Around 70 schools were forced to close across County Durham due to heavy snowfall in some parts of the North East.
Burnside Primary School in Stanley said the weather had made roads and paths "treacherous", while others said staff could not travel as it was "unsafe".
Most pupils are home learning due to the lockdown but vulnerable children and those of key workers can attend.
Schools in Bearkpark, Annfield Plain, Consett and Easington were among those forced to close.
Mark Readman, highway services manager at Durham County Council, said his teams had been working 24 hours a day since Friday.
Overnight some higher areas of the country, in Teesdale and Weardale, were hit with heavy snow, the BBC reports.
"Often the schools are difficult to access because they are off the priority network but we do have staff deployed to do footpath clearing," he said.
"Most of our staff are also deployed at the vaccination centres, we are desperately trying to keep them open as well.
"I think the biggest problem is the high winds and the drifting snow.
"It's very light in nature this snow, so it's blowing about a lot but we have got all of our gritters out across the network."
The wintry weather is set to stay for the weekend as the Met Office has extended the snow and ice warning for the North East.
The yellow weather warning has been extended for the third time as parts of the region experienced heavy snowfall overnight causing travel disruptions on Wednesday morning.
The weather warning has now been extended from early Saturday morning until just before midnight the same day.
