Assistant Principal - Curriculum 

Retrieving Student Items off School Rooftops

During the last week, I attended a briefing to explain the rationale and changes to the recently updated Department of Education's Prevention of Falls when Working at Heights Policy.  This policy has been recently reviewed due to increase of serious injuries (and unfortunately fatalities) to school staff caused by falling from heights greater than 2 metres. In summary, advice from the Department of Education is to greatly reduce instances of school staff accessing roofs and this is being enforced through much more stringent training and documentation requirements. 

Please be aware that due to the changes to this policy, we may be unable to retrieve student items if they are lost on our roofs. I understand that this may cause some frustration (no one wants to come home without a favourite ball, a shoe or a lunchbox) but it is crucial that we ensure the safety of our staff and adhere to our policy requirements.

All efforts will be made to retrieve student items but it may take longer due to the documentation required or waiting for a suitably qualified contractor to attend onsite. 

Students will be reminded in the coming week to play in a sensible manner to keep their belongings safe on the ground and off the roof. It would be appreciated if you could also reinforce this message at home.