There are occasions where the school needs to close unexpectedly. This may be due to bad weather, heating failure, a power failure or other reasons. We will only close the school in the best interests of student and staff safety, following Department for Education guidance.

In some situations the school may close partially. In this situation priority would be given to teach Years 11 and 13, followed by Year 10 and 12.

Closure outside of the school day

If the decision to close is outside of the school day, we will use the following means of communications to parents:

• A pop-up message on the home page of the school website
• An email out to all parents
• Updates on the school's Twitter Account. If you use Twitter, please be sure that you are set up to receive notifications from us
• The local Radio Stations will be informed. The details for our local radio stations are as follows:

Heart (Thames Valley) VHF/FM 102.6/97.4/102.9/103.

BBC Radio Oxford – VHF/FM 95.2

Jack FM – VHF/FM 106.8

FM 107.9 – VHF/FM 107.9

Witney Radio – FM 99.9

• We will also update the county council website www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/schoolclosures

Particularly during the winter months when bad weather is forecast, it is important to ensure you look out for these messages.

Please do not ring the school.

If it is not published on our website and the school’s Twitter account that the school is closed, your child should come in to school as usual.

Closure during the school day

Should the school need to close during the school day, we will contact the school buses to arrange early collection. Once we have an agreed time to send all of the students home, we will communicate as above to let you know that the school will be closing.

Students who live locally and do not use the school transport will be sent home at the same time as the buses leave school.

Obviously, it is our priority that your child is safe; therefore, if you require that your child be supervised until you are able to make arrangements for them, please reply to the school closure email and this will be picked up by the school office.

You should then follow the processes outlined above to check whether the situation has been dealt with ready for school to start the following morning, or whether the school is to remain closed.

Arrangements for Student work

Work will be set via Insight and/or directly sent to students using their school email addresses. If you have the facilities for internet and email at home, please could you ensure that your child can access their school email account and Insight from home. If you have any problems with this, please click here for advice or contact the School Office office@wgswitney.org.uk who will help.

• KS3 students can always be working on their subject awards
• KS4 and KS5 students will concentrate on revision, with year 12s also completing their EPQs.