Icy Grip Of Arctic Winter Tightens Across UK, Weather forces school closures

There's no let up in the freezing conditions that have hit the country with temperatures down to -10C across southern England overnight.
Well over a thousand schools were forced to close today as snow across Scotland, northern England and parts of Wales made travel treacherous or impossible.

Pupils who went back to school yesterday found themselves back at home for an extra day as headteachers decided there was no point opening.

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At some schools, the icy conditions played havoc with the heating and led to frozen or burst pipes. At others, staff were unable to get in to take lessons.

The north-east, north-west and Yorkshire were all hit hard. Northumberland saw more than 60 closures and County Durham 36.

In Cumbria, more than 140 schools were closed. Waberthwaite school, in Millom, had a burst pipe, while, in Penrith, staff at Crosby Ravensworth were struggling with frozen pipes and heating problems.

Around 50 schools did not open in Lancashire, while across Merseyside and Cheshire, about 90 were shut, with 30 closed in Liverpool.

In Manchester, some 105 schools across the city were shut and the council said more closures were expected later today as the snow continued to fall. To the north in Bury, 38 schools were closed and in nearby Oldham, only four out of 120 schools remained open.

North Yorkshire county council said the number of schools shut across the region now stood at 140, and in York, 10 were closed. In West Yorkshire, around 60 schools were shut in the Kirklees area and at least 16 were closed in Calderdale, where students arrived at some schools in the area but were sent home again due to the deteriorating weather conditions. In Wakefield, 21 schools were closed, and in Leeds, the number was 11.

In South Yorkshire, Rotherham – where a celebration evening at Thomas Rotherham College had to be cancelled – there were 65 closed schools, Barnsley had 30, and there were 10 shut in Sheffield, and three in Doncaster. Nearly 130 schools were closed across the Bradford area.

South and west Wales were also affected. Carmarthenshire closed 29 primary schools and seven secondary schools, and in Ceredigion, 51 schools were forced to shut their doors – eight secondaries and 43 primaries.

In Pembrokeshire, a total of 13 were shut, and in Neath Port Talbot county, three primary schools were closed, along with the lower school at Dwy-y-Felin comprehensive school in Neath. A total of 35 secondary and primary schools were closed because of the weather in Powys, mid Wales.

In Scotland, all schools in Borders and Dumfries and Galloway remained shut, and fresh snowfalls overnight caused Aberdeenshire's schools to close their doors, too. There were widespread closures in Aberdeen and 10 schools were closed in the Western Isles.

A statement on Dumfries and Galloway council's website said headteachers would carry out full risk assessments today and information on when schools were set to reopen would be posted on the council's website as soon as it became available.

Scottish Borders council said that where staff could travel to their schools, they were expected to attend and prepare for the start of the new term.