School Emergency Procedures
General advice
Thornborough Infant School puts the safety of its children, staff and families at the forefront of everything we do.
Our site, emergency procedures, fire evacuation and lock down procedures are reviewed regularly by our Headteacher and Governors. We base these procedures on our understanding of the school and Government/Buckinghamshire guidance.
Communication
When children start at our school, we ask parents to provide a number of emergency contacts. Data for these contacts is stored in line with our Data Protection Policy and they will only be contacted in the event of an emergency. We ask that parents obtain the permission of these contacts before providing their details.
If an emergency occurs during the school day we will communicate with parents in the most appropriate way, that could involve the following;
• A whole school email / Dojo message
• Individual phone calls
• Updating the school website with key announcements
If the phone lines are down, please look at the website for key announcements.
If the internet is down, please be reassured that your children will stay on school site, under our lockdown procedures and will be looked after until communication returns and we can get in contact with parents.
Collection if an emergency occurs
The school will always keep your child at school if it is safe to do so, if not we will evacuate to another location deemed safe by senior leaders, under the advisement of emergency services.
If an emergency occurs and parents cannot get easy access to the school to collect them, we will keep the children on site until parents arrive.
Communication will be key during this time period.
Lockdown procedures
If the local area is in danger and the need for a lockdown is put in place, we will secure the school gates and lock the school. At this point communication with parents via the methods above will be carried out. We will be liaising with the police and the local authority to take advice on when to re-open the school. We will only do this when the local area is deemed safe again.
During this time we will encourage parents to stay at home and not come to the school. We will communicate with parents at all times to keep everyone up to date with the situation.
Trips
If an incident occurs while children are out on a trip the group leader will liaise with senior leadership from the school. Emergency procedures will then be put in place and the staff with the children will make appropriate arrangements to keep the group of children they are with safe. The group leader will liaise with senior leaders from the school about how to return to school safely. We will take advice from the local authority and police. It is important for parents to not panic in this situation and it is advised that they come to the school and not to the place the children are attending. We will again communicate with all parents via communication outlined above.
We will always try to keep the school open and provide as much notice as possible in the event of a closure. The decision to close the school is made by the Headteacher. The school will close if access is unsafe for staff, children, parents and the emergency services.
Parents will be contacted and the children should be collected by their emergency contacts as soon as possible, should a closure arise during the school day. Please ensure that we have your correct up-to-date contact numbers - home, mobile and work - to ensure we can contact you in an emergency.
Adverse Weather Closure
In the event of adverse weather e.g. snow, check the front page of our website and the Buckinghamshire Council website https://closures.buckscc.gov.uk/
Buckinghamshire Council have arrangements for the radio station Mix 96 (96.2fm) to broadcast emergency closure information. Please tune into this station in bad weather conditions.