My colleague Jane Hallam, Headteacher at Moor Allerton Hall Primary School sent me this e-mail...

"Dear Chris, Last week on the snowiest of snowy days ( Monday and Tuesday) Moor Allerton Hall Primary stayed open. We had 49% attendance on the Monday and 41% on the Tuesday. This has meant that our overall attendance figure at the end of last week was 91%.
It is such a shame that those schools who stayed open are penalised for doing what I felt be the right thing. I felt quite strongly that if we could open we should open... even in the face of criticism from pupils saying, it's not fair we have to come to school today when no one else does! Is there anything we can do to acknowledge that we stayed open? Is there no way of adding or adapting some of the codes that are used for absence? Kind regards. Keep warm. Jane."

Many colleagues who opened on Monday and Tuesday have raised this with me and we will take this up with colleagues at the DCSF.
Chris