This week the UK has been hit by fierce wintery weather from Siberia, resulting in chaos all around the country. With heavy snowfall and temperatures having fallen well below freezing, these adverse conditions have led to severe delays in the transport sector and disruption for many businesses.
Schools across South London and Kent have been forced to close in order to ensure the safety of students and staff, although others have been reluctant to do so until today. Comprehensive 11-19 secondary and sixth form school Thomas Tallis in Kidbrooke had initially ignored calls from students and parents to shut its doors, however, this was met with social media backlash on sites such as Facebook and Twitter where angry parents complained that the safety of their children:
"Just received a text to say the year 8 coffee morning has been cancelled but you expect the children to go in???" (@ClaireMillis)
"You are being very reckless with our children's safety today. It takes my daughter an hour to get to school on a normal day. She will not be attending today due to the latest weather warnings." (@maisiehearts)
"For a school so obsessed with self image this is a PR disaster." (@TedJamesLambert)
Even after this strong reaction a minority of schools defiantly remained open, including Harris Academy Greenwich – which interestingly is in the same borough as Thomas Tallis.
Tallis Principal Caroline Robert’s decision to close the school today was announced via text message to parents and on the official website immediately after Thursday’s school day, although it had been previously said that it would open today. It is expected that the award-winning arts school will re-open on Monday along with many others.
