Closures confirmed at district’s schools

Herts County Council (HCC) has had confirmation that 10 schools in the St Albans district will close due to teachers striking but more are thought to be affected.

Secondary schools which have confirmed their plans with HCC are Verulam School which will close to years 8,9 and 10, Francis Bacon which will close to years 9 and 12 and St Albans Girls’ School which will close to years 7 to 10 inclusive.

St Albans primary schools known to be affected are Fleetville where five out of 10 classes will be open, Cunningham Hill Juniors which will close one Year 4 class and one Year 5, How Wood where the reception and Year 1 classes will close and Colney Heath JMI which will close completely.

In Harpenden, The Lea Primary is to close to all but reception and Year 2, while The Grove Juniors plan to close four classes, and St Johns in Radlett will be closed to all but one class.

The leader of the Lib Dems on the county council, Chris White, has criticised the way communication of the situation has been handled.

He said: “As happened two years earlier with snow closures the Tories have failed to realise how seriously parents and children will be impacted by random closures.

“There seem to be no plans to put school closures on the county’s website. Parents with work responsibilities will thus have little idea when they drop their children at school whether the school is open and whether they might need to leave work in order to pick them up. This is unacceptable to them and unacceptable to their employers. County must set up a proper webpage immediately and check it is fully up to date.”

But a spokesperson for HCC explained that it was the responsibility of the individual schools to inform parents and that the schools were not obliged to let County Hall know about their intention to close.

The spokesperson also said that all schools were given a template letter to send to parents so they are made aware of any planned closure.