Schools may cancel tours to make up for lost snow days [IrishExaminer]
- Published: 29 January 2011
SCHOOLS might have to cancel school tours or planned days off to make up for time lost during last month’s freezing weather conditions, under guidance from the Department of Education.
Although most of the country’s 4,000 primary and second-level schools had to close for very few, if any days, it is believed that pupils were kept at home for more than two weeks in total from a few dozen schools, mostly in rural areas and where dangerous roads or icy school grounds made it impossible to remain open.
Following discussions with unions and representatives of boards of management, the department is telling schools it is up to each of them to decide how to make up any lost time, given the variation of the impact on class time.
The first step they are advised to take in a letter issued by officials is to assess the effect of lost teaching time and identify any shortfalls arising from the unforeseen closures, and then to check with the principal and teachers that each class or year group can complete the relevant curriculum before the summer holidays.
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