It is very rare that severe weather affects our ability to operate as a school. However, in extreme circumstances it may be necessary to partially or fully close the school to safeguard students and staff. In these circumstances the school may opt to take any of the following decisions:

A decision to fully or partially close the school before students attend morning registration

Any school closure to students will appear on the school website as soon as a decision has been made. We will aim to give parents / carers as much notice as possible. We will endeavour to send text messages to all parents / carers too. Please ensure that we have your most up to date mobile phone contact number.

If we decide that it is impossible to safeguard all pupils on site, we may decide to open for some year groups. This may be prudent when pupils in Year 11 and 13 are taking external examinations, for example.

Please do not ring the school to ask if we are open. If there is no closure message on the school website then we are open as normal.

A decision to close the school during the school day

If weather conditions deteriorate during the school day and there is a need for early closure we will send parents a text message and notification will be immediately placed on the NSB website. Year 12 / 13 students will be allowed to leave site with immediate effect. Students in Years 7-11 will be asked to return to their Form Bases where they will be able to contact parents / carers on mobile phones so that the Form Tutor can confirm that the student can leave the school site. If students do not have mobile phones they will be able to use the school's phones to contact parents. We ask that parents / carers discuss arrangements for cases of severe weather closure with their children in advance, to ensure that students can safely return from school to home or an alternative safe venue.  All students who cannot get safely home during the school day or whose parent / carers we cannot contact, will be supervised in school until their parents / carers can collect them.

We will always make every effort to remain open to our students and we will only close if appraisal of health and safety factors dictate that closure is the only option

Richard Bernard
Headmaster
Northampton School for Boys