In The Event of Extremely Cold Weather / Snow and Ice we hope you agree with us that the first priority has to be the health and safety of everyone involved with school. This includes children, staff, parents and all those who would have to travel in potentially hazardous conditions. Wherever possible we will keep school open, but there may be occasions where we have to make a judgement call about the situation.

We try to avoid relying on weather forecasts – as these can be extremely variable in their accuracy, but on the flip side of this people are always very keen for us to make an ‘early call’ so that they can make any arrangements necessary. If we have situations where it is not possible for enough staff to get into school (many travel from significant distances) we can have problems with supervision and safety. If key staff, such as Mr Mears (caretaker) or Mrs McGlynn (catering manager) are unable to get in then these difficulties multiply.

Obviously issues such as loss of water supply, breakdown of boilers or severe burst pipes can also affect the viability of us opening. Ultimately as headteacher I have to make the decision and then inform both Iain Schofield (Chair of Governors) and the local authority.

In the event of us having to close school:

1. We will send out the text using our Teachers 2 Parents system

2. We will post the information on the school website.

3. We will inform Radio Lancashire. (we use passwords to ensure that this information is ‘genuine’!)

4. The information is posted on the Blackburn with Darwen website.

We really hope to avoid losing any days to the weather, and try our best to keep school open whenever possible as we appreciate the childcare and family organisation issues of closing. We hate having to close our playgrounds and keeping children in, but the current ‘claim culture’ makes us hyper sensitive to injuries on ice and or snow. We also have a duty of care to staff to keep them safe too! As always thank you for your understanding and support.