Teachers - day off at the slightest sign of snow

[emg]

Originally Posted by duchy

I do wonder if teachers (and some other public sector employees) lost pay for days they couldn't attend due to weather if the absence rate would still be as high .

I work in the NHS and we dont get paid if we dont turn up on snow days but there are usually more people off due to childcare issues with the schools closed than due to not getting through the snow.

[davidlizard]

Originally Posted by patman99

If CRBs are only valid for a specific school, how do supply teachers get on then ?. I think you'll find a CRB is for the LEA area not just a given school. I'm an ACSL and my CRB covers me to attend as a leader or assistant in any Group within our District, but to work in another District I would need to have another CRB check.

As for updating the system, this was mooted by the Labour Govt. and the public were up in arms. Mainly due to the papers getting it wrong with scare stories about people needing CRB checks just to take their friends children to after-school activities along with their own. Ridiculously, Churches are exempt from CRB checks.

Is that seriously true?

Churches are the first place where CRB checked staff should be required given their less than perfect track record in this area.

[katejo]

Originally Posted by duchy

My son once brought home a worksheet for homework for spelling numbers Twenty Thirty Fourty <sigh>

Quite honestly though your first point irritated me. In the private sector it is considered an employee's responsibility to get themselves to work and many companies would have the attitude that if transport is too difficult-get a car, move closer or leave. I do see their point. Why on earth would anyone living in a country that routinely has winters where public transport stops for snow take a job far from home when they could work closer to home (as there are schools in every town)-it makes no sense.

I do wonder if teachers (and some other public sector employees) lost pay for days they couldn't attend due to weather if the absence rate would still be as high .

I am a public sector employee at a university. If we have bad weather and don't come in, the day is counted as a day of our annual leave. We aren't penalised in this way as long as we make an effort to get there, even if we arrive late and have to leave a bit early to get home safely.

[Storck]

Originally Posted by davidlizard

Is that seriously true?

Churches are the first place where CRB checked staff should be required given their less than perfect track record in this area.

No it is not true.

You need a CRB check to do most things in church including giving out communion and also doing readings. As you are seen as someone with authority and children or people with special needs may come to you .

Not sure where the person got their "fact" that churches were except from. Maybe from their own strange land.

[bugbyte]

Originally Posted by zoominatorone

The headteacher is responsible for closing the school, which lets face it is usually after a flurry of phone calls from the TEACHERS who can't get into work on the same roads the rest of the working population are using to get to work

You are not a Headteacher, and you are, frankly, clueless. In all likelihood you have not been near a school since 1970 when Mr Evens the P.E. teacher strung you up by your underpants. For some reason you keep perpetuating the same myths over and over and over, despite lots of people who actually know what they are talking about politely pointing out the opposite. There is a large amount of research into why certain groups of parents do not engage with schools. Inevitably it is down to bad experiences when they were in schools themselves. I suspect you fall into this category. Please accept that schools have moved on. Mr Evans is probably dead by now from work related stress and schools are very different environments to what they used to be. Whatever it is let it go, you will be happier!

[Storck]

Originally Posted by patman99

If CRBs are only valid for a specific school, how do supply teachers get on then ?. I think you'll find a CRB is for the LEA area not just a given school. I'm an ACSL and my CRB covers me to attend as a leader or assistant in any Group within our District, but to work in another District I would need to have another CRB check.

As for updating the system, this was mooted by the Labour Govt. and the public were up in arms. Mainly due to the papers getting it wrong with scare stories about people needing CRB checks just to take their friends children to after-school activities along with their own. Ridiculously, Churches are exempt from CRB checks.

Which Churches are exempt? Definitely not the Catholic Church as I have seen the paper work involved just to give out communion to people a church

[bugbyte]

FYI CRB's are changing in January to DBS's which *should* tackle a lot of the issues raised, although we will wait and see.

[bugbyte]

Originally Posted by Hmm71

It's neither childish nor clutching at straws. I expect the people who are going to be teaching my children to be decently educated themselves.
Knowing the difference between "you're" and "your" is a very basic point of grammar. I fear for the future of education if you think things like that don't matter.
Perhaps you should think again about becoming a teacher.

40% of millionaires are dyslexic. Do they not make a worthwhile contribution to society?

On wealth, jobs with the highest earning potential require Maths, Science or Engineering type qualifications - and the lowest*? English.

You really are a special one if you think command of English is the only requirement to making an outstanding teacher.

* of core subjects, although Media Studies is often run by the English Department.

[Nilrem]

Originally Posted by Storck

No it is not true.

You need a CRB check to do most things in church including giving out communion and also doing readings. As you are seen as someone with authority and children or people with special needs may come to you .

Not sure where the person got their "fact" that churches were except from. Maybe from their own strange land.

I thought that one was rubbish as well, one of my uncles spent decades working in various churches around the world (basically wherever his job sent him he'd play the organ/teach it/help out at the local COE/Anglican church), and I remember him being really very upset when the CRB's came in, as he saw it as a personal insult on his character/honour, and as he put it "all it shows is someone hasn't been caught".


Back on topic.
Personally I suspect a lot of teachers these days cannot afford to love close to the Schools they work at (or wouldn't want to due to the local area), let alone the issues of liability and legal requirements for minimum staffing.
I'm also quite aware that most of the teachers I know tend to work well past their contracted hours, not just the sort of 5-15 minutes in many places of work*, but hours at home doing work that needs to be done for the classes. And that's before any of the clubs/activities that teachers are often expected to take part in during their free time.


*And I know a lot of non teachers who get quite militant about being asked to spend 5 minutes past their contract hours on a regular basis.

