Schools have been criticised in the past for closing when it snows heavily.
However, a new Harvard study has found that shutting schools occasionally because of bad weather does not damage learning.
In fact, the worst disruption is caused when schools try to stay open, but large numbers of staff and pupils don’t manage to get there.
Former school teacher Joshua Goodman, who is now assistant professor of public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, was asked by the Massachusetts Department of Education to find out if snow days have a detrimental impact on student achievement.
But when he and his team analysed seven years worth of data they found that closing schools due to snow did not affect pupils’ results.
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