Safe Behaviour Required At Drop-off & Pick-Up

Friday 3 June 2022

Dear Parents & Caregivers

This flier is all about how to keep our children safe. From whom, you might ask? The answer is:

                                                         Parents and Caregivers Who…

• Choose to cross the road, with their children, on Padnell Crescent up by the childcare centre, instead of using the patrolled crossing outside our school.
• Park their cars on the footpath, endangering pedestrians OR illegally on yellow lines OR too close to the pedestrian crossing OR across the staff carpark entrance OR drive into the staff carpark where their own children then walk in an area where cars are moving. This morning all of these bad driving behaviours were repeated!
• Have arguments, shout and swear at each other, in front of our students, due to a parking disagreement.
• Use the RTLB carpark and then drive out, sometimes in reverse, over the footpath and in front of the childcare centre pedestrian entrance while children are walking in both of these areas!
• Choose to walk away, ignoring requests from the adult on road patrol, to park their car away from the pedestrian crossing because they are blocking the view of oncoming traffic. 

Yesterday we had a ‘weather bomb’ occur at 3 pm. With a higher roll, we now also have more cars collecting students on rainy days. This combination seemed to bring out the worst in our parent drivers, when all they needed to do was be patient and remain calm.

We do not want to be the one delivering the news that a child has been run over – injured or killed – due to the driving behaviour of those collecting their children from school.

So what can you do?

• Cross at the patrolled crossing with your child, NOT further up or down the street – be a good role model.
• If asked by a staff member or road patroller to move your car, please do so immediately.
• Be patient and be kind towards one another – pretend it’s a city and drive around the block if you need to before trying again.
• Arrange to collect your child a little later, e.g. 3.05 – 3.10pm.
• Drive up Padnell Crescent, rather than down Padnell Crescent – this stops idiotic turning and reversing onto the road which jams all the traffic.
• Do not enter or block the staff carpark at any time.

What will the school do?

• Stagger the pick-up time at the end of the day – on days when the weather is looking worse than usual, such as dense fog or torrential rain, students from Wai who are being collected by car (along their siblings), may be collected from 2.40pm. This should allow street parking to be cleared before 3pm for the rest of the school.
• Place cones across the RTLB carpark to stop drivers turning into this area.
• Take photos of the vehicle and registration number of offensive drivers and publish these in our school newsletter.
• If we continue to be concerned about driver behaviour, we will ask our Community Constable to monitor the situation and issue tickets to drivers.
• Re-investigate the WCC marking a designated drop-off lane outside our school.

We make no apology if the message in this flier sounds abrupt – we are absolutely committed to keeping all pedestrians, especially children, safe.

As an adult and/or the driver of a vehicle, we ask that you stop and take responsibility for your actions – being late is better than being dead.

Jan Otene (Principal)        Naomi Godfrey (Board Presiding Member)

3-Way Interview Bookings are now open – book online here using booking code 6c2ps

A reminder that interviews for Whenua Class were held in Week 3.  Parents of those students are welcome to make contact with Portia France, their child’s new teacher to make a time to meet, if required.

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