School Travel Plan

Contents

Introductionpage 3

Description of schoolspage 4&5

Map of our schoolspage 6

Our teampage 7

How we travel to schoolpage 8

Summary of traffic page 9

problems

Targetspage 10

Ideas for improving ourpage 11

Traffic Problems

Putting our plan into actionpage 12

Monitoring and Evaluating

School Travel Plan page 13

names & signatures

Merrylee Primary and OLA are looking at ways to improve the health and safety of our pupils travelling to and from school.

A school travel plan helps to identify and consider healthier and more frequent use of public transport.

Although the travel plan aims to identify a range of ways to reduce car use, it is not about banning cars!

Our school travel plan team has 16 members who meet every regularly to discuss our traffic problems. There are 12 pupils, including 4 Junior Road Safety Officers, and 4 adults on our team.

We have informed the councillors of the area about our problems. They have responded and are happy to support our team.

Merrylee and OLA are primary schools for boys and girls and are situated at the end and middle of our street, Friarton Road. It is a very busy, residential area.

Merrylee Primary

Merrylee Primary is a suburban school set in its own grounds, within the Glasgow boundary. The front of our school is open and bordered by a variety of trees and bushes. The play areas at the back and side of the school are fenced and secure. We have busy, narrow roads all around us which many children have to cross to get to and from school. Our school car park has 18 parking spaces which includes 3 disabled spaces.

In our school we have a full size football pitch where we all play, from Primary 1 to Primary 7. This is fully enclosed by fencing and gates. We also share the facilities regularly with the pupils of OLA. Our school is also a community facility and is used in the evening and at the weekend for various different clubs. Both Merrylee and OLA have their own allotment situated behind the Merrylee football pitch. Merrylee also has a fantastic outdoor play facility known as the Urban Jungle. This is an area designated for outdoor learning and is full of natural plants and wildlife.

We have lots of busy roads around our schools, which all the children have to cross to get to and from school.

At Merrylee, Mrs Mahindru is our head teacher. We have 20 teachers, 7 pupil support assistants, 2 janitors and 2 office staff. In June 2011 the school roll stands at 302. This will increase in August 2011 to 360 pupils.

We have lots of after school clubs, like basketball, netball, football, hockey, badminton, technology club, Lego club, choir, dancing club, violin club and chanter club. We have a breakfast club in the morning.

In the Merrylee building there is also Limetree Nursery which caters for pre-fives.

Our Lady of the Annuciation

Our Lady of the Annunciation Primary is located on 80 Friarton Road, Merrylee. Unfortunately we have no playing field attached to the school but we are lucky enough that our neighbours, Merrylee Primary let us use their playing field facility a lot. Our school has a lot of trees, bushes and grass that the children are not allowed to stand on.

The three main roads to get to our school are Langside Drive, Clarkston Road and Merrylee Road; all three of them are very busy roads. It is very difficult for the children to cross these roads so it is a danger that they need to be aware of. Our school is situated in Merrylee and most of the children come from areas such as Newlands, Cathcart, Muirend and Merrylee itself.

There are around 200 children in our school and the capacity is 296. Our Head Teacher is Mrs. Watson and Mrs. Hardie is the Principal Teacher. There are both classroom and support staff in our school. Mr. Campbell is the Janitor and we have a team of cleaners, office staff and dinner ladies who do a great job. We have a school car park, away from the playground for safety reasons, which also has a disabled parking area. Our school has both a breakfast club and an after school club. Our school has achieved a green flag and this was partly due to our successful allotment.

Map of our local area

Merrylee Primary

Our Lady of the Annunciation Primary

Merrylee Primary and OLA Primary

School Travel Plan Team

We meet every month to discuss road safety issues for our schools.

We aim to make the journey to school more active and safe for Merrylee and OLA pupils.

These photographs show us meeting for the first time at OLA Primary. We are looking forward to working together to make a difference.

Hands Up Travel Tally

We asked every pupil in our school to complete a short survey to find out about our current method of travel to school. This survey was in conjunction with the ‘Hands Up For Glasgow’ Survey, organised by Glasgow City Council. The survey will be an ongoing annual event. This will allow us to monitor results.

February 2011

These are the results of our survey:

Merrylee Primary

Method of travel / P1 / P2/1 / P2 / P3 / P4 / P5/4 / P6/5 / P6 / P7 / Total / %
Walk / 17 / 6 / 13 / 13 / 23 / 14 / 14 / 15 / 13 / 128 / 50%
Cycle/scooter / 4 / 1 / 3 / 7 / 0 / 1 / 1 / 0 / 2 / 19 / 7%
Car / 26 / 4 / 26 / 20 / 5 / 5 / 4 / 6 / 8 / 104 / 40%
Bus / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0%
other / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 1 / 2 / 2 / 1 / 1 / 7 / 3%
Number of pupils / 47 / 11 / 42 / 40 / 29 / 22 / 21 / 22 / 24 / 258

There are 302 pupils in our school
The tally surveys 258 pupils
Half of the pupils walk to school
Just under half of pupils are driven to school
Only 7% cycle or scooter to school

Our Lady of the Annunciation

Number of pupils in school: 189

Number who took part in survey: 171

54% of pupils currently walk to school

41% of pupils currently take the car to school

2% of pupils currently travel to school by bus

1% of pupils currently use another method of transport

Number of pupils who walk and travel by car

Class / Car / Walk
P1 / 6 / 15
P2 / 10 / 13
P3 / 18 / 5
P4 / 10 / 15
P5 / 10 / 10
P6 / 8 / 18
P7 / 8 / 17

School Travel and Road Safety

Our traffic problems – Merrylee

104 of our pupils travel to school by car. This causes traffic problems on Friarton Road, the main road outside our school, and the surrounding streets at 9am and again at 3pm.

