Road Safety and our students

By Belinda Hirst | Posted: Wednesday March 9, 2022

We need our students to be safe while they travel to and from school. Unfortunately, every week our office receives a number of phone calls around the inappropriate or reckless behaviour of our students while they travel to and/or from school.

We would appreciate you having a conversation around behaviour and road safety. Here are some points for you to discuss:

  1. If your child is riding their bike to school, they need to be riding on the road. Currently, we have a number of students that are riding on the footpath, taking up the majority of this footpath and being disrespectful to members of the public and other students from OIS and other schools. This is not displaying our school IDEAL values at all. There is a designated cycle lane on the main road and also a bike track that runs alongside the railway line.
  2. If your child is riding a scooter, they need to be riding two wide, at the most. Again, they take up too much or all of the footpath preventing others from using it.
  3. Your child needs to come directly to the school when they leave home in the morning. Too many students are meeting up with, or waiting for, a number of other students, which ends up with big groups travelling together. This then ends up with students showing off to each other ie: pulling wheelies and weaving on their bike. As previously discussed, the entire group is on the footpath leaving no room for others to safely use the footpath.
  4. We have our OIS values and while students are wearing our uniform the public easily recognises us. While travelling to and from school, we expect all students to uphold these values. It is great when we hear of students that do this, but unfortunately, it is too often that we hear of the negative behaviour. 

Some of you will be aware of the behaviour that we are talking about as you see it as you travel around our community and while you are dropping off/collecting your children. Thank you for your support in keeping our students safe.