Amesbury Digest - 1st November 2021

Tēnā koutou e hoa ma,

We are in November already - how did that happen so quickly?

Last week we had two separate incidents in our school car park, both of which could have been situations with very serious consequences. Both incidents involved tamariki dashing onto the car park from the pathway that runs up alongside the driveway out of school. One child was running out after a ball, and the other child was looking to cross the car park to their whānau waiting in a car in a parking bay. In both situations the children did not have a clear line of sight over the parked cars nearby, and the outcomes could have been much worse than they were.

There are several key learnings from these incidents:

- It is extremely important that all adults consistently model safe car park habits around our tamariki. Please use the central walk way through the middle of the car park to cross over to parked cars. We have a concerning number of parents who do not do this, and it is putting our tamariki in danger. We appreciate that you can make measured judgements that allow you to cross the car park safely. However, our tamariki cannot yet consistently do this for themselves, so we must model practices that help to keep them safe.

- It is vital that all cars travel very slowly in the car park. Expect tamariki to do unexpected things, and travel at a speed that allows for quick, safe and effective stopping. The speed limit in the car park is 5 km per hour at all times. Please note that this speed limit is not just during drop off and pick up time. Children use this car park at all times, and they feel safe there, meaning they are not always as vigilant and careful as they should be.

As a final note around car park safety, I encourage everyone to help out with keeping our tamariki safe. If you see cars travelling in an unsafe manner, please signal this to them and ask them to slow down, if you feel okay to do so. If you see a child crossing in an unsafe manner, please gently encourage them to use a safer space to cross, if you feel okay doing so. By working together on this, we can help to keep all ākonga safe. Thank you for your help with this.

Car park closure notice

We have two days coming up in November when we will need to temporarily close the car park for the whole day (including drop off and pick up time) due to construction work. These days will most likely be one day near the start of November, and a second day near the end of the month. We are at an exciting phase in our construction, and the crew are about to start laying the foundation slab for the new building. This will require a huge amount of concrete, meaning a large number of concrete trucks. They will need to lay the slab in two sections, with approximately 15 - 20 trucks of concrete per half slab.

To ensure the safety of all tamariki, we will close the car park for the two concrete pouring days. This means any tamariki coming to school in vehicles will need to be dropped off on Amesbury Drive (or nearby) or Romaine Road. They can then walk safely either across the walkway through the car park, or down the pathway next to the driveway. We will have several teachers and leaders stationed out on Amesbury Drive and on the walkway through the car park throughout drop off and pick up, to help our tamariki stay safe. Construction workers will walk every truck into and out of the car park.

We will confirm the dates of the two car park closures in due course, and send out a Hero reminder one day prior. Please help us with this by ensuring that anyone who picks up or drops of your tamariki is aware of these dates coming up. One way to avoid heavy congestion on Amesbury Drive for these days would be to avoid coming to school in vehicles on those days.

On a final cheerful note, we would like to say a huge thank you to Kavita and Kiwi Community Assist for the two large boxes of delicious red apples that were donated to school on Wednesday last week. We chopped up the apples and delivered trays of them to all teams for the afternoon roll time. The tasty snacks were much appreciated and disappeared in no time at all; it was a lovely way to start the afternoon.

Given our appreciation, Kiwi Community Assist has now offered to donate two large boxes of apples every Wednesday until the end of this term, which is wonderfully generous and very gratefully received. We are now on the lookout for any kind volunteers who are willing and able to give an hour of their time at lunchtime on Wednesdays (approx 12:45 - 1:45pm) to come and chop apples. If you are keen to do this, please contact Urs Cunningham (urs@amesbury.school.nz).

Kia pai tō wiki - have a lovely week.

Ngā mihi, 

Urs Cunningham