School heads: "We were right to shut"

As most of the country was hit by snow last Thursday, more than 250 schools in the South East closed their doors for the day.

This list included 22 schools in Basingstoke and the surrounding area as headteachers cited staff not being able to make the journey to work and disruption to public transport as reasons to close.

Hampshire County Council left the decision whether to stay open to individual headteachers.

The only instruction was that the schools must be run safely and effectively.

According to the Meterological Office, three centimetres of snow fell in Basingstoke, while between two and five centimetres covered Hampshire in the early hours of Thursday.

The Hurst Community College, in Baughurst, was closed due to snow-covered roads.

Aileen Brown, deputy headteacher, said: "A lot of our children are bussed in and the buses couldn't run, while a number of our staff couldn't get in because they live in rural areas and couldn't dig themselves out."

Headteacher Lynn Clement decided to close Merton Infant School, in Popley, Basingstoke, for the day, stating it was for "safety reasons" because of staff shortages.

Maple Ridge School, in Basingstoke, was also among those that shut.

Helen Franks, assistant headteacher, said: "All our children use school transport as we are a special needs school and the motoring reports said that there should be no unnecessary trips."

While Oakridge Infant School pupils braved the cold, Oakridge Junior School was closed.

Yvonne Davie, headteacher of the junior school, explained: "I have several staff who live out of Basingstoke and we took the decision that it wasn't safe for them to get in."

Meanwhile, pupils at the infant school had a day of snow-themed lessons.

Headteacher Angela Genn said that all members of staff made it to the school, but a few pupils did not attend because of a mix-up with the junior school closing.

She added: "The staff and pupils were able to get in and we had a lovely day. The children went out in the snow first thing in the morning and we were able to do some science, art and maths involving the weather."

Winklebury junior and infant schools both remained open, but parents were allowed to collect their children early if they were able to.

Eddie Izzard, headteacher of the junior school, said: "We were open because the conditions were not that bad. My staff are very professional."

Just because they were at school, it did not stop pupils at Marnel Junior School, in Popley, Basingstoke, from having fun.

The school held a snow-castle-making competition and the winning class was allowed extra time on the new laptops.

Chris Reilly, creative curriculum co-ordinator, said: "The children thoroughly enjoyed being outside. Some of them were quite disappointed that our school was not closed but we thought it was an opportunity to be creative in some way."

Sally Harvey, headteacher at Oakley Infant School, said: "All of our staff managed to get in. The farthest any of us had to travel from was Alton and it was not too bad, Most of the children live in the village, so that was not a problem."

Many of the schools across the Tadley area that remained open experienced a significant drop in pupil numbers.

Silchester Church of England Primary School had 28 of their 187 pupils absent, but all the staff made it into work.

Lynda Downes, headteacher at Burnham Copse Primary School, said that about 25 pupils were absent from the New Church Road school.

She said: "Everybody who should be here made it, even though some came from quite far away. We have very committed staff."

While Tadley Community Primary School, in The Green, was still open, parents were encouraged to keep their children at home if possible, due to staff shortages.

John Gawthorpe, headteacher of Mayhill Junior School, in Odiham, decided to keep the school open as most members of staff arrived, but said that if the weather conditions had been worse, he, too, would have closed the school.

The snow began to melt by midday - but Councillor David Kirk, the county council's Cabinet member for education, defended the decision of those headteachers who had decided to close schools.

He said: "Hindsight is wonderful - we can always make brilliant judgements based on hindsight, but unfortunately we have to make the judgement at the time, when we don't know what's going on and we have to make the decision on the best information available."

Basingstoke's MP Maria Miller also backed the headteachers.

She said: "It is really down to the individual headteacher. They know how difficult it is for their staff to get in and each school will be very different.

"The problem we have in this country is we are so unprepared for dealing with snow that whenever it happens, even a small amount can cause a lot of problems. There is also a knock-on effect for parents when their children stay at home."

The AA's head office in Basingstoke suffered a 20 per cent reduction in staff coming in, with many commuters working from home.

But it was business as usual for Basingstoke-based firm Winterthur Life UK, with only a few of its several hundred employees having to stay at home to look after children whose schools were closed.

Hampshire Constabulary set up an adverse weather office in Netley where 100 calls were received about driving conditions and minor traffic collisions.

However, by 10am, the office had closed due to the roads running smoothly.

While driving conditions were hazardous on some of the more minor roads, gritting carried out by Hampshire County Council teams ensured that the major routes remained clear, while passengers travelling on the South West Trains network faced only minimal delays.

One serious crash was reported on the M3 between Hook and Fleet Services where, at 1.15pm, a 52-year-old driver lost control of her silver Mitsubishi Shogun and collided with the central reservation.

Firefighters cut the female driver out of her car, which rolled on to its side, and she was taken to Basingstoke hospital with injuries to an arm.

One of the most bizarre incidents happened at 3.45pm on Thursday when police officers were called to a huge snowball obstructing Redbridge Lane, in Basing Road, Old Basing.

There were two similar reports of giant snowballs obstructing Sherborne Road, in Popley, Basingstoke, and Kennet Way, in Oakley.