UPDATE: More snow leads to school closures (From Bucks Free Press)
Send your news, photos and videos by texting bucksfreepress to 80360 or email
UPDATE: More snow leads to school closures
6:45am Monday 11th February 2013 in News
OVERNIGHT snowfall has led to six schools in south Bucks closing to pupils today.
The BBC reported this morning that 13cm of snow fell on High Wycombe overnight, leading to school staff having concerns over pupil safety.
Hamilton Primary School, Oakridge School and Hannah Ball School - which has also postponed an open evening tonight - in High Wycombe, the Downley School, Great Kingshill CofE Combined School and Stony Dean School in Amersham have all announced closures, while other schools were reporting problems with bus services.
A further eight schools have said they will remain open but with alterations to opening times.
They are the Amersham School, Robertswood School in Chalfont St Peter, the Chalfonts Community College, Chalfont St Giles Infant School and Nursery, Dr Challoner's Grammar School, Frieth CofE School, and the Highcrest Academy and Manor Farm Community Junior School in High Wycombe.
Staff at Great Kingshill have made an appeal for parents to help clear away the snow so the school can open tomorrow.
Go to http://apps1.buckscc.gov.uk/eforms2005/SSSchoolStatus/default.aspx for the latest.
Comments(31)
MCarey
says...
7:16am Mon 11 Feb 13
KPlumridge
says...
7:21am Mon 11 Feb 13
williamjames
says...
7:26am Mon 11 Feb 13
What are the teachers and parents scared of? The lesson that is being taught to our youth is one of a little snow stops the world. It is time for schools, parents and pupils to understand that though it might be cold and wet you get on with daily life be it going to school or going to work!
Perhaps than we would have less of a youth unemployment problem when our young peoiple understand that you may have to get up earlier to get to school during periods of bad weather.
MCarey
says...
7:28am Mon 11 Feb 13
andy40
says...
7:34am Mon 11 Feb 13
Eagle eye
says...
7:44am Mon 11 Feb 13
I'm in Sands and our hills are impassable for the time being.
Right2speak
says...
7:58am Mon 11 Feb 13
I Love Ivor
says...
7:59am Mon 11 Feb 13
I Love Ivor
says...
8:01am Mon 11 Feb 13
Sparkles26
says...
8:09am Mon 11 Feb 13
Bookworm4
says...
8:25am Mon 11 Feb 13
Sparkles26 wrote:What a ridiculous comment! It is not simply about parents getting the pupils to school. Many teachers have to travel and there is not much point taking our children to school if there are no staff there to teach them. Would you want to be responsible for someone having an accident on their way to work just to satisfy your whining soap box status.
Instead of relying on the BFP and BCC and school websites surely as parents you are more than capable of judging and assessing for yourselves wether or not it is safe for your children to be driven or use public transport to get to school. Lets hope you all never have to make any MAJOR decisions in life!
Mr Totterdge Hill
says...
8:26am Mon 11 Feb 13
Mr Totterdge Hill
says...
8:26am Mon 11 Feb 13
Mr Totterdge Hill wrote:HAVE not gave oops!
Police gave shut Totteridge Hill whilst they recovery one of the damaged vehicles.
Sparkles26
says...
8:32am Mon 11 Feb 13
Bookworm4 wrote:Actually if you read most of the school websites or listen to the pre recorded messages they leave for parents when they ring you will find that EVEN the schools encourage parents to try and make their OWN judgement calls on wether they feel they want to take the risk sending their kids to school but still you get a minority of parents who don't seem to have the capacity to make such decisions without first blaming the bfp and bcc and god knows who else for not informing them of school closures
Sparkles26 wrote:What a ridiculous comment! It is not simply about parents getting the pupils to school. Many teachers have to travel and there is not much point taking our children to school if there are no staff there to teach them. Would you want to be responsible for someone having an accident on their way to work just to satisfy your whining soap box status.
Instead of relying on the BFP and BCC and school websites surely as parents you are more than capable of judging and assessing for yourselves wether or not it is safe for your children to be driven or use public transport to get to school. Lets hope you all never have to make any MAJOR decisions in life!
Kris S
says...
8:32am Mon 11 Feb 13
williamjames wrote:It's the roads and pavements surrounding the schools that make it sometimes impossible to get there, so there is no option but to close. Headmasters are in a tricky position they are getting it wrong if they close and should something happen if school stays open and a pupil has an accident then parents will moan as well.
As a schoolboy in the '50s and '60s we had some bad winters but the schools did not close.
What are the teachers and parents scared of? The lesson that is being taught to our youth is one of a little snow stops the world. It is time for schools, parents and pupils to understand that though it might be cold and wet you get on with daily life be it going to school or going to work!
Perhaps than we would have less of a youth unemployment problem when our young peoiple understand that you may have to get up earlier to get to school during periods of bad weather.
Perhaps Bucks County Council could provide grit and salt for the schools and with the help of parents the access outside the school premisses could be cleared. But that is in ideal world where people would get their act together and clear the pavements.
Kris S
says...
8:43am Mon 11 Feb 13
Monkey King wrote:I emailed the communications officer at buckscc they are going to look into the problem.
Not sure if it's overload or indifference but the Bucks CC School Closures site is down and has been since before this article's time stamp.
Perhaps BFP could keep us up to date as the BCC can't?
Mr Totterdge Hill
says...
8:49am Mon 11 Feb 13
MCarey
says...
8:59am Mon 11 Feb 13
Kris S wrote:probably some time next week knowing Bucks County!
