Happy New Year

It has been quite a week! After returning on Monday after the holiday we expected things to be as normal when the children arrived on Tuesday, only to be confounded by the very poor weather.

I can tell you that the decision to close the school is not taken easily by any head teacher and I apologise to those parents that were inconvenienced on Wednesday and Thursday. Having decided to close on Wednesday we expected to be open as normal on Thursday but early that morning chose to remain closed for a second day. This was mainly because we had no grit left and the entrances to the school and the paths between the buildings were treacherous. The weather forecast warned us to expect temperatures well below freezing all day and so we took the view that the site was potentially dangerous and was unlikely to improve. The other thing that had to be considered was whether or not we were likely to get a full complement of staff into school. Some travel very long distances to work and with only a few missing it would have been unlikely that we could have run the timetable or supervised the examinations.

After obtaining more grit and after working on the site, by late Thursday the situation had eased and we got back under way on Friday. Although the cold spell looks set to continue it seems that we will probably not see any more snow in Blackpool and so I think it unlikely we will have to close again.

Many of the children have told me that they used the time to prepare for examinations; well done to them! However, I know that some of the older ones are concerned about what will happen to the forthcoming AS/A2 Examinations if we have to close again. We have put an explanatory message in the News section of the website, but essentially, if a student misses an examination he or she must take it at a later date; that is in the summer exam period. Be assured though, that in the event the school is unable to open as usual due to bad weather, there will still be senior members of staff available to supervise those taking public examinations if they can get to school safely.

Stay warm and keep safe on the icy roads.

Kind regards

Barry Hughes

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Date: Sunday 10/01/2010