[Nilrem]

Originally Posted by bugbyte

40% of millionaires are dyslexic. Do they not make a worthwhile contribution to society?

On wealth, jobs with the highest earning potential require Maths, Science or Engineering type qualifications - and the lowest*? English.

You really are a special one if you think command of English is the only requirement to making an outstanding teacher.

* of core subjects, although Media Studies is often run by the English Department.

Your post reminds me of an interesting article I read a while back, basically a very surprising number of computer programmers (well above the number in the general population) are dyslexic, and apparently it doesn't make any difference to their ability.
As like many programmers as long as they are consistent in the mistakes, it doesn't affect the programmes they are writing, it only tends to become a problem when someone else has to work on the same programme, and that's true of any programmer, as different programmers may have their own short cuts for coding or even if not dyslexic can consistently use the same but different way of spelling something (especially if they are from a different country but share the same language).

[Torry Quine]

Originally Posted by Storck

No it is not true.

You need a CRB check to do most things in church including giving out communion and also doing readings. As you are seen as someone with authority and children or people with special needs may come to you .

Not sure where the person got their "fact" that churches were except from. Maybe from their own strange land.

Although people working in the Sunday School etc need PVG checks (Scotland), they aren't needed by everyone giving out communion or doing readings across the board. I say this as in my church anyone could be asked to help with communion or give a reading so that would mean the whole congreagation.

[gregg1]

Originally Posted by zoominatorone

The headteacher is responsible for closing the school, which lets face it is usually after a flurry of phone calls from the TEACHERS who can't get into work on the same roads the rest of the working population are using to get to work

What a ridiculous statement.

The teachers have no idea whether the school is closed or not until pretty much the same time as everyone else. They certainly have no influence on the decision. Many times my OH has been in the car attempting to get to the school when she has found out the school is closed. The decision to close a school is made with the students in mind more than the staff and whether it is safe for kids. Also, they have to consider if, once the kids get to the school, will they be able to get home again. Sorry if that throws your teacher bashing comments off course but there it is!

[gregg1]

Originally Posted by duchy

My son once brought home a worksheet for homework for spelling numbers Twenty Thirty Fourty <sigh>

Quite honestly though your first point irritated me. In the private sector it is considered an employee's responsibility to get themselves to work and many companies would have the attitude that if transport is too difficult-get a car, move closer or leave. I do see their point. Why on earth would anyone living in a country that routinely has winters where public transport stops for snow take a job far from home when they could work closer to home (as there are schools in every town)-it makes no sense.

I do wonder if teachers (and some other public sector employees) lost pay for days they couldn't attend due to weather if the absence rate would still be as high .

Have you not read the thread properly? I have already said my OH and the other teachers at her school make up any days lost for bad weather! How in God's name do you expect them to teach when the school is closed, locked, not open, no kids ( take your pick).

[gregg1]

Originally Posted by stephen77

well if you close the school. What is the point in taking there children to a closed building?

not all the pupils will be getting a bus to school. The children with in walking distance can still walk in. They may be in a 1/2 empty class room, but this will allow teacher to give more attention to the pupils etc.

If the school is open, some parents will drive there children in who are not at work and have cars.

I can't speak for other schools but the majority of kids at my OH's school travel by bus/train. As I said, in our experience, parents actually DON'T drive their kids in if the roads are bad.

[zagubov]

Originally Posted by bugbyte

40% of millionaires are dyslexic. Do they not make a worthwhile contribution to society?

On wealth, jobs with the highest earning potential require Maths, Science or Engineering type qualifications - and the lowest*? English.

You really are a special one if you think command of English is the only requirement to making an outstanding teacher.

He makes a good point. If you think a teacher has to spell correctly on a forum or he's no good, no wonder teachers don't want to live near pupils judging them.

Do doctors always live next to their own patients who can see them going to the pub?

[sal1960]

At the school where I work we made a plan well in advance to deal with snowy times. Some of the staff live quite a long way from the school but others live nearby-those who can get in relatively easily are expected to do so and the others are asked to make a sensible and safe attempt to get in at least once during the snowy period if possible.
This has worked well for us and we have not closed at all for several years.
I had a class of 5 children a couple of years ago which was strange but we were there and we all did our best.

[ChopinonaBudget]

At my daughter's school, they have 2 days allocated to 'days off due to snow'. If it doesn't snow that year, the kids then get days off in July to compensate for the clear weather.
And you all thought your schools were bonkers.....

[Hmm71]

Originally Posted by bugbyte

40% of millionaires are dyslexic. Do they not make a worthwhile contribution to society?

On wealth, jobs with the highest earning potential require Maths, Science or Engineering type qualifications - and the lowest*? English.

You really are a special one if you think command of English is the only requirement to making an outstanding teacher.

* of core subjects, although Media Studies is often run by the English Department.

No, I don't think it's the only requirement but I don't think expecting any teacher to have a grasp of basic grammar is asking too much.

[SmallL]

Originally Posted by Hmm71

No, I don't think it's the only requirement but I don't think expecting any teacher to have a grasp of basic grammar is asking too much.

I have much more than a 'basic grasp' on grammar.

Just don't assume i will be a terrible teacher and belittle my career choice, im passionate about enthusing others about my subject, i think passion and commitment to quality learning is more important than how i choose to type on a forum.
How someone types =/= how they always type.
I doubt i would have gotten this far without a basic grasp of grammar!

[pollypenny]

I remember driving to school through heavy snow in the 80s. - nerve-racking. Having got to school, we couldn't get up the drive, as the deep snow had not been cleared.

We did the obvious thing and parked on the street.

The head's phone was red-hot with complaints from parents that staff cars were clogging up the road.

Can't win. Btw: this was a school were no one was bused in, so it never closed.