Snow days: How to find out if your child's school is open in serious weather conditions

• When it snows, sometimes schools are able to close if staff or students can’t get there safely

• Local authorities have a dedicated webpage which lists these closures

• The government has a special directory parents can use to find this webpage in each area

• But schools may also use a range of other methods to let parents know they are closed

Much of the UK has experienced flurries of snow over the weekend, but while it was a light dusting for some, others have seen school-closing snow dumps.

Schools across many parts of Scotland and northern England were closed on Monday (6 January), right as children were poised to return to the classroom after the Christmas holidays. It follows a weekend of heavy snow for many areas, with a Met Office yellow weather warning for snow and ice in force until midday.

While there is not currently a set legal temperature for classrooms at which schools have to close - with most being heated, regardless - schools are able to temporarily close if extreme weather conditions make it dangerous for staff or students to get there. 

But if it’s snowy in your area, what is the fastest way to find out whether your child’s school is still open? Here’s what you need to know:

How to check for weather-related school closures in England  

To find out the status of a school in England or Wales when the weather gets rough, the government has set up a special webpage. Here you can enter your or your school’s postcode, and be directed to the relevant council webpage. 

Councils should have a list of all school closures in their area available there, with most able to be updated in real time by head teachers. Some councils, like Staffordshire County, for example, allow parents to sign up for email alerts on this webpage too. We’ve included a link to the government directory below. 

Probably the fastest way to find out, however, is to look up the school’s website directly. Many schools will publish notifications on their sites or social media pages in the event of a closure, so it’s always worth having a look there first. Some schools may also have pre-recorded voicemail messages informing parents who call in of the closure.

However, severe weather conditions can also sometimes disrupt telecommunication services, including phone lines or the internet. In this instance, you may be able to find out whether your child’s school is open by tuning in to your local radio station. In some areas, such as North Yorkshire, head teachers will inform the station covering the area in which the school is located, and ask them to broadcast a message to parents.

To find out about emergency school closures in any part of England and Wales, you can search its postcode in the government’s official online directory here, as mentioned above. It will redirect you to the local authority’s dedicated page for school closures.