Emergency School closures

School leaders will have contingency plans in place, striving to maintain school operations for as many pupils as possible even amid unforeseen circumstances.  It is acknowledged that there may be rare occasions where the health and safety of staff and pupils cannot be maintained with fewer staff resources and therefore full or partial closures will need to be considered.

This overview and  Risk assessment will provide guidance to schools when keeping the school fully open becomes challenging. It aims to support schools to plan and mitigate against risks including:

• Severe weather
• Sustained staffing shortages as a result widespread infectious disease
• Utilities and local service disruption
• Building issues
• Transport issues such as driver shortages, fuel disruption
• Widespread absence due to infectious diseases and the potential requirement for deep cleaning

Schools have developed systems for online learning provision, partial opening for different groups of children and young people and opening for limited hours during the day as part of their Business Continuity arrangements (sometimes called Emergency plans) to avoid whole school closure wherever possible. Schools will have access to provision such as:

• Switching to remote learning at short notice (regular simulated exercise/tests should be carried out to ensure this can be put in place at short notice)
• Some flexibility in terms of staff duties and activities
• Larger groupings where appropriate, not compromising the school's risk assessment
• Consideration of partial opening for groups of children
• Consideration of opening for limited hours

Any decision regarding closure should be supported by the school's Business Continuity plan (sometimes called Emergency Plans) and reported on the NCC Emergency Schools Closure system. Ensure you have read the guidance and instruction on how to close your school(s). This is the prime source for many organisations in Norfolk, therefore, even if you have other ways of notifying parents, please register your school closure through Emergency school closures.

For details of managing incidents and for support and services provided by NCC's Resilience team see Managing emergencies and business continuity.

Severe Weather

• For guidance on what to do before severe weather, during and afterwards, see  Cold weather advice for schools.
• For advice on attendance, please contact your Attendance and Entitlement Officer, or ring the Duty line on 01603 223681 or email csattendance@norfolk.gov.uk.

Further advice and information

The GOV.UK website provides further advice regarding emergency school closure at Guidance: Emergency planning and response - How schools and other educational settings should plan for and deal with emergencies, including severe weather and floods.