Emergency Preparedness

Procedures are in place for foreseeable emergencies that may affect the safety of students at ISNS.  The school will be closed should there be an emergency that makes it unsafe to travel to school.  School buildings will be evacuated should there be a fire or other emergency which causes it to be unsafe to remain inside.  Additional procedures have been established to “lock-down” the campus in the event of an intruder or other outside dangers.

Every student should be aware of these procedures and carefully follow their teacher’s instructions should an emergency occur

Storm Day Procedures

During the rainy season in the summer and fall, tropical Shenzhen may experience heavy rains and typhoons. In the case of a Yellow Typhoon Warning or a Red Rainstorm Warning, school will be closed and all parents will be contacted about the Storm Day by email and by Wechat message. Please make sure your contact information with the school is up-to-date. Also, please refer to our Student Agenda for our Emergency Plan Procedure.

For city-wide information about weather conditions, parents are advised to watch television (SZTV), listen to the radio or call the weather channel at 12121 (press 1 for Mandarin, 2 for Cantonese and 3 for English) for updates.

Students who arrive at school on a Storm Day can stay in the classrooms with our teachers until transportation home is arranged.

School Closure Plan for Typhoons and Extreme Weather

All parents will be contacted by ISNS webmail and WeChat if school is closed prior to 6:30 AM and most likely before 10:30 PM on the evening before a typhoon. For sudden storm warnings parents will be contacted immediately. Parents are advised to watch SZTV or call the weather channel at 12121 (press 1 for Mandarin, 2 for Cantonese and 3 for English) for bad weather warnings. If the SZTV warning light goes to Level 8, Yellow Warning Signal of Typhoon, or Red Warning Level of Heavy Rain (or if the SZTY states that schools in Shenzhen should be closed) check your email and your mobile phone for messages from the school.

Please note that you will not receive a call, as this method is far too slow. If parents are not presently receiving our webmail or emergency text messages, they are advised to check with the Admissions office to make sure that their email and mobile phone information is correct. If parents do not have access to the Internet, please follow the SZTV warnings and contact another parent who does have access. The school Admissions Office will be open by 8:00 AM (26454994) and parents can call at that time. Please never allow your child to go to the bus alone in bad weather since buses may be re-routed and not on time.

Air Quality

Any time that the air quality becomes unhealthy we will take action to protect students.  If the air quality index reaches 200ppm we will keep students indoors and inactive.  If the air quality index reaches 250ppm for an extended period of time (more than 4 hours) we will close school so that students can remain indoors at home and not travel out.  The determination to close school will be made before 6:30am.  Once students are at school for the day they will not be sent home early due to poor air quality.  We use the AQI reading from this website at the OCT station: http://aqicn.org/city/shenzhen/ to make the determination.

Communicable Diseases

In the event of an outbreak of a disease that is potentially harmful, ISNS will take the following steps (dependent upon the disease and situation):

If a single case of disease is discovered, the child will be asked to stay at home until cleared by a doctor.  Parents of students in the child's immediate class will be notified.  Students who were in close contact with the child will be monitored for symptoms.  Measures will be taken to sanitize the classroom and school facilities.

If more than one case of a disease is discovered, all children with the disease will be asked to stay at home until cleared by a doctor.  The entire school community will be notified.  All students will be monitored for symptoms.  Measures will be taken to sanitize all classrooms and school facilities. 

If the disease is life-threatening or poses an extreme danger, school may be closed for a period of days as decided by the Head of School in consultation with medical professionals.

Follow this link to: Emergency Procedures for Students in School

Note:  Each academic year has 180 planned school days for students.  Days off are aligned with major holidays or are planned throughout the year to provide necessary breaks for students and staff.  If school should close due to emergency, teachers will provide lesson material electronically via SeeSaw, OneNote or e-mail.  School days will not be made up if school is closed for less than five days per year due to emergency.  If school must be closed for more than five days in any given academic year, then additional school days will be added to the calendar.