I gasped in disbelief at the letter in last week’s Free Press from Grace St Clair who suggested that teachers might sleep over in their classrooms when snow is forecast.

This daft idea would be rightly rejected by teachers who, even if they did bed down in sleeping bags, would have few children to teach on the following morning as so many children are driven to school.

Snow days (as they are now called) are great opportunities for children to engage in creative fun.

In an increasingly narrow primary school curriculum where the subjects of 3D art, music and drama are rarely taught, to see children making snow sculptures and speeding down on toboggans is great.

Such activities, often enjoyed in partnership with their parents, are the stuff of great memories and personal development.

I urge Grace and all others concerned with education to lobby our MP to ask why he votes for cuts to education budgets.

It is shocking to hear of headteachers who write to parents of state school pupils to ask them to make voluntary contributions to pay for books, computers and other essential equipment.

Sadly this occurred in Dulverton last year and as a teacher who visits many schools across West Somerset I can testify to the pressure headteachers are under in having to satisfy Ofsted expectations whilst managing ever-decreasing budgets.

We need a change of government that recognises the value of investing in education especially the creative subjects.

Pete Stevenson, West Street, Watchet.