Schools which closed because of snow in November 2010
A Freedom of Information (FOI) disclosure about schools that closed because of snow in November 2010.
Documents
Details
- Date requested: 07 December 2010
- Publish date: 04 January 2011
- Updated: 17 May 2011
Request
Can the Department provide details of the number of schools which closed because of snow fall during the week commencing 29 November 2010. If possible also provide numbers of school closures by city or region.
Release
There is no duty on schools or local authorities to report closures to this Department and therefore does not hold any definitive figures.
In order to inform Ministers of the scale of disruption, the Department gathers approximate figures from a range of websites (local authorities and local media). Because there is no duty on anyone to report data in any uniform way, the scope of data will vary from one area to another - for example which categories of school are included.
The estimated figures for each day in the week commencing 29 November 2010 are set out below. These cover closures of schools in England.
| Date | Number of schools closed |
|---|---|
| Monday 29 November | around 700 schools |
| Tuesday 30 November | around 1,200 schools |
| Wednesday 1 December | around 3,000 schools |
| Thursday 2 December | at least 7,000 schools |
| Friday 3 December | around 7,000 schools |
Figures for regions would be much less reliable, and we have no figures at all for individual local authorities and towns. In broad terms, the North-East accounted for most closures in the early part of the week, with the South-East hardest hit towards the end of the week.