Road safety around school

Recently we had a visit from the Police in response to several complaints from parents and our neighbours about road safety around our school. The Police are not happy with the way some children are travelling to school, and with the way some drivers are behaving around our school (including dangerous parking). They have advised that they are paying close attention, and will be actively enforcing road safety rules and will be issuing fines. Please remember:

• Don’t let your child walk, scoot, skate or bike to school alone unless you are sure that they are going to be able to do so safely. You should walk, scoot, skate or bike with them and teach them how to be safe.

• The pedestrian crossing outside school is the only place pedestrians have right of way.

• According to the New Zealand Road Code, cyclists are only allowed on footpaths if they're delivering newspapers, mail or leaflets. Travelling to school, bikes should not be on the footpath, they should be on the road and a helmet needs to be worn – it’s the law. Road rules apply!

We would prefer to see far fewer cars at school on a normal school day. However, if you have no choice but to bring your car:

• Please don’t stop your car at the round-a-bout to allow people to cross – this is dangerous for cars travelling behind you and can give children a false confidence that all cars will stop and allow them to cross. There have been numerous reports of children biking, scooting and walking out in front of cars without checking – please don’t teach our children that this is OK!

• Please only park in designated parking spots – and never in the staff or services parking areas at school, or across a neighbours driveway – even if it’s “just for a minute”.

• Parking on the outside of tree squares isn’t OK as your car protrudes into the stream of traffic and blocks the visibility of those legally parked

• If you are not sure what the Road Code says about safe parking, check here: https://www.nzta.govt.nz/resources/roadcode/about-driving/where-not-to-park/

THIS IS REALLY SERIOUS - PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE BE SAFE!