Let me remind all of you with children in Kindergarten to Year 2 that you must aim to pick up no earlier than 3:20pm to allow time for the classes to get to the Kiss and Drop zone, and to prevent a back log of cars spilling out onto Avoca Drive. We do want to be good neighbours and not add to the traffic issues unnecessarily. I have fielded a number of complaints from local residents upset at the added journey time for them when we have blocked the road.

It is also important that you do not park in the parking area set aside for staff and students (P3) even though on some days it looks inviting. Exiting that parking area to join the Kiss and Drop line is exacerbating the back log onto Avoca Drive. Again, coming later means the traffic can flow through more smoothly and we are off the main road.

Please respect the right of the Little Coasties parents to use Entrance 2 and do not use it as a short cut to join the new Kiss and Drop zone. We will be blocking off that road up the hill from now on. If you are collecting your child/ren from the bottom of the Administration hill, please park in the main carpark but not near the Little Coasties or Church office building unless you are also collecting a child from Little Coasties at the same time.

Another issue we are having is those who are exiting onto the Avoca Drive roundabout once the traffic starts to flow smoothly again, are having great difficulty getting across to turn right or go straight ahead to Saratoga. We are monitoring this and if we see that it is too difficult, we will get you to do a U-turn at the top of the Kiss and Drop zone and exit our the main entrance where you came in. We will look at what we can do to make that U-turn more manageable for larger vehicles too.

It is fair to say that the issues of traffic around our area have not all been down to GPCC. There seems to have been an increase in traffic flows on the coast, possibly because more people are working from home and are out and about more. The wet weather last week certainly added to slower trip times as it always does. The start of school always adds extra cars to pick up time and that settles down as the children get back into routine.

I do encourage you to put your children on the bus if at all possible, as that reduces traffic numbers considerably. We are looking at a couple of buses that are consistently late each morning and afternoon, and we are following this up with the bus company and Transport NSW.

Please be extra careful when driving on the school property. We had a close call between a bus and a car last week and we do not want an accident or anyone getting hurt as a result of impatience or carelessness.

ACSI Flourishing School Culture Initiative - Survey Results