Snowy Weather Procedures

We are very conscious of the impact of school closures on local businesses, on childcare difficulties and your own ability to work. With that in mind, we always aim to be open and it is rare, even in extremes for Peafield Lane to close.

As such, it is important that parents always assume we are open unless we say otherwise. Absences due to snow are not authorised if the school is open.

Occasionally, we might make adaptations to the beginning and end of the school day in order to make things easier for you to travel to and from school. For example, we might open a little early and extend registration, or allow early pickups from say 2.30 pm to allow ease of congestion on Litton Road. We might also relax uniform rules to allow walking boots, big woolly jumpers etc so that children can walk safely and in comfort. We will always text you if we plan any adaptation to the normal routine.

Whilst it is rare, there are occasions when we may need to close. The headteacher inspects the school site at around 6.30 am every day if there is a risk of closure. There are two main reasons why we might close:

• Not enough staff can get into school to provide adequate supervision of the pupils (we have teachers who live in Sheffield, Derby and Nottingham)
• Litton Road is so dangerous that cars cannot safely navigate it and it would be dangerous for large numbers of children to be in that area.

If there is a risk of closure, we will text you at around 7 am to let you know if we will be closed. If we don’t text, we are open. Please do not phone to check – we only have one phone line.

The school will never close during the school day. We might text and tell you that you can pick up your child early but if you cannot get here that is absolutely fine – no child will be abandoned! We have enough staff who live close by to ensure that children can stay on site for the whole day – even if we have to mix the classes up a bit.

Access: Once children are on site, and in our care, we take full responsibility for their safety and wellbeing right up until the point where we hand them back over to you. Getting children safely to and from school is the responsibility of parents and carers. The school building has numerous points of entry and the site manager works hard each day to ensure walkways and routes around the school are safe. We do not have the time or resources to grit the many paths through Peafield Park or the pavement along Litton Road; these are the responsibility of Mansfield District Council who own the land outside our premises.

As the majority of communications with you will be through text, it is crucial that we have the correct contact details for you. We will, however, also post on our school website www.peafieldlaneacademy.co.uk and tweet if the school is not open.