Think Safety at Saturday Morning Classes

Welcome back to a new term of music classes at CCE Fred Finn.Again, this year, we are very grateful to the Gaelscoil & St Mary’s GAA Club to have the use of their wonderful facilities for our music classes.We continually monitor child safety measures for all children attending our classes. In conjunction with St Mary’s GAA Club we endeavour to implement best practices in traffic management in the interests of safety for the 300 plus children who use the facilities on Saturday mornings .We plan to implement some parking changes/restrictions to reduce hazards and add to the safety of all children from this Saturday morning onwards.We believe that the greatest risk to children’s safety is from vehicles reversing out of a car park space when small children are passing at the rear of the carSo after very careful consideration of how best to avoid such an occurrence we are implementing the following steps:1. Drivers must REVERSE into all car park spaces.2. Children and parents should use the footpath on right hand side to access the entrance to the Gaelscoil and the prefabs at the back when coming to music class or leaving.(See photo on right)Alternatively, parents may park at the back of the goals in St Mary’s GAA grounds and access the Gaelscoil via the path on the Gaelscoil side of the GAA grounds and walk through the alleyway.Historically the gap on the right side of the low wall in front of the Gaelscoil has been used as set down area for parents dropping off/ picking up children; going forward this will be blocked off with traffic cones and tape.3. All children up to age 10 must be collected from their music class by a parent / guardian.We are very mindful of the fact that Saturday mornings are very busy for families and that parents may have additional drop-offs to make to other classes/games but I’m sure parents will appreciate safety of children is a top priority.We trust that you will co-operate fully with the stewards and of course if you do have a better suggestion in terms of safety we always welcome feedback from parents.Yours SincerelyTrish Kennedy (Child Protection Officer, CCE Fred Finn)