Maureen McKenna / Education Services
Glasgow City Council
Wheatley House
25 Cochrane Street
Glasgow G1 1HL
Central Switchboard 0141 287 2000
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Phone0141-287 4551
Fax0141-287 4895
Our RefMMcK/ET/171Your Ref
Date6 January 2011
If phoning please ask for Maureen McKenna
TO ALL PARENT COUNCILS
Dear Parent Councils
Now that the holiday season is past and it appears unlikely that the cold weather will be disappearing entirely, I would like to take the opportunity to share with you some thoughts on the experiences of the few weeks prior to Christmas.
I know that many of you were inconvenienced by the closing of the schools across the city and I would like to apologise for that. It has been an extraordinary time for councils. Although I have only been with Glasgow City Council for three years, I have been in education for since 1982 teaching both in this area and in the North East of Scotland where snow was a common occurrence. In all this time, I have never experienced so many school closures nor have I experienced the extraordinary level of media and political interest in school closures.
Our approach has always been that the decision to close a school or a nursery is one which is shared between the Head of the school or nursery and a senior manager in
Education Services. In that way, the Head can advise on local conditions and the senior manager can advise if there are other issues which need to be taken into consideration. Together the right decision will be achieved. In the last two weeks, we tried to adhere to this position. However, the extreme weather across the city meant that we had to take decisions on several days to close all schools and nurseries.
Glasgow does not have a central written policy on the emergency closure of schools due to severe weather conditions. This is likely to have been because in the last ten to fifteen years the winters have been relatively mild and there has been no necessity for a written policy. I will be drafting advice shortly which will be agreed with the trade unions and shared with
Parent Councils. It will reinforce the critical role the Head plays in the decision regarding emergency closures.
We always do everything we can to keep schools open. However, often the problems that can lead to a closure only emerge in the morning and we are left with no option butto announce a closureat short notice, for example,once we know ifstaff are unable to get to their school.
The council aims to tell parents about closures as soon as possible.
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We live in a time where methods of communication are varied. It was clear that in the last few weeks we were not prepared for the demand for instant communication. Our Glasgow website was not sufficiently robust to take the level of demand at the beginning. However, we are taking steps to improve this.
We also have a page on Twitter which did help some parents. For those that had access, Twitter proved to be one of the quickest ways of telling people about school closures.
If you do not have a Twitter account you can still get updates via SMS from Twitter using their Fast Follow service by texting follow GlasgowCC to 86444 in the United Kingdom. To stop following text unfollow GlasgowCC to 86444. Standard messages rates will apply.More details on the Fast Follow service are available on the Twitter site.
However, we need to continue to reflect and improve our approaches to communication with parents and carers in these emergency situations.
Schools do have access to text messaging which can be used to communicate with parents and carers. However, in the last few weeks, the national networks could not cope with the level of demand across the country. For example, some parents received a text at 2.30am even though it had been issued at lunchtime the day before, while some did not receive it at all. Text messaging also relies on parents providing up to date emergency contact information, which is not always the case when phones are changed regularly.
We are working with colleagues in the PR & Marketing team to review and improve our approaches.
I have also received several e-mails and letters from concerned parents regarding the condition of playgrounds and paths around schools and nurseries. As you know, many of our schools have extensive grounds and it would not be possible for the janitor to clear them of snow. The janitor will clear an access route for children and staff and while the snow is soft that is straightforward. However, the children cannot get out to play while the playground remains covered in snow and certainly when the snow turns to ice, as it did for several weeks last year, the children are stuck indoors for long periods.
One of the parents who wrote to me during the adverse weather had lived in Canada where parents and friends regularly cleared school playgrounds to enable increased access for children and their families. As this adverse weather looks like becoming a regular occurrence, I would welcome the views of Parent Councils as to whether this should be something that should be considered.
Finally, I hope that you all had a relaxing and warm Christmas break and thank you for your continued support.
Yours sincerely
MAUREEN McKENNA
Executive Director of Education
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