Schools go ahead with exams, despite bad weather

Schools have been given priority today in clearing the snow as the majority remained open for GCSE and A-level examinations.

Balls stated, “I am sure no head wants to close their school if they can avoid it. But it is really important to take a balanced view and not to overstate risks like slipping in the playground, or having slightly less supervision.”

According to Ofqual, England’s exams watchdog, meetings were held with exam boards to monitor the impact of the snow.

Pupils in England, Ireland and Wales face rescheduling exams for the summer as the bad weather caused serious disruption to travel all over the country.

Early indications that centres have been able to proceed with exams due to priority in clearing snow suggest that the clearing scheme was a success.

However at Alton College in east Hampshire, 40 pupils out of 320 failed to arrive on time for their A-level  papers. Principal Jane Machell commented that many parents and children were staying over with friends in the hope that they would get in on time.

Across the UK, almost 850 schools still remain partially or fully closed due to the dangerous weather conditions and sub zero temperatures.

Despite so many closures chief executive of Ofqual, Isabel Nisbet, argues that it was the right decision to continue with exams this week as it was best for young people is to continue as planned; postponing an already busy exam schedule would not have been an easy thing:

“They’ve been working all over the holidays for them and you can see that’s part of their learning plan.

“The fairest thing for everybody is for as many as possible who can do it, to do it.”

Many students who didn’t make it in will receive special consideration when taking exams in the summer as the workload will double.