Adverse Weather Conditions Procedures
Dear Parents,
As we approach the winter months, we may face possible closures due to adverse weather conditions. We will make every effort to keep the school open and will only make the decision to close when it is in the interests of safety such as travelling to and from school, loss of heating or power. Pre-emptive measures will be in place to make sure the school site is safe which includes gritting of pathways. Advice regarding safety on site will be issued in advance to the school community where possible. In the event of a school closure happening, we have provided an update on the number of ways that you can check on this.
SCHOOL TEXT / EMAIL / APP MESSAGING
We will firstly use Group Call to message all parents in the event of a closure.
Group Call is the message service that we will use to send out a text or an e-mail to the first named contact in the event of a school closure or an emergency. Please make sure that this is the person who is most likely to be able to pick up the message quickly.
Please use the parent portal or contact the school if you wish to change/update your contact information. The Group Call text/e-mail message can only be very short. For further information, please see the Council website or phone the school. You can also download the Group Call App.
ABERDEENSHIRE WEBSITE
https://online.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/Apps/schools-closures/
(the web page is re-set at 4.00pm every day to be clear for next day’s information).
We recommend you register for free to receive email alerts when the school updates their closure status.
RADIO STATIONS
Out with school hours, your local radio station is a good place to find closure information. Popular stations are:
- Northsound 2 MW 1035kHz
- BBC Radio Scotland FM 92.4 – 94.7
- Original FM 106
- Northsound 1 FM 96.9
*PLEASE NOTE THE SCHOOL INFORMATION LINE IS NO LONGER IN USE
In the event of a school closure or change to transport arrangements
You will be informed firstly by Group Call text, e-mail or App.
Please check the Aberdeenshire Council website when there is severe weather as this will be regularly updated. You will be informed by Aberdeenshire Council alert e-mail (if you have registered).
Please be aware that under some circumstances it may be impossible to put a message on all these systems. e.g. if there is a power cut.
It is also difficult to send out this information simultaneously. Please can you contact your Cluny friends when there is an urgent message from the school, to ensure that they have received it.
If the school must close during the day, we want to get each child home as quickly and safely as possible. We will use the arrangements above to contact you as it is not practical for us to phone all parents. However, if after a while we do not hear from you, we will try to phone you. It really helps us when parents, who know it will take them a while to get to school can e-mail or phone us to say that they are on their way.
In the circumstances that the school is to close during the day skeleton staff will stay as long as necessary to supervise and look after the children until they can all be picked up.
Adverse weather procedures for transported children
Transported children are the responsibility of the hirers, and drivers are aware that:
- Pupils must be conveyed to their designated pick up/drop off point.
- Pupils should be taken back to school in the failure of either of the above.
- Parents will be notified of any changes to bus transport by the school/transport team.
Where school transport is not running, please do not take your child(ren) to school yourself, unless it is safe to do so. If you do take your child(ren) to school, you must also be able to collect them at the end of the day.
Keep a check on school alerts for bus transport updates. Please contact the school and transport team in advance if you decide to take or collect your child(ren) instead of them using the bus during adverse weather.
Learning activities for pupils in the event of school closure
Where possible, a learning activities grids with revision tasks will be made available via email. Pupils will also be signposted to online educational resources.
In instances of limited connectivity, we will try to have a paper copy of the learning grid made available.