Snow at break time

Text 1: No Snowballs, by Imogen Rathbone

An original novel extract.

The first snow in four years fell during assembly, and by break the playground was white and untouched. Mrs Fairweather stood on the steps with a microphone. ‘No snowballs,’ she announced. ‘Anyone throwing snow will spend lunch in my office.’ For about forty seconds, everyone obeyed. Then a snowball came from behind the bike shed, and nobody could tell who had thrown it, because the whole of Year Nine was standing there with innocent faces and wet gloves. After that it was impossible to stop. The teachers on duty could not watch every corner at once, and the snow kept falling, thick and soft, filling in footprints almost as soon as they were made. Even Mr Lowe, who was supposed to be on duty, was caught grinning when a snowball burst on the back of a sixth former’s head.

Explain two reasons why the teachers cannot stop the snowball fight.