I am organising a petition to urge St Andrews Lower School West to raise the height of the school gates/fencing both adjacent to the field and adjacent to the playground. Both of these are, in my opinion much too short.

This hadn't really dawned on me until my daughter and her friend were approached by a stranger from the alleyway, seemingly holding his phone as if filming, explained he was a friend of mine (which he was not) and asked for their names and ages. Luckily shortly after the conversation started, a lunch assistant noticed, approached and the man then left. However, the gates are definitely low enough to simply reach over and pick up a child were they to be close enough to the gates, which as we now know is a possibility, even with adults overseeing at play times.

I strongly believe that as anyone can use the public walkways that surround the school, there should be safer precautions in place, which tall gates and fencing is certain to achieve. It would be lovely if children were guaranteed to always be safe but the sad reality is that they're not, and anything we can do to improve their safety should absolutely be done.

Please sign this petition so we can approach the school with this concern and they can take this higher up the appropriate chains to be rectified. 

Many thanks,

Dani Townsend