The decision to close or partially close a school can only be made
by headteachers who have knowledge 'on the ground' of their schools, in
consultation with their Chair of Governors wherever possible. The decision
should be based on access to essential services (heating, water etc), staffing levels,
transport safety, and site safety. In particular the decision making process should take account of:
- The health and safety of pupils, staff and
volunteers which should always be paramount
- The basic entitlement of 190 ‘pupil days’ which
should be offered if at all possible
- Consideration should be given to closing
the school to just some year groups and/or changing the
opening and closing time if either will avoid complete closure
- Consideration should be given to offering a
reduced curriculum (or even non-curriculum) provision as an
alternative to closure.
Information about emergency and planned school
closures is published on the County Council website http://www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/schoolclosures. This is the main source of up to date countywide information about school
closures and is a key resource especially in times of widespread closures, for
example, as a result of severe weather.
When there is extreme weather schools are occasionally forced to close for the day in the interest of pupils' safety. On such mornings, parents should listen to either BBC Radio Oxford, Heart FM, or Jack FM for details of school closures.
Very occasionally, the taxi firms hired to transport pupils to and from Bishopswood classes may feel that the weather is too severe for their cars to be on the roads. Should this be the case, we also do our best to contact the schools' radio programmes and to contact parents.
Please note that
if a co-located school is closed on Health and Safety grounds because the site
is deemed unsafe to access, then that department of Bishopswood will also be
closed, as we are required to abide by the decision of the Host School.
This may necessarily mean that one Bishopswood department is closed whilst another is still open, usually due to the location.
