Garrowhill Primary School

Arrangements for Inclement Weather

This is a reminder to parents and carers about Glasgow City Council's procedures for closing schools as a result of adverse weather and for communicating that information to you.

We always do everything we can to keep schools open because educating your children is our priority and we want to minimise the impact that closing a school can have on everyone.

The blanket school closures during the winter of 2010/11 were the first in over 10 years and the council tried to let parents and carers know about the closures as soon as possible.

However, there are a number of factors that can lead to a school being closed, such as severe weather, building and heating issues, lack of water, transport problems and ensuring there are sufficient numbers of staff to look after the children and young people.

Often these problems only emerge in the morning and we are left with no option but to announce a closure at short notice, for example once we know if staff have made it to their school, or we discover burst pipes.

We will do everything we can to make the decision as early as possible to allow parents and carers who are working to make alternative arrangements.

The decision will be taken by your head teacher in consultation with the Executive Director of Education, Maureen McKenna.

The council website www.glasgow.gov.uk/winter and local media will be among our key communication channels. Schools with text messaging facilities will also use these to alert parents and carers. Individual schools will have their own methods that work best for them.

Last year, we found that social media was one of the best and fastest ways to tell parents about a closure. In fact, interest in the council's Twitter page twitter.com/glasgowcc meant we quickly became the most "followed" council in the UK.