Head teachers who keep schools open deserve our gratitude

The principal of Belmont Nursery, Londonderry said: “... it is difficult for some parents, who might live in areas where there are a lot of hills to make it in, but I don’t think I am putting any pressure on those parents who can’t make it by keeping the school open ... I am also very aware of parents who are working and who might not have childminding facilities available at the drop of a hat.”

Ms Marshall said she tries to get into the school regardless.

In areas hit by the worst weather yesterday it was right to close schools. But some schools seem a little too hasty to shut.

In October, schools in NI did not even have the choice: all were ordered to close for a second day after Storm Ophelia had mostly passed through – a ridiculous over-reaction.

It is easy to silence the debate about closure by citing the health and safety of children, so that people are reluctant to argue for keeping a school open, in case they seem harsh.

But children will one day learn that there will be many occasions in which they need to leave home in icy conditions.

Closing schools causes big headaches for society as a whole as tens of thousands of people who head to work suddenly have to provide childcare. Hospitals, fire stations, offices, transport hubs, courts, dairies and shops are full of staffs who cannot simultaneously care for their young offspring.

Opening or closing a school in extreme weather is not an easy decision, as the principal of Orangefield Primary in Belfast Ernie Long told this newspaper. But the presumption should be in favour of opening (as Mr Long did yesterday). If some teachers cannot make it in, schools ought to be able to improvise and double up on classes to cater for pupils who arrive.

An understandably frustrated person posted on social media yesterday that there wasn’t “enough snow to make a snowball, yet I had to walk out of work as my daughter’s school closed”.

Principals yesterday who soldiered on deserve our gratitude.