Nine-year-old children armed with cameras and clipboards took to the streets to tackle problem parking around their Littlemore school.

The nine John Henry Newman School pupils were joined by teachers, Police Community Support Officers and parish councillors in Grange Road on Tuesday morning.

They recorded examples of motorists leaving their cars on dropped kerbs, double yellow lines and in no parking zones.

Once they have compiled the results they will meet with the school’s Parent Teacher Association in a bid to set up a walking bus to escort pupils from St Nicholas Road to the school gates.

Nine-year-old Amaani Khan said: “We went out in Grange Road at 8.15am and did a tally chart of all the people who parked on double yellow lines and zigzag lines and hopefully the police will do something more.

“We knocked on the windows and they put down their windows and we said ‘can you move your car because you are parking on the pavement and it’s hard to get through?’ and then they said ‘OK’.

“The people whose windows we knocked on were very helpful.

“If everybody parked in the right spaces there would be more space for people to drive and reverse and it would make it safer for children to get to school.”

Helping the Year Four pupils were PCSO Lori Jones, their teacher Sheelagh Knights and Littlemore parish councillor Dorian Hancock.

PCSO Jones said: “We get a lot of complaints from people and the school about parking and road safety issues.

“This scheme is run by Oxford City Council and they bring it to the school as the police we like to get involved and the children respond really well.”

Teacher Sheelagh Knights said the scheme not only helped to educate parents about parking but also stimulated a debate in the classroom.

“A lot of English work has come out of this in terms of discussion and argument,” she said. “It has helped the children to think about how to put ideas across and we’ve had a debate out of it with both year four classes. The project has involved a lot of speaking and listening and using persuasive language.”

Mr Hancock welcomed the crackdown on inconsiderate parking.

He said: “I think it is brilliant. I was in total admiration of the teachers and the children in their quest to address the issues.”