Dear Parents and Carers,

As you will be aware, we announced in our last JRSO blog post that we will be starting a Road Safety Campaign. We would like to highlight that we feel that road safety in our school could be improved upon if more families use the drop-off service. We would now like to take this opportunity to share our ideas and plans with you.

At most schools, there is always problems with parking, especially in the morning when children are coming to school and at the end of the day when school is finishing. School related traffic congestion poses a risk to the safety of the pupils, staff, families, motorists and residents in and around our school. As your Road Safety Officers, we would like to highlight some of the dangers that we have witnessed.

• Some cars are parking just outside the school grounds on Pokelly Place making it difficult for our buses and taxis to safely enter our premises. This is also a hazard for other users trying to access our designated drop off area.
• Children are often spotted walking through the car park with an adult and we would strongly advise for you to use the paths around the perimeter of the school to safely enter the playground. This may add a few extra minutes to your commute, but walking through a car park must be discouraged at all times.

We have also witnessed parking at our bin cage and parking in the staff car park making it hard for our teachers, support staff and visitors to access.

Most concerning is when our emergency exit is blocked.

Over the next few weeks, you will be able to easily spot us around the playground in the morning as we will be wearing Hi-Viz tabards and have signs encouraging you to think before you park. Look out for Phizz and Blair too who will be displayed outside and will be supporting you to park safely. We are again very grateful to Physioflexx and Blair Garage for sponsoring our signs.

We are very lucky at Nether Robertland as we have Miss McMillan who is one of our Pupil Support Assistants, offering a valuable service at our drop off area. She is there to welcome you and help to get us safely into our playground from vehicles entering our school area.

We would like to encourage as many families as possible to use this service. Rain, hail, sleet and snow, Miss McMillan is always there with a smile!