MESSAGE TO ALL DRIVERS AT DROP OFF TIME

Can I please ask that parents, who organise their child/ren to be dropped off at school, to take on board the following message and/or share it with their driver;
We are having cars wanting to turn right when leaving the school turning bay upon drop off.  Turning right causes traffic to back up and is endangering our children who are having to walk through traffic to get to school.  All cars must turn left, down the hill, when leaving the school grounds as this means that the traffic can flow.
In summary – no right turn when leaving the school turning bay.
Secondly, we have a large number of cars that are double or triple parked above the school meaning that our children (and their families) are having to weave through cars to cross the road to school.  This is a real safety concern.
If it does not improve immediately we will have no other choice but to ask the Police to come and patrol the area at drop off time.  This is a safety issue and we will not compromise the safety of our children.

POTENTIAL DISRUPTIONS

We have been asked by ESFC to share the following information to our parents regarding potential disruptions on Monday.  We appreciate and understand that we do not have many children that travel on the MTR but have decided to share for your information.

We have received numerous reports today that there is a likelihood of disruption on the MTR network on Monday morning.  While we cannot confirm that this will definitely be the case, we would ask that those parents who have children who travel to school by MTR ensure that they are monitoring the situation in the morning – and are prepared, if necessary, to put in place alternative transport arrangements.

The MTR website and, particularly, the MTR App, are useful resources in monitoring disruption in real-time. Details on how to access these services can be found here: http://www.mtr.com.hk/en/customer/services/mtr_mobile.html

If this situation changes in any way – or if we are presented with any further information, we will contact you. The safety of our students and our staff is our first priority.

SOCIAL MEDIA AND PHONES

This is a message mainly aimed at our Year 5 and Year 6 parents:

We want to stress to our parent body that parents cannot give their child a phone, leave them unsupervised and then expect the school to deal with the fallout.  This is very frustrating for us as a school as our message is very clear around our Year 5 and 6 children not having the maturity or understanding to have their own social media account.

We understand and appreciate some parents are concerned for their child’s safety and want their child to be easily contactable after school and during the weekends. However, you must sit down with your child and negotiate acceptable and unacceptable use of the device. The next important step is to closely supervise the child or children to ensure they are following the agreement that you have established with them.

Our biggest issue is children using Whatsapp and/or Snapchat, and not having the maturity to control what they say on the platform.

TRUE TALE: Previously we had to deal with a Year 6 student who was on instagram and had over 500 followers.  She knew about 20 of her followers.  The rest were people she did not know.   She had unsupervised access to a device and did not appreciate or understand the consequences of her actions.  She also did not appreciate that her instagram account was copied and would still be available online to view even if she was to close it.

The only time I have had to suspend children, in the past 5 years, is for their inappropriate use of Social media. None of the usage/behaviour has taken place at school but because it has affected relationships, here at the school, I have had to get involved.

A timely reminder that children at not allowed cellphones at Peak School. Any child caught using their phone during school time, including to and from school on the school bus, will have it confiscated. Children, who do bring a phone to school owing to an after school club, must leave the phone in their bag during the school day.

We will be offering workshops for our parents around the appropriate use of phones and other devices and how parents can ensure they are effectively controlling and/or supervising usage.

RELATIONSHIPS/BEHAVIOUR

This is normally where schools announce they have a zero tolerance on bullying and proudly claim that bullying does not take place in their school.

I would challenge any school that makes this claim. Unfortunately, despite every effort, some children will say and do things towards others that is unkind and not appropriate. A lot of the time this is done without the knowledge of adults.

Our job is to manage those situations where bullying or inappropriate behaviour is reported and ensure the “wrong doer” is aware of the impact of their actions and that the victim has an opportunity to share, should they wish, how the actions of the other person made them feel.

Attached is our Restorative Practice procedures that we use when relationships have broken down between two or more children.

As per the procedure attached there are still consequences for those that are not following school rules but rather than simply punishments, we do try, were at all possible, to try and work through the issue so that children understand better the impact of their actions and how they could have handled it differently.  We have found this much more effective than simply punishing the child.

You can download the document by clicking the link below:

Relationships Version 2019

We are reviewing this policy in the coming months so any feedback from the community would be appreciated.