ST Mary’s Catholic School in Bishop’s Stortford is closed today (Monday, February 6) following the weekend’s snowfall.
The secondary in Windhill made the announcement on Sunday evening in the wake of forecasts predicting another inch or so (3cm) of snow in the Stortford area overnight on top of the 4in (10cm) that fell on Saturday night.
St Mary’s said that it would be shut “on safety grounds, due to snow coupled with the steep gradient of the site”.
The majority of schools in Hertfordshire are expected to open today, though some are allowing pupils and parents extra time to make the potentially hazardous journey, amid warnings of black ice on the roads, by extending their registration periods until as late as 11am.
Of Stortford's other senior schools Birchwood High, Bishop's Stortford College, Herts and Essex High, Bishop's Stortford High School and Hockerill Anglo-European College all remain open as does Leventhorpe in Sawbridgeworth.
Among Stortford’s primary schools, All Saints CE in Parsonage Lane plans to open its main school but close its nursery and breakfast club as a result of some teaching staff being unable to get into work.
Registers will remain open until 9.45am, rather than the usual 9.05am, and the school is asking parents to spread arrival times to avoid a build-up of traffic in the area.
It is advising pupils to take suitable clothing “if conditions allow us to use the field for more fun with the snow”.Th e school made a plea for adults to take a shovel and help clear the snow.
At Summercroft in Plaw Hatch Close, the school’s “Dress as a Book Character” event has been postponed. Thorn Grove and Hillmead are open.
Other Stortford schools that have remained open are Birchwood High, Bishop's Stortford College, Herts and Essex High, Hockerill Anglo-European College and Leventhorpe in Sawbridgeworth.
In Albury, the village’ church school is closed “due to hazardous conditions”.
Across the Essex border, Hatfield Heath Community Primary School, Clavering Primary School and St Mary's CofE Foundation Primary School in Stansted will not be open today. The R A Butler junior and infant schools in Saffron Walden are also shut.
The FKS School in Felsted will welcome pupils from 10am, due to the amount of snow.
Helena Romanes in Dunmow is open, while Newport Free Grammar, Saffron Walden County High and Stansted's Mountfitchet Maths and Computing College are all closed.
At High Wych C of E Primary, parents and pupils are advised to walk to school if possible and to avoid the staff car park, which is described as "slippery". Registration has been extended to 9.30am and children are asked not to arrive before 8.40am.
Elsewhere in Hertfordshire, Presdales, the girls’ secondary school in Ware, is shut today, as is Sheredes, the secondary in Hoddesdon. Schools in Stevenage, Welwyn Garden City, St Albans and Hemel Hempstead are also closed.
In St Albans, Mandeville Primary was advising pupils to “wrap up warm, wear wellingtons and bring your sledges”!
* A scheduled Zumbathon at the Manor of Groves Hotel and Golf Club in High Wych yesterday (Sunday, February 5) in aid of the breast cancer trials unit of Harlow’s Princess Alexandra Hospital Charitable Trust was postponed because of the weather.
