Looking at the many sources of information available it is evident that a severe storm, as the one anticipated, could have significant disruption to staff and student travel arrangements in the morning and it is difficult to currently assess how safe journeys will be for our community.
West Sussex County Council have this notice on their website and have advised schools to assess the risk for their setting in determining whether or not to remain open.
The Met Office has issued an Amber weather warning for very strong winds associated with Storm Ciarán, which may affect southern England, including West Sussex. The Met Office says the severe weather could disrupt travel, utilities, and cause some structural damage. The Amber warning is for between 6am and 5pm on Thursday 2 November.
We obviously want to keep the school open if it is both safe and practical to do so for students and staff as they travel to and from school/work.
With this in mind, I have taken the decision to open the school at the slightly later start of 09:25. Students will attend registration from 09:25 and lessons from period 2 onwards.
If the situation worsens, the delayed opening will give us time in the morning to safely assess the site, monitor the buses running and check on the number of staff travel arrangements impacted by the storm across the county. If after taking this assessment in the morning we do not feel that we can safely open the school, we will inform you via email and a message on the front page of the website by 8:00am. Otherwise, we look forward to seeing all students by 9:25am
More information and guidance from local sources, including West Sussex County Council, can be found here: https://www.westsussex.
I apologise for any inconvenience this causes but our intention is to reduce the stress on families where not knowing whether school is opening can be much more difficult to plan for than a later start.
I hope that our community is able to stay safe and that the impact is minimal for us all.
Kind regards,
Jo Meloni