As the new principal I have been extremely uncomfortable with the health and safety aspect of the afternoon carpark pick up system. All car pickup parents will be well aware of recent changes made to how they pick up their children. I have previously communicated that we have up to 190 children in car lines, which has taken time to tick off accurately. We trialed training the children to get into name order to speed roll call up, which it did. This only worked on fine days. On wet days, we do not have an area to do this. Most schools I know, do not tick off children going home in cars.
Assembling children at the gate was great for me as principal to talk and get to know parents. I trialed walking to car windows, to match cars to children and speed up the line. Unfortunately, it encourages a moving pick up line, and many children walking to cars, with cars backing, turning, passing etc. The moving pickup line resulted in cars backed up on the road and near crashes with logging trucks.
Therefore, the Board of Trustees have made the following changes, based on the most important factor; student safety. The changes still require contacting the office to inform us of any changes to transport lines. We will no longer be recording a car line, but children continue to assemble for car pick up. The big change is parents will be required to get out of cars and pick up the children from the Room 13/14 deck area by the basketball court in front of the office.
For all students recorded on other transport lines the system remains unchanged. If you require your child for an appointment, then please come early to the office to communicate
changes to the transport line boards, and take your child. Not doing this causes confusion and follow up checking, that effects everyone else. If you wait at the end of the basketball court/junior playground, and your child arrives at 2:50pm, then take them straight away for a quicker departure.
The positive is that you get to chat with other parents, the principal and children. Thank you for your patience while we worked through making improvements.
