Wandering Pupils

[wifie]

Having just read mccaugm's poem "Thurso at Lunchtime" I am wondering if the pupils from the high school wandering all over the road has always been a problem. I was a pupil there in the late 70s and don't remember not using the pavement! :confused Are there more pupils these days? Do more of them leave the school at lunchtime? Do young people today just think they are more invincible than we did at their age? Is it the same in Wick? I am sure I have noticed posts from Wickers on much the same theme.
BTW good poem mccaugm - worth a read if you don't often venture into the literature section people!

[Lavenderblue2]

I several occasions during the week have to travel into Thurso for a 9am and find that the pupils have no regard for the traffic lights at the crossing they continue to stream across the road regardless of the lights.

It is the same when they are coming out of school especially around the railway station - they walk down the middle of the road from the Juniper Bank area towards the bus garage and look at you as if you are in the wrong for driving your car on the road.

Between the high volume of traffic and the school pupils it is a nightmare getting in or out of town at any of these times, how there are not any accidents I'll never know.

[badger]

I see Ed Balls is planning to ban pupils leaving school premises at lunch time - it's to do with healthy eating but would be good for other things. Don't rate his chances though. We were never allowed out but many things have changed since then.

[Kodiak]

Things have changed greatly since I was at school during the late 50's and early 60's. I lived in Dundee then and if any pupil was seen to be wandering across or in the road they would have reported to the school and or Police. Where upon your parents would have been sent an official letter by either or both the School and Police. If this happened then not many dared to it twice.

[Goldie]

Having just read mccaugm's poem "Thurso at Lunchtime" I am wondering if the pupils from the high school wandering all over the road has always been a problem. I was a pupil there in the late 70s and don't remember not using the pavement! :confused Are there more pupils these days? Do more of them leave the school at lunchtime? Do young people today just think they are more invincible than we did at their age? Is it the same in Wick? I am sure I have noticed posts from Wickers on much the same theme.
BTW good poem mccaugm - worth a read if you don't often venture into the literature section people!


From what I understand the school has over 1000 pupils and the canteen only holds about 250 (max). They don't have a staggered lunchtime, so even if the canteen could tempt them all, it would leave 750 standing out in the cold! Maybe Wick is not the only school that needs updating!

Come on with the state of the art school's that would be so inviting to make the pupils want to stay in!

We can live in hope! Cheers

[mccaugm]

I see Ed Balls is planning to ban pupils leaving school premises at lunch time - it's to do with healthy eating but would be good for other things. Don't rate his chances though. We were never allowed out but many things have changed since then.

If I remember rightly this is the situation in Dornoch, if they can do it there I cannot see why they cannot do it here. Staggered lunches are nothing new.

[Dorrie]

I was at Thurso High in the early 70's and although we (good girls that we were) walked down the pavement, there were always people that walked down the other side of the road. You should have seen it on a day when there was a cattle sale! Really dangerous!

[wifie]

I was at Thurso High in the early 70's and although we (good girls that we were) walked down the pavement, there were always people that walked down the other side of the road. You should have seen it on a day when there was a cattle sale! Really dangerous!
Blimey Dorrie you are right - my memory has deceived me - yours is obviously better than mine! I suppose kids will be kids - doesn't help the motorist tho!

[Buttercup]

When I was at Thurso High in the 60's we weren't allowed to walk down the mart side. Oh, there was a few rebels, but not many. If a teacher recognised you there'd be trouble next day.

[wifie]

Sadly I feel for the powers that be there is no real deterent (hesitate to use that word) these days!

[Sapphire2803]

I don't mind them so much here, although they are quite often so busy chatting that they forget to look before they cross. You should see some of them in Portsmouth, they actually walk down the road in groups in front of the cars and if you try to get them to move out of the way of the traffic you get a mouthful of abuse. Sometimes it was soooo tempting to just run them over.

[emszxr]

yes dornoch academy pupils are not allowed out at lunch unless authorised. i think this is a good system and should be in place in more schools

[Cazaa]

yes dornoch academy pupils are not allowed out at lunch unless authorised. i think this is a good system and should be in place in more schools

Presumably the authorised pupils are monitored to ensure they don't walk in the middle of the road (thus making it a good system which should be adopted by more schools).

Once Tesco is in the old mart site, it should make it much easier for pupils to get their lunch there and should hopefully alleviate the need for pupils to go down the street.

[Bad Manners]

I think this is a problem in almost all areas Pupils in wink wander all over the place ingrossed in conversation with their friends oblivious to other road users I thought that it was just the laid back way here but on my recent trips to Edinburgh and London I found it was the same there.
At times it is only the reactions of the drivers that prevent accidents from happening.

[attielattie]

When I was at Thurso High in the early 70s we used to walk on the mart side of the road in Spring and Summer purely to avoid getting crapped on by the nesting crows in the trees on the pavement side. We did try to keep away from the traffic though, being well brought up girlies. Some of the pupils these days don't seem to realise that a dirty look isn't much use against 2 ton of metal bearing down on you! It just needs one driver who is going too fast and splat! one less sneering teen. I'm sure we were never like that [smirk] Granny Gunn had already beaten every ounce of teenage rebellion out of us!!!

[mccaugm]

I see the police are doing speed checks by the mart in Thurso. Well done to them. As I passed a boy racer was being pulled over. Hope the short, sharp shock had the desired effect.

Now all that needs to be done is the "Advanced Tufty Club" for children aged between 12 - 18. Basic stuff like looking left and right and noticing the large, metal moving objects can in fact knock you down if you walk in front of them.[disgust] Maybe the police could do a presentation to the "students" to show them what can happen if you do get knocked down. I think that teenagers assume that they are invincible. Not all I grant you but a great percentage.