Did schools close because of snow when you were a kid?

I think there was some kind of heavy snowfall in the late 1980s or early 1990s (I was at primary school), when the school was closed for the day. I recall one day in the mid-90s when there was some decent snowfall and I was attending secondary school. About six or seven of our class made it in. We still had lessons as normal and everyone who took the day off had extra homework to catch up with.
 
SarahLee said:
hese hideous things are what we used to refer to as dappers
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Yep thats the ones (y)

But note the title
Elastic Gusset Plimsolls :D
 
Cobra said:
With a shoe lace as a "draw string"
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That's it and hung on a hook in the classroom.

Sometimes the shorts or knickers were pressed into service if a kid s*** themselves.
The cry went up he/she has got "angers" describing the sagging undergarments as the unexpected weight made them hang down
The caretaker was called to come with the sand bucket and the incontinent child was led away in tears.
They then came back wearing the PE kit as a badge of dishonour and no one would sit next to them for fear of a repeat performance.
Aren't kids rotten?
 
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Cobra said:
Yep thats the ones (y)

But note the title
Elastic Gusset Plimsolls :D
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That's 'cos Amazon is English :p

tijuana taxi said:
That's the kiddies, burglar rubbers all kept in a PE bag what your mum made, boys had shorts and girls blue knickers
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Yep (except it was big red knickers for us) :lol:
You should Google Bata plimsolls now, they've definitely gone a bit upmarket from that horrible black things.
 
Cash's name tape!
 
omens said:
I think there was some kind of heavy snowfall in the late 1980s or early 1990s (I was at primary school), when the school was closed for the day. I recall one day in the mid-90s when there was some decent snowfall and I was attending secondary school. About six or seven of our class made it in. We still had lessons as normal and everyone who took the day off had extra homework to catch up with.
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We had heavy snowfall late 90 early 91. I was at work in Dagenham and many of my mates who lived 40 miles away were allowed to leave work early as the A12 had been hit bad and traffic was building up. It took them around 12hrs to get home. I left at the end of my shift and it still took me 7hrs to cover 10 miles. I could have probably halved that time if I had known that a flyover was clear and not snowbound.
After being open yestrrday, the local primary school where my wife works has decided to close today and tomorrow. Probably because a little girl slipped on some steps and broke her arm.
 
I used to decide myself, regardless of weather conditions, if I should turn up to school. A lot of days, I decided, it was much better to go to the local reservoir with my mates :D For some reason, this annoyed, my parents and my teachers :eek:;)
 
gremlin16 said:
It’s just the media. Starts with a slow news day, media then exaggerate some cold air coming from Siberia as a result of the met office’s ridiculous warning system.

Media gets social media into a frenzy, which then self perpetuates and grows, followed by panic buying and drama.

Even 5 years ago we would get a foot of snow and no one batted an eye lid.

We have about 1cm of snow here and all this hoohar is pathetic.
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22cm in Norwich. But you're right, must all be exaggeration.

Schools closed due to how bad the roads were, teachers couldn't get in. The main roads are better today, but all side streets are still just sheets of snow and ice.
 
KitsuneAndy said:
22cm in Norwich.
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b****r!
I was due to be working in that area today, but after an early morning google and police tweets.
I decided to stay away !
Glad I did !
 
Cobra said:
b****r!
I was due to be working in that area today, but after an early morning google and police tweets.
I decided to stay away !
Glad I did !
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I spent yesterday sledging with the 6 year old :) First time she's had "proper" snow, well, at least that she'll remember.

A47 and A11 are apparently still pretty bad, inner and outer ring road in Norwich is fine now, but everything away from the main road is very slippery. Driving unless absolutely necessary would still be pretty foolish around here today IMO.

Was deep enough for someone to be videod snowboarding down the road on Gas Hill yesterday:

http://www.edp24.co.uk/news/weather/man-snowboards-gas-hill-norwich-beast-from-the-east-1-5413306
 
Nod said:
If that was the winter of '62/'63, Dad spent some time being flown round (the South West) on the relief helicopters as a photographer and news cameraman. Using borrowed kit and at the last minute - turned out that the chap who was supposed to be doing it got airsick so couldn't do the job! I was a very small bump at the time so had no problems with transport!
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Yup, that was it, might even have seen your dad, was quite excited back then to see our bungalow (well the roof anyway) on the TV news:)
 
Steve B said:
Yes, my school in sunny Cornwall was closed for about 3 weeks in the freak winter of 1963.
Mind you there was no sign of where the roads were, the snow was level with the tops of the hedges, between 6 and 10 feet deep in places. The only way in and out for supplies and people were by RAF helicopters which did a wonderful job of keeping us going.
Fun times;)
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My daughters school in 'sunny' Cornwall closed yesterday at noon.there was no snow within a mile or two then, and up until about 10 minutes ago there has still not been any so to speak - a few tiny flakes blowing but nothing at all on the ground. She was born in southern Spain, so grew up only seeing snow when the village went on a trip to 'the snow'.
She was so excited all afternoon at the prospect of making a snowball or maybe even a snowman, but so far has been frustrated.
However, it has now just begun, but as far as we know, school is open again tomorrow - we'll see !
 
stevewestern said:
However, it has now just begun, but as far as we know, school is open again tomorrow - we'll see !
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I've been using various sites to track the weather, THIS is one of the better ones) and at present, it seems that those in the SW are about to get "their share" too !

