This information is for parents and informs you about how we deal with any severe weather, especially ice and snow, which may affect the school.
Each day of any severe weather, we will make an assessment about whether it is safe and practical to open the school to pupils. This decision will be made early in the morning, in enough time to inform you if we are to close.
As soon as we make the decision to close the school, we will inform you immediately by text. The text will be sent to whoever you have nominated as contact no 1 in the Admissions Booklet (unfortunately we cannot send messages to 2 numbers due to the cost – we expect whoever is contact no 1 to inform the other parent/contact no 2). If you do not hear anything from us, the school will be open – please keep calls into the office to a minimum as staff may not have arrived to deal with your call. The text message will be followed by an email giving further information. This will be sent to all the email addresses for contacts (numbers 1 and 2) we currently have in our database for sending letters home. In addition, the school website (www.holmfirthjinschool.net) and twitter account will be updated.
Should you wish to check reports of closures for all schools in Kirklees, you can do so by visiting the council website www.kirklees.gov.uk/schoolclosures where you will find up-to-date information or follow them at twitter.com/kirkleesschools. Kirklees Council will share closure information, with the local radio and TV stations for them to use as they wish in their bulletins. You can also check on weather and gritting updates at www.kirklees.gov.uk/winter or follow them at twitter.com/Kirkleeswinter.
Please be assured that we only decide to close our school in exceptional circumstances where the safety of your child/ren is the primary concern. On occasion, this may be due to the availability of teaching staff who travel some distance to reach school, rather than purely conditions for pupils getting to school. In the past, it has been necessary to close the school due to treacherous icy conditions on Rotcher/Cartworth Road, which made driving impossible and walking dangerous.
Should you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact the office. Finally, please remember to inform the office if you change your email or mobile phone number to ensure that you continue to receive messages from us.