Last week I had a very interesting planning meeting regarding the situation that we could face in the event of an accident at Torness Power Station. We are about a mile and a half from Torness and it is cruicial that we plan for this type of event.

This week we had a dry run of how difficult it is to get communication out to parents in an emergency. On Wednesday morning it had been heavily snowing for over three hours. By lunchtime we had tocall an early closure for bus transported pupils.  school for such an event we began to contact ELC, bus company, and each parent. The whole proceedure took 1 hour 30 minutes to carry out and even at this point we could not contact some of our parents. Problems we encountered during this event were, faxes coming through between calls, parents phoning back after messages have been left,blocking the line out. It became very apparent that we need two lines in the school. Another aspect is that we have no adiminstation support on a Wednesday afternoon, Thursday and Friday which meant I was tied up for this time making all the calls and relaying what was happening.

By 1:40pm most of the the children had gone home. I n the event of an emergency at Torness based on this we would be looking at at least 2 hours to administer iodine tablets and contact all parents, valuable information for planning for such a situation.

Below is a rough draft of the planned series of events

INNERWICK PRIMARY SCHOOL DRAFT EMERGENCY PLAN – TORNESS NUCLEAR POWER STATION. 

While it is hoped that the following emergency arrangements will never have to be applied, it is important that you are aware of the plans that have been made for the children of Innerwick Primary School in the event of a development taking place at Torness Nuclear Power Station which requires persons who are within a three kilometre radius of Torness to be evacuated from the area.  It should be noted that, in the event of persons within the three kilometre radius being asked to take shelter, a decision may be made by the Police to evacuate the children and staff of Innerwick Primary School.  Prior to this the Head Teacher and/or the staff would administer iodine tablets to these children whose parents have agreed to this measure.

Should a decision be made which is such that evacuation is to take place, the instruction would come from the Police either in person or by the telephone.  Every child including those whose home is in the immediate vicinity of the school, would be transported under Police supervision to Dunbar Grammer School, Dunbar or to the Community and Day Centre, Albert Road, Eyemouth. The Headteacher and volunteers from the teaching staff would accompany the pupils.

It also may be safer to keep the children in the safety of the schol building. Food and drink and re-assurance would be provided to pupils during this time.

Once at the Rest and Refreshment Centre the Police personnel at the Centre would notify you with regard to your child’s whereabouts.  You would be able to join your child or to collect him/her depending upon the situation.  Should the police discern that it is appropriate for your child to return to his/her home, arrangements would be made for his/her safe return to you.

Given that you are aware of an emergency situation whether within school hours or not, it would be appropriate for you to tune in to Radio Forth and/or to the television.

 If you are in any  doubt regarding the above or indeed any part of the Emergency Plans in respect of evacuation please do not hesitate to contact me at this school or at Dunbar Police Station,

Sorry about the gap between blogs. We have a problem with the screen resolution with the office computers which does not allow the editing page to load correctly. I have now commendeered a PC laptop and I should be more frequent with my blogs.

Like all schools we have a issue with Holidays during term time. We have produced a FAQ which we issued ro parents recently.

Holidays During Term Time

 Children should attend school for 190 days each year, and every day is important. Please help them not to miss any of this valuable time. We hope that the answers to your questions below will show that your child’s education is too important to take holidays during term time.  1.  Can I take my child on holiday during term time?  As a parent/carer, you can demonstrate your commitment to your child’s education by, whenever possible, taking your holidays during school holidays.   2.   Will the school let me take my child away during term time?  Guidelines from the Scottish Executive indicate that a family holiday may only be authorised by the school if permission is sought from the school in advance, and the holiday is ‘judged to be important to the well-being and cohesion of the family, following serious or terminal illness, bereavement or other traumatic causes’.    The school will carefully consider parental requests, but the holiday will be authorised only in exceptional circumstances.  3.   What happens if the school does not agree?  If the school does not agree, your child’s absence will be marked as “unauthorised” in the school register, in the same category as truancy.     4.   Why shouldn’t I take my child away during term time?  

• It is important that children attend school regularly if they are to benefit from the learning opportunities provided.

• While the child is on holiday, the remainder of the class continue to be taught by the teacher, studying new topics and revising.  Children who are absent from school due to a holiday in term time will miss out on important learning.  They may never catch up.  This will have an adverse impact on their progress and on their examination results.

• Teachers will not be able to provide work in advance, unless the holiday is authorised by the school.  Teachers have a fixed amount of time to spend with pupils and try to use it wisely.  They will always do their best to support pupils who have been absent through illness, or have been on an educational activity arranged with the approval of the school.  Time spent in helping a child catch up after a holiday is time which is taken away from other pupils. 

 I think that it is important that as an establishment we need to be upfront with parents about the implication of  Holidays during Term time and the effect it can have on the Education of their child.