Adverse Weather

Dear Parents / Carers,

There may be occasions when it is necessary to close the school partially or fully. The information below provides details about the procedures followed on such occasions.

Aberdeenshire Council Education & Children’s Services would like to ensure that there is as little interruption as possible to the education of children but accepts that in severe weather conditions the safety of pupils and staff is paramount and that partial; or complete closure of schools may be necessary.

School Closure Information

Information relating to any partial or complete school closure will be available on the internet.

Details of how to access this information are given below.

Follow the link to school closures:

https://online.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/school-closures

Telephone: Please note this service has been discontinued.

Groupcall Messaging System: Where possible a message will be sent out to all parent/carers informing them of the closure of the school. The council website will however be updated first.

In addition, information about a closure is normally broadcast on the following radio stations:

BBC Radio Scotland: FM 92.5 – 94.7 or MW 990

Northsound 1: FM 96.9

Northsound 2: MW 1035

Responsibilities of Parents/Carers

As a parent/carer your child’s safety is of the utmost importance to you. You will be aware of the need for them to wear appropriate outdoor clothing throughout the winter even when the weather seems fine in the morning. You should also be aware of your responsibilities listed below.

• Please ensure you keep your contact details up to date by using parentsportal.scot

• You must decide whether it is safe for your child to travel to school in adverse weather conditions, whether by school transport or on foot.

• You must make every effort to provide an adverse weather emergency address when asked to do so by the school.

• If normal school transport is not running, you must not take your child to school unless you can arrange pick up for the end of the school day. Buses may not be available at the end of the day.

• If your child travels to school by school transport you are responsible for their safety to and from the pick-up/drop off point. You must ensure that your child does not wait for more than 15 minutes at their usual pick-up point. If the bus does not come within this period, the pupil should return home. Pupils must never wait at any pick-up point other than their normal one.

• School transport operators are instructed not to allow children to walk home alone from the drop off point under any circumstances during stormy weather conditions. If you are unable to meet or arrange for your child to be met from their transport in stormy weather the school transport provider will return them to the school.

• In adverse weather you may decide to make arrangements with the school to pick up your child directly from the school, but you must not remove your child without first informing the school office.

• If you are in any doubt about whether it is safe to send your children to school, then the advice that we would give you is don’t – you know what the local conditions are like and are therefore in the best position to make the decision. Please inform the school office asap.

When Will Schools Be Closed?

Head Teachers have the authority to decide if and when schools should close. Decisions are made on the basis of information received about prevailing or adverse weather conditions.

a) Closure during the school day

The Head Teacher will consider whether pupils, on leaving school, will be able to reach the safety of their own homes or another acceptable place of safety.

The Council and Head Teacher also have a duty to ensure the safety of staff, so it may be necessary to send staff home due to adverse weather. This may result in the closure of the school if insufficient staff remain to supervise pupils safely.

On some occasions only part of the school may be closed or only some pupils dismissed and sent home early.

An email message will be sent out to parents/carers as soon as a decision has been made to close the school. On receipt of this message please do not attempt to contact the school office. We will be systematically working to co-ordinate the safe evacuation of all pupils. Office staff will also be working to re-arrange school transport for our bus pupils and will contact parents/carers or emergency contact directly by telephone.

b) Closure before the start of the school day

On some occasions information received about weather and road conditions may result in it being decided that the school will not open for that day.

Our aim is always to try and make a decision about whether or not to close the school before 7.30 am – we make decisions based on advice from the Roads Department and local bus contractors. The large catchment area and the great variation in road conditions across the area can also make it difficult to reach an early decision. Information about closures are publicised via the school closure information services detailed above.

Parents/carers are advised to always check these sources of information on mornings when there is stormy weather or if bad weather is forecast. Pupils must never be sent to school if it is indicated that the school will be closed.

It will not always be possible to send an email message to parents/carers before the start of the school day and the most reliable source of information which will always be updated first is the Aberdeenshire Council website.

Serving Aberdeenshire from mountain to sea – the very best of Scotland

c) Delayed start to the school day

Depending upon the weather forecast and advice from the Roads Department the decision to open the school to pupils an hour later i.e. 10am might be taken.

This would mean that the school buses would run an hour later, and the school day would start at 10am. This would allow both pupils and staff to be able to travel to the school during daylight with the roads department having more time to ensure that the roads have been cleared and gritted.

Home learning during a school closure

In the event of a closure, pupils at home should access their GLOW Classroom. Staff will post suitable work in the classroom. This is to be completed before the pupils return to school.

Other Emergency Closures

There may be occasions when it is necessary to close the school for other reasons e.g. power cuts, burst pipes or heating failures. The arrangements outlined above will also apply to any of these closures.