, their idea is for parents to act as if the proposed changes have occurred, driving their cars to what would be the new schools.
Initially it might sound a little complex, but with a bit of patience you’ll see that is isn’t really.
It will run for three days starting this coming Wednesday, 6th Feb and breaks down to four simple stages.
- Drop your kiddie winkles off at school as you would normally.
- Get in your car and drive to the school that you would have to, if option 1 were to come into place.
- Park your car near that school and walk to that school’s gates, as you would if your child were going to that school.
- Get back in your car and drive home, spending the rest of the day feeling good about yourself for taking part in this mass experiment.
Simple really isn’t it?
The next day (Thursday), repeat the same process, but the school that you drive to is the one you would have to go to if Option 2 came into force. The last day – Friday – repeat the same, but with the Option 3 school.
Too complex?
OK, we know that Alex Dyke and The Doc weren’t able to grasp the concept, finding it “too complex,” and were amazed at The Doc didn’t think it was a good idea, exclaiming that, “it’s important not to disrupt other people,” appearing to not grasp that if this action does disrupt people, it’s giving an indication of how life will be _every_ work day the schools are open.
In the words of organiser, Katie, “This will demonstrate to the council that our roads cannot cope with so many cars on the road, there isn’t enough space to park and will also show those who think that these changes will not affect them, that they will (not able to get to work on time, etc).”
Credit to The Doc for thinking that those taking part in it should put a poster in the window of the car, so those being delayed on the road understood why and how they were being delayed. The organisers have now arranged this.
Will it work?
The effectiveness of this will purely be down to how many people take part. We all know that we’ve got busy lives, but this should add only about 30 mins to the normal school routine, which is a pretty small amount of time, considering what’s at stake, isn’t it?
We wanted to get this piece out earlier, but were waiting on us having time to edit together an audio interview with had with Katie, one of the organisers. We think it’s more important to get this out today, and will bring you the interview when we find the time.
Image: Freefoto
