Too cool for school?
Then take the day off.
That was the scenario for half of Cromwell College's 400 pupils yesterday and the remaining pupils will score a day off today.
The school's coal-fired boiler was the culprit or the benefactor, depending on how you viewed the holiday.
Its breakdown coincided with temperatures plummeting to below zero, after a run of ''tropical'' 18deg to 19deg days last week.
''The auger that feeds the coal got jammed and shore off, just after we'd got 10 tonnes of coal delivered and just as the weather turned freezing again,'' principal Mason Stretch said.
Half the classrooms had heat pumps or could be warmed with electrical heaters, which meant year 7-9 pupils had schoolwork as usual yesterday after a delayed start at 10am.
''It's not ideal and we've tripped a few fuses with the extra heaters going, but I think it's all sorted out now and those rooms are warm enough,'' Mr Stretch said.
The year 10-13 pupils had the day off school yesterday but would trade places with the junior pupils today.
''And I'd like to think most of the senior pupils would have been ...devastated ... not to be going to school on a Monday,'' he said.
A replacement part had been found for the auger and repairs would be made today, so the heating should be back on tomorrow, bringing the unscheduled holiday to an end.
And there is bad news for any pupils hoping the cold snap might put the kibosh on parent-teacher interviews today.
These are going ahead as planned and, in fact, senior pupils will finish school early, leaving the warm rooms so they can be used for parent interviews.
