By HELEN COMPSON

Published at 09:41, Friday, 08 January 2010

TEXT books were traded for sledges as school children across the district enjoyed an extended Christmas break.

By Wednesday, just about every school in Tynedale was closed as the snow continued to fall.

And one group of youngsters – 25 pupils from Haydon Bridge High – were holed up in the school’s boarding wing at Ridley Hall.

Head teacher John Dowler and several members of staff were with them and all was fine, he said.

“We have enough food and the pupils are happy; they have been having fun outside in the grounds,” he said.

He was in the process of weighing up the weather forecast and road conditions before deciding whether it was necessary and, more importantly, safe, to send the children home.

By Wednesday evening, all of the schools in Ponteland had taken the decision to remain closed for the rest of the week, and it was expected that most of the others would follow suit.

Head teacher at Ponteland High School, Stephen Prandle, said even if staff and pupils got to school safely, there was no guarantee they would be able to get home again, particularly if they travelled by school bus.

“Thirty per cent of our pupils come in from outlying areas, so we have to take that into consideration,” he said.

“But it’s not just the roads that are awful; we can’t get our car parks open either.

“If we brought all our staff in, we would be talking about 150 cars with nowhere to park – it would be chaos across Darras Hall and the rest of Ponteland.”

Richard Coates Middle School had to take an additional factor into account before deciding to close.

Schools inspectorate Ofsted was due to pay a visit this week, but agreed to postpone the inspection.

Published by http://www.hexhamcourant.co.uk