Pupils and teachers took to the streets outside their school today to campaign against irresponsible parking by parents.

The group of junior road safety officers at Hempstead Junior School protested at the school gates in Birch Grove by holding placards promoting safety.

This was the first of a number of initiatives the school plans to hold urging parents to park further away to keep children safe during the morning drop.

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Year 5 pupils Louise Greenland, 10, Oliver Cox, 10, and Jolie Staples, 10, are junior road safety officers and said they hoped this campaign would help children walking near the school stay safe.

Year 4 teacher, Jadi Little, said: “Over the last year or so there have been a few near misses with children crossing in front of cars and parents parking too close to the gate.

“So we are here to help parents learn that they need to park further away and make sure their children’s safety is paramount."

Watch: pupils at Hempstead Junior School protest

She added: “Parents all want it to be safe for their children but it needs to be convenient as well."

The road outside the gate is often congested especially around school drop-off and pick-up times, and residents have also complained about how busy the street gets with cars double parking.

Lily Brearey, 10, and Kayla Moodie, 10, were among the pupils to hold placards reading ‘Don’t park by our gate or you’ll make Mr Cross very cross’ and ‘If you want your children to be safe don’t go parking by our gate’.

Acting headteacher Paul Cross said: “The reason we are having our protest today is that a lot of parents and pupils have voiced concerns particularly when there’s lots of traffic turning up, and lots of parents arriving at the last minute to drop children off."

“They park far too close to the school as there aren’t enough places to park,” he said. “We’ve also had complaints from residents about blocking driveways and cars mounting the pavements."

He added: “All we are asking parents to do is just be mindful of the issues and not all arrive at the last minute and if they could just park five minutes down the road to walk a little further to school it will make it a lot safer for everybody."

Clare Barnes from Rainham was among the parents to welcome the initiative.

She said: “I think this is absolutely fabulous, it is often chaos here and it’s really lucky nobody has been hurt.

“Seeing the students out here raising the issue has a much larger impact than just the signs on the school fence."