It is our aim to have school open on every school day but sometimes circumstances out with our control mean we need to close and, in the event of severe weather this can sometimes be at very short notice. Sometimes, for example if there is a red weather warning or a great deal of snow falls the evening before, there will be a blanket school closure and in this event, parents will usually know by 7am and all children will remain at home. But sometimes the picture is not as clear as that: the situation with the weather evolves rapidly and parents may get a message close to 9am or even during the day to say the school needs to close.

School being open is important but in the context of severe weather, the safety of staff, pupils and parents takes priority. There may be times when we can open but only with a skeleton staff in the school (made up of those who can make the journey safely to school and sometimes other Fife Council teachers who live nearby but can’t make it to their own schools) – when this is the case, we may ask you to keep your child at home if you are able to (for example if you are not at work or are working from home) – this is to keep the numbers low so that they school is safely staffed.

If you wake up to snow fall or any other type of severe weather (including if there is a red weather warning), please do the following:

• Only make a journey to school if it is safe to do so.
• Monitor the weather during the day and collect your child if the journey from school to your house looks like it will get dangerous before the end of the day.
• Keep your child within your care until you know for sure that school is open at 9am – don’t drop them and go.
• Look out for texts from the school – remember they will go to the parent you asked us to name first and any additional parents added in special circumstances – if you are not the parent who usually gets Groupcall texts and emails from school, please make sure the parent who does get them is looking out for them and will communicate with you.
• Be prepared that school may close at short notice and have a contingency for picking your child up.
• Please understand that all staff will making a journey to work in difficult circumstances and we will be doing our best to communicate with you and get the school open.
• Please don’t call the school office to ask for information, it will come out via Groupcall text when we are able and lots of phone calls coming into the office can slow this down.
• Please reply to texts asking you to confirm that your child is at home, even if you have kept them at home on advice of the school. We will make sure we know that every child is safe as a priority so need you to confirm where your child is.

 

When school does close, for whatever reason, you can choose activities from our Family Learning pages (click here) to support your child’s learning on the day at home. There will be occasions when we can send more specific information for each class but this does depend on the circumstances of the closure. Click here for more information.

Updated September 2023