Emergency Closure

Schools Closure Notification System – Parent Sign Up

There is a new Schools Closure Notification System which has recently been set up by Hertfordshire County Council which will allow the school to notify the council of a school closure, major incident, crisis or emergency. Parents should register to receive these notifications either by SMS or by email as this will be the schools only method of contacting parents in the event of an emergency school closure due to bad weather.
To register please visit the following website:

• At the “Sign Up” page click on the “sign up” button located at the top right hand side of the page on the grey strip and from there follow the instructions. It should take no more than 5 minutes to register and you can edit your information at any time should you change your mobile number or email address.
  Each contact within the system can have 2 devices added for each communication type which means that in addition to adding your own mobile number and email address, you could include the mobile number and email address of a partner or a grandparent. They too would then receive any messages in relation to the school’s closure. Alternatively, interested parties could register themselves separately.
• If you have children at more than one school you can register for those schools too in a single registration process by selecting all schools you have children at. Once signed up you will receive messages should the school close in the event of an emergency.

The new buildings mean that once students arrive, they can be taught safely until the end of the normal school day without the need for warmer clothes than usual. As a result, we will not be having dress warm days in the future, and are very unlikely to have to close due to snow. It is very likely, however, that in the event of snow we will have to run a late start to give staff the chance to arrive. Many staff travel quite a long distance to reach school and although they leave early in bad weather, they may then take a considerable time to get through Stevenage due to the local blockages. On such days, the only concession to clothing will be that we expect students to wear shoes that are more weather proof and grippy than their normal school shoes may be. They should also wear a warm and weatherproof coat.

We will always try to ensure that you are warned by text, as well as on the website when we have to make changes, but in the event that changes have to be made at a late stage, please rest assured that any students arriving in school will be taken in and kept safely until lessons can start properly as the staff arrive. In this case, all students should go straight to the main hall and dining space, which will be used as the holding area until normal staffing can be resumed.