BY STELLA, JESSIE, TRISTAN AND JAKE

On a drizzly Friday morning many members of our community: parents, children and teachers, all excitedly gathered outside the gates of Judith Kerr Primary School.

This event was organised and managed by Miss Ellen and her eco warriors as well as some of the helpful parents of JKPS.

This event was to build awareness around keeping our children safe.

Our school is on Half Moon Lane. It has held some tragic events like at Christmas a supposedly drunk driver swerved off the road and crashed into Judith Kerr Primary School’s fence. The hole in the fence was immense and somehow the car avoided the tree but did manage to take out the stump.

There was also an occasion when an unlucky pupil from Nursery zoomed out of the open gate and wasn’t very confident on his scooter and fell into the gutter. A car went zooming past and just missed him. Thankfully he was okay, but he was a little shaken up.

These are just two incidents we know about, but there may be many more – like speeding, not stopping at zebra crossing, ignoring the lollipop lady’s sign and others. We hope nothing like this ever happens again.

Luckily, this morning – March 1 – the rain did not dampen the spirits and we had some VIP guests to build the awareness. And we MOGGERS managed to get the inside scoop from the Dulwich Village Councillor Margy Newens and even our local MP Helen Hayes who attended to promote this worthy cause.

Helen Hayes announced to the bustling – slightly soggy – crowd: “This is about you as children raising your voices and getting your message out to the wider community – to everybody who is walking, driving, cycling past JKPS that you want our roads to be safer and you want people to behave properly when they’re travelling about close to your school.”

The event was to unveil two new banners which are now on display on the school’s fence on the corner of Half Moon Lane and Village Way. The banners say “Please Go Slower” and “Woah Dude Slow Down” and were created by student at JKPS. The winning designs were made by: Alison (Year 1), Kh’ane (Year 2), Francis (Year 4), Laurence (Year 4), Morris (Reception), Iona (Year 2), Ana (Reception)

Iona said when she was designing her poster – which says “Drive Slowly” and shows a picture of a red vehicle – said she was “thinking about vans. I think that sometimes I see them go very, very fast.” Iona hopes that the poster will “maybe make sure people don’t drove so fast.”

Laurence said: “I wanted to make the roads safer” and he created his cool design on a computer.

The runners up in the poster competition were: Arthur, Miguel, Rowan, Samuel, Evie, Laurie and Bea, Toby, Ivy, Frida and Rohan.

During this exciting event, Bea, in Year 2, handed over to Helen Hayes and Margy Newens a dossier of traffic incidents near the school, a transport survey and signatures from 92 children and dozens of parents who support safer roads around the school. 

“There’s nothing more important than the safety of our children,” said JKPS Deputy Head Mr. Patrick.

Dulwich Village Councillor Margy Newens said she was aware of the problems with speeding cars and she was ready to help our school.

“This is a big priority for us as a council,” she told the Mog Chronicle. “We will be setting aside funds to look at how we can make improvements. We will absolutely be continuing to work with you to make those improvements.” 

It’s not only us here at the Mog Chronicle who love the posters. Helen Hayes said: “The posters are absolutely brilliant. They show how creative the students of JKPS are and they also show how strongly you feel about this issue of road safety outside your school. And they do a really brilliant job of communicating that to everybody who is walking past.”