A HANDFUL of schools which closed yesterday in areas largely unaffected by snow have been explaining why they shut.

Almost half of Derbyshire's schools – up to 250 – closed because of the weather, but only a few were in the southern part of the county where snowfall was much lighter.

Among those was the county's largest, John Port School at Etwall, which has more than 2,000 pupils.

Head teacher Wendy Sharp said: "It was in the interests of the health and safety. Significant numbers of staff live in areas where roads are treacherous and our bus companies said that while they would run the buses on main roads they were unlikely to be able to access those students who lived in the villages.

"More than 1,500 students are brought to school by bus."

Another school which closed to pupils was Noel-Baker Community School in Alvaston, which followed a decision to send them home at lunchtime on Tuesday.

Head teacher Mal Kerr said: "I had to consider two factors when deciding to close for the day, which I don't like doing.

"Our staff would have struggled to get to school and the pathways were very icy and took almost seven hours to clear yesterday morning."

But Alvaston councillor Paul Bayliss said he was surprised that the school had closed for other than something like a heating failure.

He said: "Schools close too easily and they should take a leaf out of the books of other schools which remain open no matter what. Teachers can't take a day's holiday to be off for snow because their holidays are set, they will get paid even if they aren't at work.

"That wouldn't happen in industry in the same way."

Quarndon's Curzon CofE School shut after one of the school's two cooks couldn't reach work.

A school spokesman said: "With 100 lunches to cook, it would have been too much for one person."

Sinfin Community School will remain closed for a fourth day because of boiler failure and only open to year 11 pupils.