This week I reminded the community again about our drop off and pick up areas, to ensure children are arriving to school and going home safely each day.  In the morning, unfortunately there are still families parking their cars in the drop off zone, and thus causing congestion, as cars cannot flow through the area successfully.  If you wish to stop in the mornings, please park in allocated parks, or on Theodore st. Children are also to be dropped off around the back of the school-  many are now coming through the office area from the ring road, which is not an access point in the mornings. 

My main concerns are in the afternoon, with many children wandering around and making individual arrangements with parents about a variety of drop off areas.  This makes is extremely difficult to ensure children are safely going to their parents and cars.  Children are not to go into a car, unless accompanied by their parent, or in the drive through area with two teachers supervising.  Our three areas to pick up from in the afternoon are:

• Line up Assembly area out the back of the school where parents wait to escort children home
• Kitchen Garden area, where children meet parents to be escorted to cars safely
• drive through area, where two teachers are on supervision, and ensure children are placed in cars safely.

Some families continue to park at the top of Theodore st or in other areas, and wait for their children to meet them.  This is not a safe option, as we cannot ensure children are getting to car safely and going home with carers.  Others are walking through the front of the school, which is also an area not supervised. If you wish to park outside of the school car park, please leave your car and walk to the drive through area to pick up your child. 

In the  coming weeks, we will be engaging the services of a traffic consultant to come and look at our current pick up arrangements, particularly as I know there can be traffic congestion, which is frustrating for families. With the consultant we will look at other options, to help ease traffic congestion and to continue to ensure our students are safe.