Dear parents, 

Thank you for your patience this past week. We are unfortunately unable to open on Friday 10th, but are planning to be back to school on Monday 13th. 

Some of you have asked why we have been unable to open this week, when the mainstream school we share a building with has had students in for several of the days. Therefore I’d like to share with you the things we take into consideration when making the decision to close the school. 

It is always a difficult decision to close, and we have to weigh up many things. Safety for students and staff is at the top of the list. 

The roads around school

The roads and pavements around school are not on a main route, and have not yet been safely cleared. In particular, Haycliffe Lane, leading to where our school transport buses and taxis drop off has been particularly unsafe.

PTS

Many of our students travel to school on PTS transport. They have been unable to provide a service this week. This is the message that they have put out “Whilst main routes are fine, we operate a door-to-door service and many side streets are still not accessible making it difficult for both vehicles and staff. In addition, many of our service users are wheelchair users or have mobility issues and would not be able to safely access the vehicle due to conditions on footpaths without the risk of falling. We apologise for any inconvenience caused but the decision has been made in the interest of user and staff safety.”

Getting to school

Although paths have been cleared at the front of the main campus building, parking is still difficult, and not all walkways are as accessible as they need to be for any students with mobility impairments.

At the back of the building, our yard where the buses would normally drop students off, and where some of you drop your children off, has been cleared. However it snowed again after this, and the snow has turned to ice, so does not provide safe walking routes at this point. 

The sixth form building is also very icy. There are some pictures in our gallery that show you what the site looks like.

At school

Like all other schools, many of our staff have their own children, whose schools have also been closed, and like our students, not all of our staff live near to school. Many staff contacted us to say they had no childcare for their own children, or that they could not safely travel to school. As a special school, we know that it is not just about having any staff with any students. 

We have many students who have medical and personal care needs, and have specific staff who are trained to deliver these. We have some students who have specific 1:1 staff, without whom it would not be safe for them to be in school. We also know with many of our students, they become easily upset if they are not with their familiar adults. We could not guarantee that we would have the necessary staff attending to meet everyone’s needs, including the kitchen staff who prepare the special diet lunches for some of our students. We are also very mindful that any accidents staff or students may have whilst travelling to school would put further pressure on the emergency services and health services.

We are now working very hard to make sure that the site is as safe as it can be to meet the needs of all of our students before Monday.

Once again, closing the school for any time is a very difficult decision to make, and we have been constantly weighing up the issues as the week has gone on.

Thank you again for your patience, we are looking forward to seeing you all back on Monday.

Viki Clough

Head of School