MOST children spend the winter months eagerly hoping for a snow day - a guilt-free day off school because of bad weather.

But in January 1977, pupils at a school in Thornbury had a rather unusual reason to be sent home from lessons.

Forty years ago, Tony Morgan, headmaster at the Leaze Junior School (now Gillingstool Primary School), made the dramatic move to send home over half of the school because room temperatures were “too cold”.

Children and staff were sitting in temperatures as low as -1 degrees, whereas the laid down minimum at the time was 16.9.

The situation arose because of issues with the schools heating, which had been ongoing for ”at least two years”, according to Board of Managers chairman Peggy Godwin.

On Friday, January 15, six out of eleven classes were sent home due to freezing temperatures, and it was not until Tuesday the following week that Avon county council, the education authority, supplied the school with additional heating.

The classrooms were heated with individual oil fired heaters but in the six classrooms affected by cold temperatures, three heaters had broken down and the rest were simply not functioning.

Engineers investigating the problem discovered that the boilers were so obsolete that no spare parts were available.

It wasn’t until Wednesday, January 20 that the children were able to return to the school, after spending three days at home.

But they were still unable return to their classrooms, and had to be accommodated in another part of the building.

Mr Morgan said that he had been shifting around the classes for some time, but that conditions had finally become impossible to work in.

The outcome, he said, was that children were suffering academically, and it was the children who were just learning to read and write who were affected most.

An Avon County Council spokesman said that the delay in getting temporary heaters had been caused by a large demand.

He said: “The fact is that a number of schools have inadequate heating systems, and in the light of the economic climate, this may take some time to rectify.”

He could not say how long the temporary heaters would stay, but the technical services department were doing all they could to rectify the situation

The school was built in 1951 as temporary accommodation, leading Mr Morgan to expressed the concern: “We have got used to temporary accommodation”.