School closures: Parents' fury as teachers call ONLINE snow day with Zoom lessons scrapped

PARENTS have been left fuming as teachers scrapped academic online lessons and told their kids to have a snow day.

Thousands of key workers faced a second day of chaos as schools stayed shut and they were warned it could last all week.

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And some teachers called a "snow day" for kids learning online at home -telling them to go out and build a snowman or go sledging instead.

Parents, who are already struggling to juggle homeschooling with their own jobs, were furious that lessons were cancelled but one school leader said she "didn't care" about the reaction.

The Department of Health today said it was down to headteachers to make a "sensible decision".

One headteacher declared a "snow day" yesterday for her online students at Eastcote Primary Academy, in Bexley, London.   

She tweeted: "Looking forward to a snow day. Online learning tasks include making a snowman and having a snowball fight."

She responded to another tweet saying: "The remote learning tasks will be: make a snowman, go sledging, have a snowball fight and show me a pic of a snow angel. I'm sure one parent will complain, I just don't care."

The school is run by the Leigh Academy Trust, who were approached for comment, and said that the school was open yesterday.

 





In a statement, they told the MailOnline: "The school was open yesterday to the children of key workers and vulnerable children and those children not in attendance were undertaking remote learning from home as normal.  

"Whilst we would never stop children playing in the snow at home we would not encourage it as an alternative to taking part in online learning."

The trust added that the account was not linked to her work and since appeared to be taken down.

One person online wrote: "Can teachers stoop any lower?"

Another added: "Just read that some teachers have decided that because of the snow in some parts of the country, lessons via Zoom have been cancelled, giving the students a Snow Day. Find out who these teachers are, and dock their pay. It's disgusting."

Sue Blyth, a headteacher at Fourfields School Community School in Peterborough, Cambs., appeared to hit out at parents who complained about her school's decision.

She said:"We also did this and then had some parents complain they hadn't got time to let their children play in the snow because of their full time work! There was a proper Facebook moan about it! 'Fortunately most families were grateful."

Hundreds of schools that are still open for keyworkers have been forced to shut as Storm Darcy has "cut off towns".

Britain is set for another 10 inches of snow today as temperatures drop to -18C.

Some keyworker parents will be forced to stay home from work as their kids cannot get to school and towns could become “cut off” as Storm Darcy wreaks havoc across the UK.

And under current lockdown rules, keyworker parents can make a childcare bubble with one other household if their child is under the age of 14.

In Norfolk, one of the worst areas hit by Darcy, 373 of the county’s 422 schools were closed as of 7.55am today, with the numbers still rising.

The county council is urging key worker families to make"alternative arrangements", saying the snow-covered roads are too dangerous to expect children and teachers to turn up.

The crisis also hits children classed as vulnerable, who would have gone in for lessons as they have been told to stay at home too.

It will be the same situation in Lincolnshire, Suffolk, Essex and Kent which have also been badly hit by Storm Darcy.




In Suffolk, 200 schools have closed today and in Essex at least 40 have shut.

Several Covid-19 vaccination centres were forced to close, including Clacton Hospital, Colchester United's stadium, Gainsborough Sports Centre in Ipswich and Chevington Close in Bury St Edmunds.

Storm Darcy – dubbed the 'Beast from the East II' – has brought howling blizzards from Russia to the UK, with swathes of the country experiencing heavy snowfall yesterday.

A yellow weather warning for snow remains in place across Britain until midnight on Wednesday, with the Met Office warning “frequent snow showers may lead to travel disruption in places”. 

The alert covers most of the south east of England, as well as the Midlands, the North East and most of Scotland.

Meanwhile, a separate amber warning covers central parts of Scotland today, with up to 10 inches of snow forecast.

And temperatures are expected to plummet below 0C for most of the UK overnight.

Parts of Scotland reached as low as nearly -18C on Monday night as the country caught the brunt of the storm.

Bus and rail travel has been disrupted with an amber weather warning in place for much of the central belt until 9pm.



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