Crawley infant academy combat village parking issue by running an in-house competition

On Friday, February 3 pupils from Pound Hill Infant Academy met with local homeowners and their respective families as they embarked on their mission to combat the parking issue in the residential area.

Due to the multi-access of the academy site, parents and carers park over driveways, on pavements, or even double park and despite the locals understanding the use of the roads for parking during peak times, it is becoming too dangerous.

The academy is aware that the issue is driven by them. This has resulted in consequences for the residents who live in the estates and cul-de-sacs close to the academy and so are keen to be working with the community to combat the issue they exacerbate.

After running an in-school competition to design a poster that encourages parents/carers to park safely, all designs were then voted on. The winners were selected and printed in readiness to distribute in the gardens of the local community. The plaques designed by the winning pupils were hammered into the gardens of nearby homes, as well as outside the academy. Pound Hill hopes that by having some local community participants, more come on board and will support the campaign in due course.

Principal at Pound Hill Infant Academy, Tom Jordan, said “Parking around any school is difficult at peak times of the day. To support the whole academy community's awareness of this issue and ensure safety and care for all, the academy's Pupil Parliament and I have worked with our academy neighbours and pupils in raising further awareness on this issue. “These posters, designed by pupils at the academy, will be in neighbours gardens to support the academy's ongoing safe parking awareness project. Thank you to all involved.”

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Pound Hill Infant Academy is a welcoming, inspiring school that strives to ensure that all pupils reach their potential. Every pupil is treated as an individual and provided with a happy, engaging environment where they can flourish. It has a published admissions number of 90 and total capacity of 270 pupils.