School Closure Information and Protocol

School closures can happen for a number of reasons – adverse weather, burst pipes, heating failure- to name but a few. The decision to close the school is not one that is taken lightly. We will always do our best to be open and realise the disruption for parents and children that a school closure presents. However, the safety of our staff and pupils is always our primary consideration in making a decision that school should close.

School closure due to adverse weather 

The decision to close is taken based on consideration of conditions on the school site, whether children, parents and staff can get to school and home again safely and whether the forecast is predicting a further deterioration in the weather. We liaise closely with our School Transport provider and consider whether the school bus is able to run safely.

We aim to give as much notice as possible if the decision is taken to close the school as we understand the pressures of arranging childcare at short notice, however there may be times when this relies on a morning inspection of site conditions. We hope you will understand that this will reduce the amount of notice that we are able to give.

Notifying parents of a school closure

Notifications of closure will be posted on the School Website in the Latest News Announcements panel as soon as a decision is taken. This will be our primary means of notification. Please also check your emails for notifications.

Please let us know if your child is not able to make it to school due to weather conditions on days when the school is open. We will take into account when rural roads become dangerous to drive in adverse weather conditions, where this is agreed to be the case we will mark any children that cannot access school due to travel conditions as an ‘authorised absence’.

We will also keep our registers open until 10am on these mornings to allow parents time to travel carefully and safely when necessary.

School closure during school hours

On very rare occasions, we may need to close the school at short notice within school hours. Parents will be notified by email and text message in the first instance. A notification will also be posted on the School website in the ‘Latest News Announcements’ bar.

Closing the school during the school day will mean that a decision has been taken that the site is not safe or suitable for pupils or staff to occupy. In this situation, we must ask that children are collected from school as promptly as possible. If parents are unable to collect children themselves, this may mean contacting another school family or friend to collect your child until you are able to reach them.

Again, the decision to close the school during the school day will not be taken lightly, the safety of our pupils and staff are our primary consideration.

Thank you for your support and understanding.