All was calm on Friday night. There were rumours of the oncoming storm: the wrath of Arwen. We had twenty students signed up to travel to Billingham for an afternoon of ice-skating. As the hail hit the windows and the wind speed built up over night I wondered what the morning would bring. Driving two mini-buses over the bleak moors in sub-zero temperatures and 60 mph winds and driving snow would not fulfil our safeguarding obligations. As it turned out, the ice-skating rink, further north-east than us was hit hardest first and was closed. Here, we just had the heavy rain and fierce winds. A few of our older trees fell down in the woods but fortunately no-one was there to hear them. Our power fluctuated in the morning winds, setting off alarms, but we had escaped the worst. A few boarders braved the breeze to get blown about in Whitby as enormous white horses crashed onto the beach. 

Sunday started with a light dusting of snow and again another batch of students braved Whitby and the wintery rain there. But by early afternoon the storm returned to dump two inches of snow at school and on the moor top causing vehicle slippages to block the road, trapping our students in town. Dr Richardson braved alternative routes through the ice and snow to retrieve them in time for tea. What a weekend with storm Arwen!

Ayd Instone, Head of Curriculum Enrichment and Communications