Aim of the plan

This plan covers the contingencies made for enforced school closures or restricted opening due to bad weather etc.

This plan aims to prevent:

• The stranding of pupils and staff

• Unnecessary risks travelling to and from school through good communication

• Excessive impact on children’s education by alternative means of support

• Accidents in the school through good risk assessment

   

  It is our intention that the school will be open on all normal school days. However, in the event of poor weather, we cannot guarantee that staff will be able to reach school safely and a decision to close or restrict school opening may have to be made.

   

  If there is an enforced school closure, we cannot accept children onto the school premises. However, those already delivered to school prior to a decision being made will be looked after until they can be collected.

   

  Decision

   

  If the weather conditions are severe enough to force closure or restricted opening, this decision will be communicated by the following means:

   

• Via the school website - look at the yellow scrolling banner on the home page

• Via an email from ‘News’ account

• Via Text 2 Parents service

• Local radio where possible

• School News Facebook page

• DCC School closure information

The decision to close the school will be taken by the Head and Chair of Governors and will be taken by 8.30am at the latest.

Restricted opening – where school is open but some staff may be unable to attend or where weather conditions may prevent some pupils from attending:

Parents are asked to exercise extreme caution when dropping off or collecting children by car. We recommend parking in the Farm Shop Car Park (for which we have obtained permission) and not coming into the village. We will relax our normal high expectations of punctuality and no child will receive a late mark. At the end of the day, the children should be collected as usual but there will be no after-school clubs or staff meetings. Parents who wish to collect their children early due to the road conditions may do so.

Alternative arrangements in the event of a closure:

If you wish to give consent for your child to be able to go home with another family when a sudden closure is required please let the office know the names of alternative adults. 

If you work a considerable distance from school, or are out of the area for any reason, this facility should ensure that you are not required to make an unsafe journey to come and collect your child.

Finally, if you feel it is unsafe to travel to school in bad weather please do not take any unnecessary risks. Both yours and your child's safety is of paramount importance.