Hundreds of schools close two days into new term

Thousands of children were given an extra day off today as scores of schools closed due to the adverse weather.

Local authorities reported numerous school closures as heavy snow fell across large parts of the country.

Students arriving at schools this morning were sent home due to the deteriorating weather conditions.

Most schools said they would review the situation again tomorrow.

All schools in Aberdeenshire, Dumfries and Galloway and the Borders were shut, while students across the north of England, Wales and Cornwall were also sent home for the day.

Elsewhere in Scotland, 25 primary schools were closed in South Lanarkshire and in Fife 26 schools and council-run nurseries were shut.

More than 1,000 schools closed across the North West, while schools across the Pennines also bore the brunt of the closures with around 160 shut in North Yorkshire and nearly 130 in the Bradford area.

Dozens more closed in Leeds, Wakefield and York, while around 60 schools were shut in the Kirklees area.

In many cases, the closures were the result of a number of staff being unable to get to the schools.

Schools were closed across South Yorkshire due to the snow, with around 65 shut in Rotherham, 30 in Barnsley, 60 in Doncaster and 10 in Sheffield.

Sub-zero temperatures, icy roads and overnight snow combined to close dozens of schools across South and West Wales today.

Worst affected were western council areas where education chiefs were forced to shut a total of 93 schools.

In Carmarthenshire, 29 county primary schools and seven secondary schools were closed.

In Pembrokeshire, a total of 13 were shut - three secondary schools and 10 primary schools.

Further west in Ceredigion county, 51 schools were forced to close - eight secondary schools and 43 primary schools.

In Neath Port Talbot county, three primary schools were shut along with the lower school at Dwy-y-Felin Comprehensive School in Neath.

In the county of Powys, Mid Wales, a total of 35 secondary and primary schools were closed because of the weather.

In the eastern county of Torfaen, Hillside Nursery, in Blaenavon, was shut. In Cardiff, Llanishen High School was closed.

In Northumberland, more than 50 schools were closed and some bin collections in parts of the county were adversely affected by the weather.

Meanwhile, in County Durham, 36 schools were shut, although Durham County Council said they were expected to reopen tomorrow.

In the North West, schools in Manchester, Liverpool and surrounding areas were heavily disrupted with the number of closures passing the 1,150 mark by mid-afternoon.

Cumbria was also hit with more than 100 shut.

Elsewhere, some 95 schools in Cornwall and 20 in Devon were closed this morning due to the weather, while more than 50 schools in Gloucestershire were closed.