School closures due to severe weather
WINTER: Icy blast.
MORE than 3,000 schools across the UK including 124 in North Yorkshire have closed in the past week due to severe weather conditions. There are further heavy snowfalls predicted in Scotland, northern and central England this weekend, and flood warnings have also been issued throughout the country due to heavy rain and melting ice.
While disruption to education is a major issue, another problem has been the uncertainty among parents and teachers over whether schools are open or closed. Stephen Clarke, Managing Director, Contact Group, comments: “With the increasing frequency of severe weather in Britain, it’s particularly important that schools have a reliable communications system to keep parents informed. During this week’s heavy snow our Call Parents automated notification system has played a major role in reducing inconvenience caused by school closures by informing parents quickly about the current situation.”
Installed in over 2000 primary and secondary schools in the UK, Call Parents (www.callparents.com) is an automatic notification system which enables schools to notify parents via text message (SMS) or automated phone call. The system reads live pupil contact information direct from the school’s management information system and can be used to send messages instantly to parents of a specific class, year or group. The same system is used by schools to inform parents when report cards have gone home, when parents’ evenings are taking place, to warn them about school closures, cancellations or delays to events and returning from a school trip.
The snow affected most of Britain, particularly Wales, southern and central England. Below is an alphabetical list of school closures by county:
Bedfordshire 111
Buckinghamshire 200
Cambridgeshire 115
Derby 209
East Sussex 135
Essex 272
Hampshire and Isle of Wight 154
Hertfordshire 379
Kent 119
Lancashire 156
Leicestershire 324
North Yorkshire 124
Northamptonshire 281
Nottinghamshire 183
South Yorkshire 171
Staffordshire 262
Suffolk 174
Wales 1,100
Warwick 215
West Midlands 440
West Yorkshire 547
For further information about Contact Group please call 0844 448 4422, email sales@the-contactgroup.com or visit: www.the-contactgroup.com. Follow @contactgroup on Twitter.
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Weather for Goole
Friday 24 May 2013
Today
Light showers
Temperature: 5 C to 10 C
Wind Speed: 30 mph
Wind direction: North east
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 7 C to 17 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: North west
