Why do schools close when it snows?

By Mr Richard Sheriff, CEO of Red Kite Learning Trust

I have been leading schools for almost 25 years and have worked with many other school leaders from across the country during that time. We all share a common hatred of ‘snow days’. I have often described these times as the most stressful moments in the life of a Headteacher as professional pride, public duty and personal responsibility for hundreds of children and adults bear down on you as you try to make the right call in the early hours of the morning. After going to bed late after spending hours looking at weather forecasts and contacting site teams and colleagues to prepare for the predicted weather event, you go to bed for a sleepless night and a very early start. Long before dawn breaks you try your best to get to your school so you can make decisions on site. This means braving the roads, sometimes before the snow has been ploughed or the roads gritted.

The weather forecasters do an amazing job, but we all know that unique ‘microclimates’ exists in localities and around schools. Being slightly South or North, at the top of, rather than the bottom of, a hill can make a huge difference to the actual weather you experience. And then there is the timing, the snow forecast for 8.00am that doesn’t arrive until 4.00pm or the warmer temperatures that you hoped for but didn’t materialise. The British weather has a tendency to make a fool of all of us.

Each school is so different in how it is impacted by snow and ice. Schools on the side of a North facing hill are always going to struggle more than a site that is flat and perhaps a little lower down. Schools with multiple access points across a sprawling site will face more challenges than those with just a single entrance to clear.

Schools also have differing capacity in their site teams and staff body, some larger secondary schools may have their own quad and snow plough attachment, a small primary school may just have a Headteacher and a shovel. Schools aren’t funded well enough to have big supplies of grit and snowblowers in a garage ready to move at the Heads instruction. When snow falls in the quantities it has recently, even the best equipped school site team will be unable to cope. It is rather frustrating to stand with a shovel in a school car park as the Council gritting lorry drives past knowing that just a quick drive through from their big yellow lorry would ensure the school could stay open. 

Where your staff live is also a key factor influencing a decision to close or stay open. As Headteacher of Harrogate Grammar School I quickly learnt that I needed to know where our staff lived and the impact on the school of bad weather or the closure of the A58 or A59. If our teachers from York couldn’t get in we would struggle to have enough staff to run the school safely. If all your staff live locally you might have a better chance of being able to stay open, unless you are on a hill!

Heads will be trying to make a good decision as quickly as possible in the morning, speaking to colleagues across the rest of the town to get a better idea of the impact on the transport network and getting the latest weather reports for their location and where their staff and children are coming from. They are all the time trying to balance the desire to keep the school open and not deprive children of their learning with the overriding objective of ensuring the safety of everyone in their care.

The challenges of this role have remained consistent over time, but what has changed significantly is the added pressure on Headteachers from social media and online commentary. Unfortunately, the unkind and sometimes abusive messages from a small but vocal minority of parents can take a toll. Each year, it’s disheartening to see the impact this has on our school leaders.

We truly value constructive suggestions on how we can improve, and we understand how disruptive school closures and the uncertainty this brings can be to family routines. We are also deeply committed to ensuring children benefit from being in school, it is our duty to open schools if we can and it is deemed safe to do so. A lot of work and careful consideration goes on in school before judgements are made, so we kindly ask for a moment of pause before posting or sending a critical message.

Our Headteachers work hard to empathise with parents, they are often parents themselves. In return, let’s extend that same understanding and kindness to them. On what might already be one of their toughest days, a little empathy can go a long way. Let’s support the incredible efforts they make for our children every day.