Management Information Sheet

The emergency school closure system allows all Norfolk Schools to report a school closure. Both parents and radio stations have told us how they like only having to check one place for a complete list of closed schools.

We are extending the Emergency School closure system; members of the public (parents/pupils) 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. We would encourage you to include information about this option when you tell parents about preparing for possible school closures. A poster for promoting the new option to parents/pupils is also available.

• Schools will still register their school as closed in the same way as before
• Radio stations will still receive details of closed schools to be read out in the morning news.
• The school closures website (www.schoolclosures.norfolk.gov.uk) will still be updated with a complete list of closed schools.
• The service remains a free service for schools to use; only recipients of text messages will be charged.

From now on, when you close your school using the Emergency school closure system, either an email or a text message will be sent to all the people who have subscribed to be notified about your school. If you set a future closure for your school, the email or text message(s) will be sent from 5.30 in the morning of the day of the closure. If you close the school for more than one day, a message will be sent out each morning of the continued closure until the school is open again.

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 to your closure comments 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. However you can still make changes to future closures, as the public only pay for texts that are sent out (ie on the actual date of closure).
• Please don't use the closure system to send "We are open tomorrow messages" to parents. The text message does not include the "Closure comments" so could cause confusion. Only use the system to notify parents/pupils that the school is closed.

If you don't use the NCC emergency school closure system (closure information conveyed via website, radio stations, Twitter, Facebook, email and text service) to notify parents of a school closure please let us know. We will then remove your school from the school closures system.

Some schools already have a text/email messaging service for communicating with parents. We cannot currently separate the availability of the email and text service from the rest of the emergency school closure system. If you want to continue using the NCC emergency school closure system, which notifies radio stations and publishes the information on the web, but would rather parents/pupils from your school use your alternative text/email system, we suggest you simply tell them to use your alternative instead of the NCC email and text service.

The process, associated costs etc are all clearly explained to people who want to use this service when they sign up for it. However an overview follows:

When a member of the public wants 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 validate 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 for 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, Norfolk County Council will put the difference towards the cost of providing the service. Email notifications are free.

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.