School closure decisions 'awful' - head teacher

The head teacher of a primary school which has been unable to open since the end of the Christmas holidays because of wintry weather has said making the decision to stay shut has been "awful" and "really stressful".

Rachel Tomlinson, head of Barrowford Primary School in Nelson, Lancashire, said plummeting temperatures had meant it was simply too dangerous to welcome back pupils.

Dozens of schools have been closed across the north-west of England this week since a flurry of snow turned to compacted ice.

Ms Tomlinson said the situation on the school site itself was not the only consideration for head teachers.

"It's almost the things that are out of our control as well," she told BBC Radio Lancashire.

"It's the school site but it's the roads and the streets surrounding school, and ultimately if we're open it's 500 people almost getting around that school site and it's just not safe."

Ms Tomlinson, who has been head teacher for 17 years, said that schools were less localised than in the past which had added to the problem.

"You used to be able to walk to school," she said.

"We have got staff and children coming from really long distances and the responsibility of that and making sure that everybody is safe is really tricky to balance."

She said enforced closures did disrupt the curriculum which had been carefully planned by staff over the festive break, but that the biggest impact was emotional.

She said: "It's been a really long week.

"It's just awful having to make decisions to close, nobody wants to make those decisions it's really, really stressful.

"Most of it is the emotional thing, we're really sad not to see our children after a holiday."

A yellow weather warning for ice is in place for parts of Lancashire, Greater Manchester, Merseyside and Cheshire, with the Met Office warning of a "severe frost" and some freezing fog in places.

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