Safe Travel
There are several options for getting your child to and from school: Drop off in a car, pick up, walking and buses. The area around our school is very busy at this time, and safety is of the utmost importance. Please follow the procedures in place for the safety of all our children and staff.
Student Drop Off
- Students enter from Main Street and Perry Street and leave their bags outside their classroom or designated area, then proceed to the Undercover Area and sit down until teacher supervision begins at 8:30 am.
Boom Gates and School Gates
- The Main Street boom gate is closed between 8:30 am - 9:15 am and between 3:00 pm - 3:40 pm. This is a necessary safety precaution that restricts vehicle movement at these very busy times of the day when children are arriving and leaving the school grounds. We cannot open the boom gate during these times, so please avoid being locked in.
- Perry Street gates only will be accessible from 8:20 am. The main gate at the office will be open from 8 am.
- The gates are locked at 9 am, and access will only be available at the front office.
- At 3 pm, the Perry Street gates will be open for pick up time.
Bikes, Scooters and Skateboards
- Students travelling or leaving by bike or scooter must walk around the carpark on the footpath to Main Street and must continue to walk their bike or scooter until past the school pedestrian area.
- A bike rack is situated outside the administration.
- Students are not allowed to travel to school using skateboards or rollerblades unless specific parent permission has been given.
- If students are travelling to school by bicycle, scooter, skateboard, or rollerblade, they must wear a helmet.
Parent Pick and Early Departure
- Students being collected during School Hours must be collected from the administration office. All students need to be signed out at the office by the parent/caregiver.
- Car pick up is located on Perry Street, behind Kindergarten. This is supervised by school staff (afternoon only) and is an easy and effective way of picking up and dropping off your child.
- Please note that you are not allowed to park or get out of your car in this area during the pick-up and drop-off times.
- Students will wait on the silver seats until they see your car, and then they will be instructed to walk down to you.
- Students must be able to get into the car by themselves and put on their own seatbelts.
- Please note that the car pick up line can be long but moves very quickly and efficiently when people work together. Please do not block the entrance to the Police Station while waiting.
- Parents wanting to walk in to collect their children must do so from the car pick-up area only.
Bus Travel
We have teachers on bus duty each afternoon. Children are supervised to their bus pick up area by a teacher, who ensures the children are placed onto their bus line. The carpark is not a walking area for students. All students must walk around the edge when moving to or from bus lines or church. For this reason, the car park cannot be entered from 8:30 am to 9:15 am and 3:00 pm to 3:40 pm as the boom gate is brought down for that period. More than 100 children are bus travellers. They wait under the covered area at the front of the church. Those children are placed in a dangerous situation unless the movement of cars is halted for the interim of their pick up time. The sealed bitumen area adjacent to the Administration Block and Church has been designated as staff/church carpark. This will ensure no vehicle puts the safety of our child pedestrians in jeopardy, either in the morning or in the afternoon.
Government legislation permits free bus travel for children in Kindergarten, Year 1 and Year 2. Children in higher Year levels receive free bus travel provided they live beyond a 1.6 km radius of the school. Parents may also apply for free travel in cases of medical, safety or hardship, or if children have to walk more than 2.3 km by the most direct route.
Follow the link here to apply for free bus travel is made online at or by calling 131 500.
Students progressing to Year 3 will have their entitlement to free travel automatically updated if they are continuing at the same school and residing at the same address and have not been sent an expiry notification from Transport for NSW if, for example, the distance they live from school is inside the 1.6km radius.
Students progressing to Year 7 will need to reapply at Transport for NSW.
Go to Transport NSW at any time, to update details such as change of address, school or name. The School Drive Subsidy may be available for families in outlying areas.
School Speed Zones
The 40km/h school speed zones operate across NSW at all school sites on gazetted school days. Motorists should drive no faster than 40 km/h through school zones. Most school zones operate from 8 am to 9.30 am and from 2.30 pm to 4 pm on designated school days. Visit Transport for NSW for more information.
St Joseph’s Road Safety School Management Plan