Monkey King wrote:I emailed the communications officer at buckscc they are going to look into the problem.
Not sure if it's overload or indifference but the Bucks CC School Closures site is down and has been since before this article's time stamp.
Perhaps BFP could keep us up to date as the BCC can't?
readerabc
says...
8:59am Mon 11 Feb 13
re coments about making your own decision on schools being closed!! how stupid!!! what is the point of going to school..only to find it is closed due to the 2cm of snow in wycombe (sands/west wycombe)
our road is clear and gritted as the residents did it!!
Catflap
says...
9:01am Mon 11 Feb 13
williamjames
says...
9:10am Mon 11 Feb 13
Kris S wrote:It is time that we ceased to be so risk averse!
williamjames wrote: As a schoolboy in the '50s and '60s we had some bad winters but the schools did not close. What are the teachers and parents scared of? The lesson that is being taught to our youth is one of a little snow stops the world. It is time for schools, parents and pupils to understand that though it might be cold and wet you get on with daily life be it going to school or going to work! Perhaps than we would have less of a youth unemployment problem when our young peoiple understand that you may have to get up earlier to get to school during periods of bad weather.It's the roads and pavements surrounding the schools that make it sometimes impossible to get there, so there is no option but to close. Headmasters are in a tricky position they are getting it wrong if they close and should something happen if school stays open and a pupil has an accident then parents will moan as well. Perhaps Bucks County Council could provide grit and salt for the schools and with the help of parents the access outside the school premisses could be cleared. But that is in ideal world where people would get their act together and clear the pavements.
I walked and used the train to get to and from school. If there was too much snow in the playground it was closed and the pupils used the halls etc for breaks.
I and my fellow pupils found it good fun to create 'slides' in the snow. We took care to ensure that the slides did not cross the informal paths used to move between buildings. We looked where we were going and if we slipped over it was our own stupid fault for not looking properly.
Mr Totterdge Hill
says...
9:27am Mon 11 Feb 13
Mr Totterdge Hill wrote:The Hill is now passable, I even saw a gritter!
Totteridge Hill... The police have now gone and some cars are sliding down the hill but not much going up at the minute.
firminafirm
says...
9:45am Mon 11 Feb 13
Kris S
says...
10:40am Mon 11 Feb 13
readerabc wrote:Well done.
well i have just cleared my own driveway, the paths outside my house and the road outside mine and neighbours house.... took 15 minutes. come on people ..
re coments about making your own decision on schools being closed!! how stupid!!! what is the point of going to school..only to find it is closed due to the 2cm of snow in wycombe (sands/west wycombe)
our road is clear and gritted as the residents did it!!
Looks like you and me are the only ones clearing oyside our and our neighbours' houses. Did the bus stop as well. Don't want anyone slipping as they get off the bus.
Bookermum
says...
11:24am Mon 11 Feb 13
williamjames wrote:In those good old days you had a caretaker that lived in site, and most the teachers and head teacher lived within walking distance to the school! So teachers could walk to school, as could the children no matter what the weather was doing!!
As a schoolboy in the '50s and '60s we had some bad winters but the schools did not close.
What are the teachers and parents scared of? The lesson that is being taught to our youth is one of a little snow stops the world. It is time for schools, parents and pupils to understand that though it might be cold and wet you get on with daily life be it going to school or going to work!
Perhaps than we would have less of a youth unemployment problem when our young peoiple understand that you may have to get up earlier to get to school during periods of bad weather.
These days teachers and head teachers work at schools miles away from where they live. So even if it is clear down your road, the accidents on the Motorways and minor roads (like this morning) can easily stop teachers getting into school!!
My daughters pre-school decided to open at 10 today to give staff time to arrive and to clear the paths around the gates to make it safe for children!! Excellent idea in my opinion!
x-teacher
says...
11:58am Mon 11 Feb 13
MCarey
says...
12:21pm Mon 11 Feb 13
firminafirm wrote:indeed, i think Hazlemere and Widmer End have been the worst hit, in the centre of Wycombe they have no such problems
Sands may only have 2cm, in Widmer End there is about 10cm....not bragging just a comment....
Sparkles26
says...
1:41pm Mon 11 Feb 13
s6blr
says...
4:58pm Mon 11 Feb 13
BucksCC runs this as a free service, if you'd get off of your iPad backsides, call your school, or use some of that good old common sense you'd have known better.
Flaming Mr. Tett who's team probably runs a lot of websites, and had an unfortunate outage does nothing to help. Unfortunately computers fail, but most of the flamers here are epic fails for their vitriolic venomous behaviour.
Get a grip folks, it's just snow. Not Armageddon!
Sparkles26
says...
8:26pm Mon 11 Feb 13
s6blr wrote:Well said!! Ridiculous how parents behave. Can you imagine how they would cope if theses parents had to make any kind of live changing decisions where their kids are concerned!
I think Bucks parents need to take a rather large dose of the drug "Perspective" here.
BucksCC runs this as a free service, if you'd get off of your iPad backsides, call your school, or use some of that good old common sense you'd have known better.
Flaming Mr. Tett who's team probably runs a lot of websites, and had an unfortunate outage does nothing to help. Unfortunately computers fail, but most of the flamers here are epic fails for their vitriolic venomous behaviour.
Get a grip folks, it's just snow. Not Armageddon!
Monkey King says...
7:08am Mon 11 Feb 13
Perhaps BFP could keep us up to date as the BCC can't?