CHILDREN across Worcestershire and Herefordshire got a snow day as around 230 schools were closed across the two counties today.

But as parents tried to find out if their child’s school was closed this mornign on Worcestershire County Council’s website it crashed.

The whole site was down intermittently from 6.45am for just over an hour.

Coun David Thain, cabinet member for transformation and change, said: "Whilst we opened customer contact centres earlier this morning and were tweeting from first thing, our website unfortunately could not cope with the volume of visitors.

"We would like to apologise for the intermittent service of our website which came at the worst possible time. We would particularly like to apologise to parents, businesses and residents who rely on important information such as finding out if their school is open.

“We would urge people to follow our Twitter account @worcscc."

Meanwhile teacher’s were forced to decide whether to shut their doors because of the weather.

Christopher Whitehead Language College in Worcester closed at 2.15pm but said they were glad to have opened with 75 per cent of pupils making the journey.

Headteacher Neil Morris thanked all parents, students and staff for making the journey in the wintry weather and said they were closing a bit early to ensure the safety of those using the buses. He added: "We have had 750 of the 1,000 pupils attend today and have had lovely comments from parents who have been able to go to work because we opened.

"We are preparing these young people for the world of work.”

Pershore High School headteacher Clive Corbett apologised for opening the school this morning and causing inconvenience to parents. He also denied the school had been opened to protect attendance figures.

“Apologies to any parents who were inconvenienced by our attempt to keep the school open and our ultimate failure to do so.

“Apologies also for any communication difficulties and shortcomings. I know it has been suggested by one person we did so in order to protect our attendance figures. I can confirm that is totally untrue since low attendance on a snowy day has the opposite effect.

“I would like to thank the bus companies and Pershore High School staff for getting students safely home. We will obviously do our best to open the school on Monday, January 21, but will communicate a decision as early as is possible.”