WORRIED parents say their young children are being made to walk into school via a fire exit and queue on a blind corner. 

As part of its new social distancing measures, Leigh Beck Infant and Nursery Academy, on Canvey, wants Reception children to enter and exit the school through a fire exit on Leigh Beck Lane.

But mum, Charlotte Stewart, says the children have to queue on a blind bend with no safety barriers.

The 32-year-old said: “The school have said they have done this for the Reception children as it’s nearer to their classrooms but that’s not the point - they’ve had months to sort this out.

“If you drive round there every day you know its unsafe as it is, there is a blind bend and they want the kids to queue up on a blind bend with no safety barriers and no pavement.

“There’s also gas works round there going on as well with all barriers.

“The only way for a car to come round is to go up on the grass verge - it’s so dangerous.

“It’s scary.

“Some parents park all up the grass verge and on the corners - it’s just an accident waiting to happen.

“The school seem to think because it worked in June when there was only a handful of kids in school and hardly any traffic, that it will work.”

Abbie Bentham, another concerned parent, added: “I have said that road isn’t safe, and they said they are going to have cones out there.

“But how is that going to stop cars from hitting people?

“I would bring him around the back if there was appropriate safety measures in place and at the minute there isn’t so I will not being taking my child round there.”

Emma Lane, executive headteacher at Leigh Beck Infant and Nursery Academy, said: “We have been using the rear entrance to Leigh Beck since the children returned to school in June.

“This was to avoid cross-contamination with areas used by other year group bubbles of children and to enable our Reception children to be taken by their parent/carer directly to their classroom door and handed over to their teachers.”