Management Information Sheet

We are enhancing the Emergency School closure system : members of the public can now register to receive either text messages or emails when the school that they have subscribed to is 'closed' on the Emergency School closure system.

• Schools will still register their school as closed in the same way as before
• Radio stations will still receive email details of closed schools
• The school closures website (www.schoolclosures.norfolk.gov.uk) will still be updated with the list of closed schools.

From now on, however, when you close your school either an email or a text message will be sent to all the public subscribers to your school.

When a member of the public signs up to receive these notifications they will go to www.norfolk.gov.uk/disruptions. They will pick a school(s) and enter either their email address or mobile phone number. If they sign up for text messages, they will first get a subscription message asking them to reply to it with the code NCC, in order to confirm their request. Once they have replied, they will then receive a second message confirming success.

When the member of the public subscribes to receive notifications by text message, they will not be charged to receive the two initial confirmation messages, but they will be charged a standard network charge to send the reply with the code NCC, confirming their request. This is unavoidable due to the nature of how network operators operate. For each school closure notification they receive by text message, they will be charged 25p per text. If the actual cost of the text from the mobile provider is less than 25p, the difference comes to Norfolk County Council to go towards the cost of providing the service. It is free to receive notifications by email.

Members of the public can cancel their subscription at any time by texting STOP in reply to the text message received, or clicking the cancellation link in the emails. Depending on how they subscribed (email or text message), this will unsubscribe them from all disruption notifications going to that email address or to that mobile phone number.

If you set a future closure for your school, the email/text messages will be sent at 5.30 in the morning of the day of the closure. If you close the school for more than one day, one message will be sent on each day the school is closed.

As members of the public are paying for each school closure text message that they receive can you please bear in mind the following.

• Please don't make amendments once you have closed your school. If you reopen your school on the system, and then close it again, members of the public will receive two notifications. You can still make changes to future closures, as the messages only get sent on the day of the closure.
• Please don't use the closure system to send "We are open tomorrow" messages to parents (via the closure comments). The text message does not include the Closure comments (due to character limits) so could cause confusion. Only use the system to notify parents/pupils that the school is closed for the day (or for several days).