How schools decide when they should shut during snowy wether
As cold weather warnings spread across the country, many parents will be wondering if their child’s school will reopen.
Schools make every effort to stay open on snowy days, but sometimes they have to close or partially close if it is not safe for students and teachers to go to school.
Schools have their own approaches to communicating with parents, and many use dedicated apps and/or messaging services.
Although institutions try to inform parents as much as possible, sometimes decisions can be made quite late as conditions change rapidly. It’s always best to check your email, school app or school social media accounts regularly for the latest updates.
Schools and other educational settings are responsible for determining their own plans and policies on how to deal with adverse weather conditions. It is ultimately up to schools to decide whether it is safe for them to open or close, based on their own risk assessment and taking into account local issues.
Decisions will be made locally based on common sense, with a wide range of factors influencing the outcome. This may include situations where staffing cannot be met because transportation issues prevent teachers from getting to work.
Other examples include assessing safety conditions in the immediate vicinity of school facilities and ensuring that appropriate temperatures can be maintained in school buildings.
If schools decide to close temporarily during severe weather, they should consider switching to distance learning for students until it is safe to reopen. In exceptional circumstances, a student may be unable to attend school due to a local or national emergency causing widespread disruption to travel.
If parents think it would be unsafe to travel, they should notify the school as soon as possible in accordance with the school’s absence policy and let them know why their child will not be attending school.
Temperatures will struggle to rise above freezing in the coming days as many people return to school or work after the festive period, and the Met Office has warned that frigid conditions will pose a range of hazards over the next few days.
Two yellow snow warnings and five yellow snow and ice warnings remain in place in Scotland, the North West, the east and southwest of England, Northern Ireland and Wales.
Large parts of Scotland faced the worst weather conditions and hundreds of schools in the north of the country remained closed on Tuesday. Schools in Shetland, Orkney and Aberdeenshire will remain closed on Tuesday after pupils had an extra day off following the bank holiday on Monday due to weather conditions.
While some flights were canceled, some train lines were also affected.
Yellow snow warnings for the Highlands and Central Scotland are in force from 11am to 7pm on Tuesday, as heavy snowfall is expected to move eastwards across the central and north of the country and turn into showers on Tuesday night. A further increase of 5 to 10 cm is expected widely, with 15 cm in places, especially above 200 m.
