A WORRIED headteacher is demanding urgent action before a pupil or a parent is killed or badly injured as cars speed past the school’s main entrance ignoring the 20MPH limit.

Andrew Griffin took over as executive head teacher at Claycots School’s Town Hall campus six weeks ago and said he was shocked at what he found.

He said: “I have been head at four schools but this is the most dangerous I have seen. I’m grateful to Slough Council for the care it put into our school building at the Town Hall but no real thought was given to creating a safe access.

“I don’t want to lose any children or staff.”

The school has two entrances - but the Montem Lane entrance is widely used as parents and children pour in from surrounding roads.

Unfortunately it is a busy ‘rat run’ and drivers blatantly speed down it as they head for Bath Road.

Luke Graham, the school’s associate headteacher, said: “We had a serious near miss recently when a parent had to pull a child out of the way of a car that did not even stop.”

Pupil numbers have soared at the school in recent tears to reach 800 with more expected as new houses are built.

Rebecca Richardson, chairman of Claycots Parent Teachers Association, said that a petition with 500 names on it had been handed in to Slough Borough Council last year.

She said: “The council responded saying it was not going to be addressed until they regenerate Montem Leisure Centre. They also said they were unsuccessful at recruiting a school crossing patrol person. In our opinion there seems to be no urgency from the council in addressing this problem.

“We see that other schools around Slough have zebra crossings opposite their school but we do not.”

Mr Griffin is adamant that action needs to be taken now.

Masum Choudhury, transport strategy team leader for Slough Council, said: “We have been talking to the school and parents about their concerns regarding a lack of pedestrian crossing. When the school was opened, we introduced a zebra crossing on Montem Lane and its junction with Ledgers Road and put in place some informal crossing points along Montem Lane and a part time 20mph speed limit during school drop off and pick up times.

“We recruited a school crossing patrol officer who has now left. We are still actively trying to recruit a school crossing patrol officer however we find that these roles are very difficult to recruit to without assistance from the school and parents.”