Principal's Page

Kia Ora Friends                    

I have been off sick for the past week. As a general rule, I don't get sick. Sadly, my general rule got broken.

I had my Flu Jab, but there are a lot of new varieties this year, so I must have picked up one of those. 

I know all the tropes about "man-flu", but honestly, this was really bad.

Anyway, I'm back, and I am sorry I haven't been around to welcome children in the morning, give out Birthday cards or help in the Drop Off Zone after school.

That brings me to my first point, the Drop-Off Zone (D-O-Z).

PLEASE CAN YOU HELP US:

1.  If you need to stop briefly to pick up in the D-O-Z, please
   1. Pull as far to the left as possible so other cars can squeeze past you
   2. Stay in your car - do not get out and leave your car double parked while you hunt down your children.
   3. f your child is not in sight, please go out, around the roundabout, and back in again.
2. Do Not Turn Right out of the D-O-Z at Peak Times
   1. Before school from 8:30 am to 9 am
   2. After school from 2:30 pm to 3:10 pm

Second point - parking elsewhere.

A neighbour has written as follows:

I live in a group of houses between 113 and 119 Sturges Road, whose private driveway entry is just around the road patrol location used by your students. We have been increasingly seeing parents park their cars in our driveway during the period mentioned above. Further, often, these cars are also parked in such a way that is obstructive to resident cars turning in from Sturges Road. 

Needless to say, the daily volume of such non-resident cars driving through has an impact on the wear and tear of our driveway, as well as residents freely moving around in this space.

Please respect residents' private properties and driveways when they arrive to pick up or drop their kids off.

If this trend continues, we may need to resort to having cars towed away.

Third point - turning right or left into our D-O-Z

1. If you are turning left into our D-O-Z keep as far left as possible.
   1. Look out for that left queue - pulling around it and cutting in is not cool.
2. If you are turning right into our D-O-Z keep as close to the centre line as possible.
   1. Be patient - turning right when there is no space in the D-O-Z blocks traffic and causes a lot of stress.
3. If you are not turning right - and there is room - pass the right-turning queue on the inside and then proceed ahead as usual.

Final Point

1. Crystal does Road Patrol duty before and after school. It's a tough job, and she is trying hard to
   1. keep our children safe
   2. and keep our traffic flowing.
2. Sometimes, she gets grumpy because people do thoughtless and/or dangerous things (including almost running her over a few times). I think it's fair enough to be a bit grumpy if we are at risk of being run over when we are just trying to help - so please be nice and make good choices.

Thank you for reading and reflecting - hopefully, we can achieve Crystal's goals of keeping children safe and traffic flowing.

I talk a lot about the importance of Hope. The New Zealand Herald featured the word Hope with an image that represented our great Warriors Hope.

And Hope was realised, with a brilliant 40 to 10 win.

Suncorp Stadium and the Broncos next. Here's hoping....

As always - if you have questions or concerns about anything school-related - email me at macash@mac.com, and I will get back to you asap.

My very best regards to you all,

Ash Maindonald

Principal.