Brooklands Farm Primary School Adverse Weather Policy
During the winter months there are occasions when we can experience adverse weather conditions. It is always very difficult when we have snow and ice to determine how this will affect travel, etc. and we would ask that you follow the policy below if we experience any bad weather over the Winter months.
If at all possible the school will remain open and staff will be here as normal. We are quite a large school and the majority of staff do not live locally and therefore may find it difficult to get to school if there is a heavy snowfall or if the road conditions are dangerous. In these circumstances it may be necessary to close the school. If the decision is made to close the school this will include both campuses.
If after taking local advice it is decided to close the school this will be announced on the Milton Keynes Council website www.milton-keynes.gov.uk/
The council offers a text/email notification service for school closures. Visit http://www.milton-keynes.gov.uk/Closures/Subscribe where you can sign up for this free service.
The Policy at Brooklands Farm Primary School for adverse weather conditions is that:
At the start of the school day
Wherever possible the school will remain open, however due to road conditions some staff may be late arriving and the start of the school day could be affected. Registers are not closed on snow days until 10.30am. Please travel to school safely and we suggest that if you can bring your children in later, you do so to offer the school a staggered start. This approach allows us to successfully keep the school open. However we ask parents to work in partnership with us as routines will obviously change on these days.
Parents are asked not to call the school as it may not be possible for staff to answer the telephone. Listening to the local radio and checking our school website for details of any closure is the preferred method of communication.
If conditions are snowy or very icy, we would encourage you whenever possible to walk to school as both the road to Fen Street and Countess Way are not yet adopted by Milton Keynes Council and therefore will not be gritted by the council or their contractors. Please be aware that this will be an issue throughout the winter and the school cannot accept any liability for damage to cars or accidents whilst using Fen Street.
During the school day
Once the decision has been made to open the school it will not close during the day. If the weather becomes severe during the day then parents may contact the school if they feel that they would like to collect their child early for safety reasons (i.e. travelling/walking long distances or collecting other children from local schools). Parents will then be advised via text and email that children can be collected. For this reason, we strongly advise you to ensure that your email address and mobile number are up to date in ParentPay as this is how we would communicate with you. (This is something you must update as we cannot administrate your account.)
The school will remain open until 3.15pm (Countess Way)/3.30pm (Fen Street). After school activity clubs will not run; however, if parents are delayed due to the adverse weather conditions, they should contact the school as soon as possible to give an anticipated arrival time. We expect parents to have a ‘Plan B’ if they cannot meet their normal pick up times. Again this should be communicated inline with policy so that staff know who is picking your child up. Parents must consider their own safety, traffic congestion and safety of others in these circumstances and understand that children at Brooklands Farm will be cared for until it is possible for them to be collected. Children will be supervised until a parent/carer is able to collect them, however normal policy applies and if we are not informed of lateness, after 1 hour we will contact the Police (as per the MKC safeguarding policy) as your child will be deemed ‘an abandoned child’.
Gritting policy
The caretaker will do his best to salt those parts of our paths that are close to the buildings and we know are likely to be slippery. We cannot salt the playgrounds or car parks. We would therefore recommend that staff, parents and pupils treat all path and playground areas as potential slip hazards and take appropriate precautions in cold weather. We will endeavour to keep the school car parks open, even during adverse weather, however they should be used with extreme caution and at your own risk.
(Updated Dec 2017)