Targets

To increase the number of pupils who cycle to school from 7% to 10%
To increase the number of pupils who walk to school from 50% to 60%
To reduce the number of pupils who travel to school by car from 40% to 30%

What we are currently doing – Merrylee

50% of pupils currently walk to school
7% of pupils currently cycle or scooter to school
40% of pupils currently take the car to school
On average 19 pupils cycle or scooter to school
Take part in the Walk to School Week and the Hands up for Glasgow travel tally
Posters and banners are displayed outside the school
A walking bus operates once a week
JRSO have presented to the school assembly
Road safety campaign
Cycle proficiency training to P6 pupils

Our Traffic Problems – OLA

41% of children travel by car to school. Mostly the zig zags are clear but there can sometimes be cars parked on them. Cars stop on the zig zags to drop off children. The zig zags are on a corner too which can cause problems. This is also the same for the school gates. We have a school banner advising parents not to park on the yellow zig zags.

What we are currently doing

There is a pupil council and they are currently working towards a Curriculum 3 for the school and towards fair-trade status for the school.
There are 2 Junior Road Safety Officers from Primary 6
Helping to make the roads around the school safer for children by displaying banners outside the school
Out of 171 children surveyed 41% walk and only 2% take the bus
Out of 171 children 54% travel by car

Our Targets

To increase number of pupils using bikes to travel to and from school.
To reduce the number of pupils coming to school by car
Encourage/ suggest alternative places to park.
To come up with ways to stop people parking on zigzags or double yellow lines.
To teach children the green cross code, and to make sure they know when it is safe to cross
Try to encourage more people to come to come to school by walking, cycling, scooter, or by bus.

Ideas for improving our traffic problems

Problem / Action / Timescale / Who Is Responsible / Aims
Crossing patroller faces problems when trying to enforce parking restrictions / Start a brigade of travel police again.
Record date, time, reg no of incidents and report to community police. / Road Safety Weeks / STARS team
JRSO / to encourage drivers to show consideration at crossing patrol
Parents and drivers park within the school / Lock gates at pick up times.
Also locked at the end of lets.
Introduce Car Club scheme. / May/ June 2011 / Parent Council
Merrylee/OLA HT
Crossing Patrol
STARS team / To encourage people to park safely.
Parents park on yellow lines to drop off children / Liaise with traffic and community police to patrol regularly. / On-going / STARS team
Community Action Team / To discourage irresponsible parking.
Very few pupils cycle to school / Cycle Proficiency training for P6 pupils.
Walk to School Week campaigns. / May
June 2011 / P6 teachers
Whole school
JRSO / To consider more sustainable ways of travelling to school
Drivers exceeding speed limits around school / Display banners and posters outside school. / May 2011 / STARS team
JRSO
janitor / To make crossing areas safer for pupils
Parents are not aware of how they can support schools / STARS team will invite parents and visitors to the launch of the Travel Plan / November 2011 / STARS team
JRSO / To make parents aware of the School Travel Plan
Display of School Travel Plan to be set up in the entrance of the school at Parents’ nights / November 2011 / STARS team
JRSO / to allow everyone to see our School Travel Plan
Include a copy of the Travel Plan in welcome pack for new pupils/ parents / January 2012 / HT and STARS team / To allow new pupils and parents the opportunity to see our Travel Plan.

Putting our Plan into Action

The School Travel Team and members of the JRSO from Merrylee and Our Lady of the Annunciation will meet regularly to discuss road and travel issues. We will make sure that the School Travel Plan has been agreed and signed by everyone in the team.

Monitoring and Evaluating

The School Travel Plan will be reviewed regularly and updated as necessary. It will be circulated to the Parent Councils to ensure they are made aware of any changes. This will help ensure the road safety and wellbeing of children and staff of both schools.

School Travel and Road Safety

Our Lady of the Annunciation Primary Merrylee Primary

80 Friarton Road50 Friarton Road

GlasgowGlasgow

G43 2PRG43 2PR

STARS Signatures

Emma Ravé; Erin Currin, Jodie Brechin; Cameron Ritchie; Amy Weatherston;

Lauryn Lindsay; Mohammad Khazaeli; Charlotte Power; Declan O’Hagan; Mitchell Scott Brown; Caitlin Hughes; Alishba Ahmed; Liam Coyle

(Pupil members of Merrylee and OLASchool Travel Plan Team)

C Haddock and P McGhee (teacher members)