Road Safety - Modelling how we want our community to practise road safety

40 km/h zones are in place on all roads around schools. Murphy St and Hodgson Cres are especially busy with traffic and pedestrians between 8.30-9.00am and 3.00-3.30pm. If our community respects these speed limits, then hopefully we can slow down all the traffic on these roads. 

Current congestion and danger spots:

• We are seeing children cross the line of traffic on their own in the school car park in the mornings and have had some near misses with moving cars. Please drop your child to the 3 drive-through zones and ask them to walk up the path beside the hall. Or park down the hill and accompany them to the path. 
• Always turn left when leaving from drive-through onto Hodgson Cres to ease congestion on the street and into our car park. 
• Park facing uphill on Murphy St, thus keeping cars on one side of the road. Otherwise park in adjacent streets and walk to the Murphy St gates.
• We have two school crossings on Hodgson St. In the interest of safety and being great role models for young people, we ask parents and students to make use of these, rather than walk across the road at other places along Hodgson St. 

Murphy St park-and-pickup and our school drive-through are very busy at 3.15pm. Teachers are on duty in these areas until 3.30pm. To alleviate congestion and make it safer for everyone please consider arriving a few minutes later at 3.15pm. Just let your child know if you plan to do this!

Thanks for your cooperation and respect for the safety of all.

Road Safety Considerations.

1. Murphy St Pick Up -  Please respect our neighbours by avoiding parking in their driveways, and walking through and littering their gardens. Also it is illegal to park within 10m of an intersection, so please be careful along McNeil Pl.

Image from ROAD TRANSPORT (ROAD RULES) REGULATION 2017 - REG 170

1. Drive Through - There is No Right Turn from the school driveway onto Hodgson Cres. We ask parents and carers to respect this directive for the safety of all and the quick flow of traffic. 

Wet Weather Arrangements

 Morning

• If it is quite wet or actually raining in the morning, please drop your child to the hall from 8.30am.
• Children will put their bags in their class line, then join in quiet games or conversations with their friends. 
• We will have the morning assembly in the hall.

If your child is anxious with this change, please bring them up to the teacher on duty. We make alternative arrangements if the noisy hall overwhelms a child.

Afternoon

Please discuss your family plans with your child, so that they are aware of wet weather arrangements. We ask families to take extra care in the rain. Don’t rush, we will keep your child dry and safe with us until you arrive!

• If the ground is wet, normal arrangements apply. 
• If it is actually raining the following safety arrangements will be in place. 

Drive-through - students line up in the hall with the duty teacher. We will assist your child to the car as you pull into pick-up points 1-3.

Murphy St - students will meet the teacher in the shelter of the kinder courtyard. An extra teacher wearing an orange vest, will be outside the courtyard gate further up the hill than the normal black gates. Parents can pull up to the kerb and we will help your child to come to your car.

Walkers/bus/bikes will operate as normal, with the teacher carrying an umbrella.

Parking - parents are invited to park and come to the kinder courtyard or awnings around the front of the school as normal. Please do not park and leave your car alongside the kindergarten kerb on Murphy St, as this is the wet-weather pickup area.

Uniform

Students are looking fabulous in their winter uniforms. We thank families for being mindful of our uniform policy. Our clothing pool has many pre-loved items at heavily discounted prices, so please see us if you need extra pieces.

A reminder that boys and girls wear navy trousers with our daily uniform.These are formal style trousers, not made of stretch material. The other option is our tunic with tights. We have a navy school beanie as part of our uniform, and encourage hair ties, gloves and scarves to be in school colours. On cold days any coat/puffer of choice can be worn.

Navy tracksuit pants and sneakers are worn with the red school jumper on class sport’s days.

Our uniform policy can be found on our school website. https://shpspearce.schoolzineplus.com/_file/media/4672/uniform_2022.pdf

Safeguarding Processes and Working with Vulnerable Children 

As a school we are a regulated entity. All staff, relief staff, pre-service teachers and contractors engaged in the building during school hours must have a valid WWVP registration.

Parents, carers and volunteers assisting with school activities also have a duty to care for our vulnerable children and are bound by a number of CECG and ACT requirements.

In a nutshell, examples of compliance are:

1. A parent helping regularly during the year (more than 7 days) would need a WWVP registration. Please bring your card to our office so we can add your details to our WWVP register. You then carry your card with you when helping in the classrooms, canteen and events. We will ask you to sign our yearly ‘Classroom Assistance Agreement’ and to sign in when you enter the building or attend the event.
2. If you occasionally help out at carnivals or in classrooms (less than 7 days) you do not need a WWVP registration. You do need to sign our ‘Volunteer Declaration Form’ for each activity.  We ask you to be aware of our ‘Volunteers Code of Conduct. Please also sign in when you enter the building or attend the event.
3. If you want to attend mass with your child’s class, come to the Mother’s Day breakfast, watch at a carnival or visit classrooms for learning journeys (often with other parents or relatives) you do not need a WWVP or a Volunteer form. Please sign the visitor or RSVP sheet if there is one provided. 

Please refer to our Safeguarding and WWVP policy for full details. This policy is on our website https://sacredhps.act.edu.au/policies-forms. 

Tournament of the Minds (TOMs)

Students in Years 3-6 are invited to consider nominating for TOMs. TOMs is an external team competition for highly able and motivated students to enrich and extend their learning and collaboration skills. Many interested students have already been attending Think Club at lunch time this term. Formal nomination forms will be available after the 17th June. Please visit the Tournament of Minds website for an overview of the competition and speak to Mrs Wode or Mrs Filardo if you want further information about the competition. 

Heartsong School Choir

Our choir is free to join, but needs a note signed by parents. The note is available from the music room or by speaking to Mrs Riley. The choir rehearses at 8.30am every Wednesday and performs at various school and community events during the year.

Yours in the virtue of Respect,