Opera Snapshot_2018-03-01_142734_www.ventusky.com.png
 
I'm pretty sure my primary school closed a couple of times in the 80's. Don't remember having any days off at secondary school but then in all honesty I don't remember any significant snow from that period either.

Daughter's school has been closed the last couple of days up here in the North East. I'm sure people could have got in but in all honesty the road network has been pretty bad up here at times and it doesn't surprise me one bit that they decided to close it. They don't know for sure that they're going to be fully staffed for a start.

Forecasting has got ever more sophisticated as well. Daughter's school closure today was announced last night. Might seem a bit premature but there was already a lot of snow on the ground and much more due overnight and today. Why wait to make the call? Gives parents something of a chance to make arrangements. Slightly bitter that I've had to work though. Would have loved to be at home making snowmen with the kids!


Looking forward to some landscape photography at the weekend...
 
Definitely remember my schools closing - im 42.
Currently my wife's school has been closed since Tuesday, but we do live in the sticks and the snow drifts on the local roads means we cannot get out at all even to the nearest local town 3 miles away for provisions.
 
Cobra said:
I've been using various sites to track the weather, THIS is one of the better ones) and at present, it seems that those in the SW are about to get "their share" too !

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Def on it’s way

My sister is in Swansea and it’s snowing again

Had a bit overnight in Somerset but my weather staton is showing a faster temperature drop now 14:40

I am supposed to be flying to the US this weekend!
 
Cobra said:
I've been using various sites to track the weather, THIS is one of the better ones) and at present, it seems that those in the SW are about to get "their share" too !

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Yup, its started.
That's a great link, thanks !
Amusingly, I am listening right now to a track by Richard Hawley called 'Long Time Down' and he has just sung " It's been a long time coming, the snow is on the ground" Spooky, almost !
 
First thing this morning (06:45), down and back to/from town - no snow. 09:00, started to snow but not really settling. 10:00, starting to settle but roads pretty clear. 13:00, roads still good but snowing quite hard. 14:00, roads getting a bit iffy so left little car at top of our road (well dodgy - watched a 4x4 struggle down). Going to walk down with Mrs Nod and stay in town to walk back later - after dinner!

Cat not too sure about cold, white sand! Went about 5 yards then turned back.

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The company my partner works for (and which I used to work for) closed the site at lunchtime (before the snow really got going here). None of us 'old timers' can remember that happening, ever. I guess they, like the schools, can't take the risk of an employee being injured or worse with the warnings that have been issued, which are a recent thing. But having come close to putting a Defender in the hedge on a couple of hours ago.................
 
Yes, in 1994 we were given an extra day on our Christmas holidays when it snowed on the Sunday. First and only time I saw snow in my school days. We were back in on the Tuesday and the snow had frozen, all the better to make snowballs with! I have never seen my current local school close due to any weather event, though the majority of the rest of the area is closed.
 
At lunchtime, I checked with a couple of chain restaurants that they were staying open as usual since we were walking down this afternoon so Mrs Nod could teach her usual classes, after which we were going out for a bite to eat. On the way down, I popped in to both to recheck and both are closing early. Going to be a hungry walk home for supper!!!

As we were coming through town, every shop had closed early - Next, Boots, everywhere was closed apart from a few cafés/restaurants. Still some idiots trying to drive.
 
I can remember a couple of times that primary school was closed in the early 60s. The boiler broke down on two occasions and the temp in the school was below freezing.

I moved to Australia and had the opposite problem, but the school didn't close. I can remember the temp hitting 46C and the tarmac melting, sticking to my thongs (or flip flops as they are known here)
We didn't have air conditioning.
 
To be fair it's the right call they made, it's an odd mix of powdery snow and ice out there at the moment

The missus has been trying to get out of Southampton for almost 3 hours now, the flyovers are shut as people cant get up them..

M3 south of a303 is treacherous, M27 is lethal. Had to abandon my car a walk from home over on the edge of the new forest, roads are mostly ice so you almost don't make bends and barely stop.
 
I was in a boarding prep school in Norwich in 46/47. It was quite fantastic the head master shut the school for two days to take us all to a local slope, and we spent the time tobogganing. We were lucky in that the school had been evacuated to Barbon manor in westmoreland during the war and had about 50 really nice wooden alpine toboggans.
I had been evacuated there, and had spent a couple of winters tobogganing down the slope to the village, on what is now a famous motor hill climb, race track.
 
And another baffling thing.

We haven't had a newspaper delivered since the snow came. They say the vans "can't get out."

Well how come all I have to do is walk to the high street and pick one up? How come the papers are printed in Manchester or wherever and manage to travel a hundred miles or more to the paper shop in the high street but can't make it the last half mile to me?

Yeah, right.
 
Most roads are clear of snow around here. But clear of traffic too. I nipped into town earlier to get petrol and drove past the train station. Normally that is quite busy with traffic queuing from the traffic lights a few hundred meters away and there was only 2 other cars on the road. Not many people walking about neither. Did see one idiot walking along in the road with a pair of headphones on. The footpath on both sides of the road were clear of snow too.
 
Lethal conditions down in Kent at the moment. We have minus zero conditions and freezing rain, which has caused a lot of accidents.
 
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