School Closures

Our school always tries to remain open, and unless you are told directly otherwise please ensure you send your child to school.

Bad weather does not always mean you cannot get to school; when bad weather is known about in advance, students and parents must plan for a longer journey time. If we have remained open we would prefer pupils to arrive late rather than not at all.

However, there may be times that for Health and Safety reasons we have to close, for example:

• The heating system breaks down and cannot be fixed
• The water supply to the school is disconnected for a significant period
• Large numbers of staff are unable to travel safely to school
• Significant parts of the site cannot be safely accessed

Some pupils have to travel long distances to school so we will always try to give the earliest possible warning of a school closure.

If the school has to close parents will be notified of the closure by one of more of the following means:

• A text message to the first parental contact via Schoolcomms (this will be sent to the mobile phone number parents have registered with the school)
• A dated message on the front page of the school website: www.whsg.info
• The school facebook page
• BBC Essex
• Heart FM
• Southend Radio
• Southend Council website: www.southend.gov.uk

Any notification of a school closure is for that day only; it must be assumed we will be open the following day unless notified otherwise.

If on a day we are open the weather significantly deteriorates and we have to make an early closure, the school will notify parents via a text message through Schoolcomms.

In addition:

• Pupils will be allowed to contact their parents by mobile phone to agree where they should go and how to get there
• Pupils who can travel home easily will be allowed home
• Pupils may be allowed to go to a friend’s home with their parent’s permission
• Pupils may be allowed to stay at school, if possible, but there may only be limited supervision.

School Closures and Public Examinations

If public examinations are scheduled on the day of a closure you must assume they are still taking place at the notified time. Staff will be in place to organise these exams, so students must make every effort to attend.

However, if these examinations have to be cancelled a separate notice to this effect will be placed on the front page of the school website. The examination boards will only allow ‘special consideration’ to be granted if there are no further opportunities for these examinations to be taken prior to certification.