A LIGHT dusting of snow yesterday threw numerous schools around the town into chaos – with many deciding to turn pupils away at the gates for ‘health and safety’ reasons.

The temperature was a long way off the recent lowest measured by the Met Office, yet scores of the town’s schools were unable to cope.

The most common reason cited by the schools for giving staff and pupils a day off was problems with their central heating.

At Nova Hreod children were sent home on Monday afternoon with the news the school would be shut on Tuesday because of a burst pipe. Parents were later informed, by text message, to keep children at home because of “weather conditions” and a letter from the headteacher Julie Tridgell blamed health and safety concerns.

In her letter to parents Mrs Tridgell said: “I have taken the decision (following advice from the local authority) due to health and safety reasons.”

Swindon Council said that the decision on whether to keep schools open was down to each individual school.

Council spokeswoman Liz Richmond said: “Generally schools have outlines for emergency processes and what to do in weather like this.

“They take the decisions themselves on whether staff can get in. We offer guidance then they make that decision themselves.

“We just offer guidance on the processes to follow if they do close.”

Despite the rush to close schools, the Met Office said Lyneham’s lowest temperature on Monday night was nowhere near as cold as it had been in recent weeks.

A spokesman said: “It was -4.5C on Monday night. On January 10 it went down as low as -8.1C.

“There were quite a few instances through December where it was colder. For the whole period from December 27 to January 11 inclusive every night had a frost.”

Swindon plumbers said they had seen a recent increase in calls to fix boilers, but said yesterday was not especially bad.

Melissa Oram, company secretary at B& G Jenkins Heating and Plumbing Engineers in Wood Street explained that cold weather could cause pipes to burst in older condensing style boilers, but could be repaired in five to 10 minutes.

“We have seen an increase in calls as the weather has been colder. But it is not the snow so much as the cold weather,” she said.

“I can’t see any reason for there to be more calls on a snowy day than a really frosty one. It has been busy the last few weeks.”

At Gorse Hill Infants only half the school was open.

A spokeswoman said: “The boiler needed looking at, but it is working for half of the school.

“The children’s centre has a new building with its own boiler, it is the older bit we have closed.”

The spokeswoman said she did not know whether the boiler had been in use prior to this week’s fluttering of snowflakes.

Richard Jackson, head of Gorse Hill Juniors, which was also closed yesterday, said: “We’ve been having heating problems. The boiler was working on Monday, but when the caretaker came in at 4.30am he noticed it wasn’t running.”

Holy Rood Junior school in Upham Road were also closed because they were also having problems with the boiler.

A spokeswoman for Holy Rood Catholic Juniors said: “We’re closed because of the heating. We have been having problems with it, so decided it was safer to keep the children away.

“At Seven Fields Primary in Penhill, the cause of the closure was simply described as “because of the weather.”

A spokesman said: “We’ve got a lot of staff who live outside the area.”

At Bradon Forest school the “ground conditions” were behind the disruption to pupils’ education. A spokeswoman explained: “We were closed because of the ground conditions, it being slippy in the playground mainly.”

She added that she had “no idea” whether the school would be open today.

Greenmeadow Primary School, St Catherine’s Catholic Primary, Lydiard Millicent Infants and Ridgeway schools were also closed but had no one available to explain the closure.