All schools in Fife and West Lothian back open after severe weather
Parents had to deal with four days of disruption as classes were cancelled
Last updated 6th Mar 2018
All schools across Fife and West Lothian reopened on Tuesday morning after severe weather forced them to close for four days.
Council teams were working round the clock over the weekend to clear snow and ice but didn't have time to reach all the pavements and roads surrounding schools.
All primaries and secondaries in Fife remained shut on Monday while 13 primary schools in West Lothian were still closed.
Carrie Lindsay, Executive Director of Education & Children's Services at Fife Council said: "Closing all our schools was one of the hardest decisions I’ve had to take in this role.
"I am acutely aware of the need to get our children back in the classroom to continue their learning as well as to allow our parents back to work.
"Lots of factors had to be considered and in the end it came down to one thing – we couldn’t be confident that children and families could get to school safely.
"Speaking to transport providers, we found that travel arrangements for different parts of the community at each individual school would have been so varied, it would have been confusing for families and unfair to expect children to attend.
“I can’t thank communities and staff teams enough for the exceptional efforts they made over the weekend to dig out primary school playgrounds.
"I joined groups at three schools myself and there was a great team spirit"