ROAD SAFETY MESSAGE

 

Kia ora e te whaanau

 

It has been wonderful to see so many of our students showing independence by walking, biking and scootering to and from school each day. Learning to manage the journey to and from kura is an important life skill, and it has been great to see our bike and scooter racks full on most days of the week.

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Over the past few weeks, it has come to our attention that some students are not consistently following road rules once they move further away from the streets immediately surrounding the school. The safety of our young people is always our priority, and we want to ensure they are making safe choices as they travel on our local roads.

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The roads around our school are particularly busy before and after school, with large numbers of students from our kura and the local high school all moving through the same area. This means it is especially important that everyone takes care and follows the road rules so we keep our young people safe.

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Last year, our school worked with Auckland Transport on a road safety campaign, Kia Mataara — be alert. This message continues to be important for all of us as we move around our community.

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To support this, our Community Constable will be visiting the school to speak with each year group during assemblies about road safety. We will also place a focus across the school over the coming weeks to reinforce safe practices for students who walk, bike or scooter to school.

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You can support this by having a quick conversation with your child about the importance of road safety. Helpful reminders include:

• crossing the road at pedestrian crossings or traffic lights where they are available

• stopping, looking left and right before crossing

• not using phones or looking down at devices when walking near or crossing the road

• checking carefully at driveways before stepping out, as cars may be entering or leaving

• wearing helmets when biking or scootering

• riding or scootering safely around pedestrians and slowing down near busy areas.

 

We also ask our whaanau who are dropping off or collecting students to help us keep everyone safe by:

• not parking on yellow lines

• avoiding U-turns near the road patrol crossings

• following the directions of our road patrollers and staff on duty

• driving slowly around the school gates, especially during busy drop-off and pick-up times

• not encouraging students to run across busy roads to reach your car.

 

Looking after our young people is something we do together. By reinforcing these simple habits at home and at school, we can help ensure our students travel safely to and from kura each day.

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Our road safety messages can be found HERE

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Ngā mihi

Rebekah Pearson

Tumuaki/Principal