School Access Road and Car Park Congestion

As you would all know, at school drop-off and pick-up times, the school access road from Fitzroy Street and the Parks Victoria car park become heavily congested. Whilst this isn’t a new problem, it appears to have been especially bad so far this year.

There are plans in the works to address the situation by widening the road, re-designing the turn-outs and increasing traffic flow but the fact remains that the road and car park are not designed for large numbers of vehicles all trying to gain access at once and there are not enough parking spaces for all parents.

On top of this congestion, we see examples every day of community members mounting and parking on footpaths, leaving cars unattended, driving onto parkland, driving into the school grounds and generally making this tricky situation even more unsafe.

The safety issue that this congestion causes is obvious and critical. On top of that, the inevitable frustration and sometimes confrontation can often be extremely unpleasant and sets a poor example for our students.

Without changes in behaviour from our parents and carers, this situation will continue to pose a real safety threat to our students.

To help us keep your children safe, we are asking parents to do the following;

Instead of using the car park and adding to the congestion, consider parking in the Woolworths basement car park or on Lakeside Drive, Hockey Drive or Village Green Drive—all less than 5 minutes walk away. SKiPPS parents can park in the locations in Albert Park for free at drop-off and pick up times by displaying a SKiPPS sticker available from the school office.

If you do need to use the access road and car park please show patience if the traffic is congested. The teachers will stay with your child if you are running late as a result of waiting for an actual parking space to become available.

Never parking on the footpath or our access road—this impedes traffic flow and also forces children to walk on the road and squeeze between cars.

Never leaving your car unattended (unless you are in a clearly marked parking bay). This blocks other cars from accessing and leaving the car park and causes significant frustration and safety issues. In a worst case scenario, it would prevent emergency services vehicles getting to the school via our only point of access.

Basketball uniforms and Out of School Hours Sports Policy

Basketball is something which plays a key role in our school - from the before and after school training sessions to the Monday assembly sports results to the Friday evening games at MSAC.

For many years the Playball teams organised by parents but representing SKiPPS have provided sporting opportunities and social connections for our students.

The black basketball uniforms, rented by families from the school are an important part of this and it is great to see how proud our students are of receiving these and wearing them throughout their time at SKiPPS.

Many years ago, when families hired the basketball uniforms, it was understood that these were only to be worn during the Playball games. They were not to be worn at other times, especially to school during the school day.

There were a number of reasons for this but the main three were;

As the uniforms are rented and belong to the school we wanted to reduce wear and tear by limiting them to basketball games.
The basketball singlets do not conform to the school's sun smart policy which states that all shoulders should be fully covered.
For some students not part of a basketball team, the uniforms can appear exclusive.

Over the years, this rule has slowly been forgotten and we are now regularly seeing many students coming to school all day in their full basketball uniforms.

Whilst we do not want to take away the pride and excitement felt by these students in getting their uniforms, we are again now asking that students no longer wear them to school. If teams have an after school game, they are welcome to bring them in their school bags to change into straight after the 3:30pm bell.

MoneySmart Grant

We are very excited to announce that the school was recently successful in receiving a $4000 Moneysmart Grant - a scheme run by ASIC and APPA (the Australian Primary Principal's Association).

The grant was awarded for us to develop our Financial Literacy education at SKiPPS - to provide time and funding for our teachers to engage with resaerach and resources in this important area and then design learning sequences to support students to develop their understanding and skills in using money and creating finacial plans.

The grant would not have been possible without the hard work of Sally Murphy (mum of Neave in 3/4L) and Mel Borella, one of our Leading Teachers. We look forward to keeping you updated with how this grant supports your child's learning.

SKiPPS Newsletter

Issue 2 · 23 Feb 2021

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