Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome back to the second half of the autumn term. We hope you and your families were able to enjoy the half term break, even if this wasn’t quite the October holiday you had originally anticipated.

With the clocks going back, we’re fast approaching the time of year when it’s near darkness at school drop-off and not much better at pick-up. Please take care on the pavements and roads, ensure your children are visible, and remind them about road safety. If you are driving to and from school, please continue to be extra vigilant, as all road users will know how poor weather and darkness can make pedestrians and cyclists even harder to see. Please also be reminded that Montpelier and Bruntsfield Avenue are closed to all motor vehicles other than residents, so should not be used for dropping off and picking up children. It is also an offence to double-park or park on double yellow lines on the adjacent streets, which furthermore makes these streets more challenging for pedestrians to cross and for other road-users to use safely.

You can take a look at these online materials shared with us by the Council to support you in your discussions about road safety. These have also been sent to the school, and are broken into age appropriate sections: Road Safety Learning

If you already own hi-viz clothing, you may want to get your kids into the habit of wearing it when they are walking, scooting or cycling to and from school. We hope to soon receive hi-viz materials from the council to be distributed to all pupils – more on this to follow in due course. The Council also hopes to distribute more of the ‘Ziggy’ books to the younger age groups to help build their awareness of road safety.

You may have noticed that we currently have no School Crossing Patrol Officers. We hope to have an update on when Eddie, who helps our kids cross at Merchiston Place and Montpelier Park, will be back, and in the meantime encourage you all to look out for each other when crossing unattended junctions, and in particular watch out for children who may be walking independently to and from school.

Thank you all for the changes we have collectively made around drop-off and pick-up routines, which are helping to ensure that we can continue to get our kids into and out of school safely, whilst maintaining appropriate physical distancing and curbing the spread of Covid-19.

With warm wishes,

Ros
Vice Chair
Bruntsfield Parent Council