PRINCIPAL'S REPORT

From the Principal

Dear Parents and Guardians,

I intend to leave most of the writing of my article to an excerpt from correspondence I received from a driver from local bus line who wrote to me about a near miss incident which happened on Monday this week. Please take the time to read it, and then to discuss safe road use with your child/children. I receive notifications of near misses with vehicles involving our students about once a month. Please, please, please help us to try to get our young people to think about how they are using the roads (either on foot or bike) so that they can do so safely.

At approximately 3:55pm today (Monday 3rd February 2020) a student in a Brighton Secondary uniform and on a bike was attempting to cross South Road near the corner of Arnold Road in Brighton. The right lane of traffic in South Road had come to a halt due to a bank up of vehicles attempting to turn right into Bluff Road. This is normal for this time of an afternoon on a school day due to the heavy school traffic coming from St Leonard’s College and Haileybury College down the road. However, the left lane (traffic travelling straight ahead towards Moorabbin) was still flowing at close to normal speed, that being approximately 60kmh. Without warning, the student, who I estimate was probably a year 7 or 8 student, proceeded to cross the road from near the corner of Arnold Road and was almost knocked down by a car travelling east along South Road. In fact, I’m certain the car very lightly tapped the rear wheel of the kid’s bike, but due to the quick reaction of the car driver, there was thankfully no injury. However, needless to say, the young kid came within a cat’s whisker of being seriously injured or potentially killed.

The vehicle involved pulled over into Arnold Road, and myself, being in close proximity and having witnessed the near miss, also pulled over to check on the welfare of the parties involved. Unfortunately, the student continued on his way before we could get to him, but given he rode off on his bike, he appears to be ok other than having received a nasty fright. The female driver of the vehicle was visibly shaken when I approached her, in tears, but was quickly relieved when I informed her that the student was fine. She was reluctant to leave any details and I think she was just extremely frightened about what could have been. It must be said, she wasn’t at fault, she was driving in a manner suitable for the conditions at the time. The student simply commenced crossing the road at the wrong time.

Yours sincerely,

Richard Minack

Yard supervision

Dear Parents and Guardians,

I am writing to inform you that the school grounds are supervised between 8.25am and 3.30pm. Please make arrangements that ensures your child does not arrive at school before 8.25am, and can leave promptly at the end of the day. After-school activities such as study hall, detentions, sport training etc are separately supervised, but as soon as they finish, students should leave the school grounds immediately.

Thank you for your co-operation with this matter.