Today's snow didn't close every school in Bristol

While hundreds of schools closed today due to heavy snow, many teachers went the extra mile to make sure it was business as usual in their classrooms.

Staff set off early, driving in hazardous travelling conditions or donning hiking boots and walking several miles to reach their schools on time.

Frenchay Primary School was one of only nine schools out of more than 100 in South Gloucestershire to open its doors.

The school's caretaker Graham West was at the school at 6.45am clearing away several inches of snow, along with chairman of governors Ges Rosenburg.

All except one of the teaching staff made it into work, with head teacher Sandra Allen travelling in from Thornbury.

Mr Rosenburg, who has a child at the school, believes the school's staff deserve praise for their dedication.

He said: "I think they did really well to get in. There were about 15 or 16 of them that managed to get into school. A couple of them came from reasonable distances by car.

"A lot of children live nearby and were able to walk to school, which allowed parents to get on with their work of course.

"Four or five of the staff came in by car, with some travelling from places like Kingswood and Downend.

"Parents had to bring in packed lunches for their children because we couldn't get the hot dinners in.

"Our caretaker was out there at 6.45am salting the ground and sweeping and clearing the snow so we could carry on as normal."

It was also business as usual at Rosemary Early Years Centre in St Jude's.

Children aged between two and four had fun with the teachers building snowmen in the nursery school garden.

The centre's head teacher Toni Glazzard said: "We are open while a lot of schools are closed - we feel we are quite resilient.

"We always say there's no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing. We stay open whatever the weather.

"We went outside in the garden and made pies and stews out of snow and ice, and we also built a snowman. The children had a wonderful morning playing in the snow."

Cabot Primary School in St Paul's was one of 27 primaries in Bristol open to pupils.

Several teaching staff made arrangements to ensure they could get into school.

The school's head teacher Tom Burton said: "Some made special plans like sleeping at a friend's house last night to be nearer to school, or setting off very early this morning to make it in on foot."

He said eight class teachers made it in, with some walking in from St George, Fishponds and Knowle.

Mr Burton said: "Teachers get a bad press when there are school closures but ours were making plans on Thursday night to make sure they could get in. It's been a really good team spirit thing and all the class teachers have managed to get in from across the city.

"It's very easy for people to criticise teachers for closures but we've managed to stay open."

Mr Burton added: "We went out at break time and children had fun playing in the snow."

Snow didn't stop pupils at Queen Elizabeth's Hospital school in Clifton making it in to enjoy a weather-based physics lesson.

Intrepid boys who made the journey in spent the morning putting their knowledge of forces and structures into practice by building their very own 5ft-tall igloo.

After practising with snowmen first, they carefully moulded more than 30 giant 'breeze blocks' made of snow which they assembled at a gradually increasing angle to complete the structure. They were helped by their Physics master Chris Gamble.