This page contains important information concerning your child’s safety when the weather causes transport difficulties, or the school has to be closed in other circumstances where health and safety may be compromised.
Adverse weather can make travelling dangerous to and from school, especially as Haslingden High School and Sixth Form is one of the highest secondary schools in Lancashire and on the edge of the Pennines. As many of our students and staff travel considerable distances to the school by car and public transport, we rely heavily on passable roads.
There are three main ways in which we will attempt to notify you as soon as possible if we need to close the school:
- We will send an email and text message to all contacts listed on our system who have parental responsibility. Please make sure the school has up-to-date email addresses for all relevant contacts
- There will be a message on the home page of the school website
- We will inform Radio Lancashire, which regularly broadcasts details of closed schools. Radio Lancashire broadcasts on 95.5, 103.9 and 104.5 FM
Please note that we will only notify you in the event of a school closure; if you are not notified then you should assume that the school is open. Please do not telephone the school to check, as the lines soon become overloaded.
If the school has to close early during the school day, the following options are available:-
- You can pick your child up from school
- Your child can make their own way home
- With your permission, your child can go to another student’s or relative’s home
- If none of the above are possible, your child can stay in school until the end of the school day. However, it will be the responsibility of the student to report to the school office
Please ensure that your child is aware of your wishes regarding school closure procedures. The forced closure of the school will, by necessity, be done quickly, and students will be made aware of the options open to them (buses available/unavailable, and the school will remain open until all students have left safely). If bad weather is expected, please ensure that your child is adequately dressed and has emergency money for the journey.
If school does close early and you have requested that your child make their own way home or to a friend/relative’s house, students should be advised to make their way home in pairs or small groups wherever possible. In such circumstances, please stress to your child the importance of responsible behaviour, as the conditions can be treacherous, especially when crossing roads.
The Covid pandemic challenged us all to think of new ways of living and forced us to change how we work; the most apparent adaptation in teaching was the implementation of remote learning. Subsequently, this means that we can continue to provide good quality education if students cannot attend school due to closure. However, we are also firm in our belief that education stretches beyond the confines of the taught curriculum. We remain passionate about allowing students to leave us with many wonderful memories. Simply put, this includes making a snowman, an igloo, or a snow angel or playing outside in the winter weather when the opportunity presents itself! For this reason, if the school closes due to severe weather, no remote learning will be set on the first day following a school closure.
For days following this, teaching staff will provide remote learning as per periods 2-5 of the normal school timetable, with a lunch break from 12.30 pm until 1 pm. Wherever possible, this will include a ‘live element’ and will be communicated via the Edulink homework function. However, it is important to note that severe weather closures can also impact teaching colleagues, presenting issues such as childcare, which result in live learning not being possible in some instances. Students are expected to check their emails and Edulink regularly throughout the course of a school term, but particularly in the event of a school closure.
Google Meet will be used to deliver the live element of lessons. This app will be made available on all school-purchased devices or can be downloaded from the Apple App Store. Students should sign in to Meet using their school Gmail address. Teachers will share the meeting code via the Edulink homework function. A short ‘how-to’ video can be found here. We will support students in accessing remote learning; however, should we have to close the school before we get the opportunity to do so, students would be asked to engage with their work via the instructions given to them through Edulink.
Closure due to other circumstances
If the school needs to close for other unavoidable reasons, such as a major water leak or power outage, we will follow the procedures described above. Depending on the circumstances, we may be able to set work or provide remote lessons with a live element on the first day of closure. We will email and text you to let you know what arrangements will be in place.
For days following this, teaching staff will provide remote learning as per periods 2-5 of the normal school timetable, with a lunch break from 12.30 pm until 1 pm. Wherever possible, this will include a ‘live element’ and will be communicated via the Edulink homework function as outlined above. However, it is important to note that closures can also impact teaching colleagues, presenting issues such as childcare, which result in live learning not being possible in some instances. Students are expected to check their emails and Edulink regularly throughout the course of a school term, but particularly in the event of a school closure.
Google Meet will be used to deliver the live element of lessons. Should students be unclear of the use of this software, we would ask that they engage with their work via the instructions given to them through Edulink.
How to join a Google Meet meeting: click here for instructions (external link)
We hope that we will not need to close; however, should this be necessary and the arrangements outlined above need to be employed, we will review the effectiveness and consider any possible changes that may be necessary to support our students and their families.
Thank you for your continued support and understanding.