Victoria Primary School & Nursery Unit Carrickfergus

Dear Parent/Carer,

You will have received a communication from school advising of our intention to open tomorrow.  Given that further MET Office updates have been provided, now including a danger to life warning, I have had no option but to review that earlier decision.

You will be aware of the severe weather warnings associated with Storm Chandra. Earlier today, the Education Authority and the Department of Education advised that decisions regarding school closures should be taken by individual school leaders. While I respect the intention to allow local judgement, it is important to state formally that placing such responsibility solely on individual principals during a danger to life weather alert represents, in my view, a significant failure to provide clear, system‑wide direction at a time when consistency and safety should be paramount.

Nonetheless, given that the responsibility has been delegated to schools, I have consulted with principals across the East Antrim area and reviewed the most recent Met Office updates. These now include explicit warnings of a danger to life. In light of this, the decision has been taken to close the school tomorrow. The safety of pupils, staff, and families must always be our foremost priority, and under the current conditions, opening the school would not be safe or responsible.

I appreciate that this decision may cause inconvenience for some families, and I offer my sincere apologies for the disruption. However, the seriousness of the weather warnings makes closure unavoidable.

Thank you for your understanding and continued support.
Please stay safe.

Our whole school attendance as of 2nd January was 95.6%.

This is just a little below our target of 96%.

Hi all

Thanks for your understanding given today's school closure. 

The school site is still not in a great condition and Mr McMaster is still working hard to clear the snow and ice - which is not an easy job. 

However, VPS will be open tomorrow, unless the situation deteriorates overnight. 

A few important points:

Please take GREAT care when entering the school grounds.  A reminder that doors open at 8:50am.

Parents / Carers should NOT use the school car park tomorrow for drop off for Breakfast Club.  Please park outside the school grounds and walk your child(ren) in.  This is to reduce the number of cars at peak time tomorrow.

Breakfast Club - will take place in the canteen tomorrow. 

P1 children will enter via the P1 doors as normal, however, only a small part of the playground will be open. 

P2 - P7 children should all enter via the main entrance at Mrs Ritchie's office. 

Please ensure that all children have a warm coat.

There will be NO afterschool activities tomorrow  

Kids' Cave will operate as normal, however, will take place in the P1 corridor for the duration of Kids' Cave.  All collections should take place from the P1 door.

Looking forward to welcoming you all back to school tomorrow.

Mr C. Fulton

Principal

Parents / Carers,

In order to assist parents / carers with childcare arrangements as early as possible, I have taken the decision, this afternoon, to close school tomorrow, Monday 5th January. 

Gary, our wonderful caretaker, spent most of yesterday gritting the entire school site. Unfortunately, it made no difference. The school site is covered in a couple of inches of snow and, with no rain / thawing due, and temperatures due to drop below freezing overnight, the grounds will simply be too dangerous tomorrow. 

After a visit to the site today by school staff, surrounding local roads are also treacherous. These roads will likely become even more dangerous as they freeze overnight. 

Some staff members, who live on higher ground, are currently snowed in and have already informed school that they will be unable to get into school tomorrow - this was another consideration when making the decision to close.

As a results, tomorrow's Open Day will be postponed.  We are currently working on an alternative and will get in touch with everyone in due course. 

I am 90% certain that I would've needed to make the same call early tomorrow morning. I hope, by making the decision today, it will assist parents / carers. 

Thanks

Mr C. Fulton

Principal

Another EXCELLENT attendance update.

Whole School Attendance is currently 96.8%

Well done, everyone.