School closures are snow joke

Ivory_Tinkler

Just managed to catch up with this thread again having lost internet access last night. I wonder if the OP's child's school was open/closed today?

FatAndy

Ivory_Tinkler wrote: »

Just managed to catch up with this thread again having lost internet access last night. I wonder if the OP's child's school was open/closed today?

It's open :beer:.

As I've said a number of times we have not had any severe weather conditions by any definition this week. We had a brief snow shower at lunchtime on Tuesday, maybe 2cm on the ground. Until last night the temperature hadn't dropped below freezing for a couple of days. This may be difficult to grasp if you live in Leeds, Andover or Congleton but not every part of the UK is suffering from heavy snow. As I write this the skies outside are blue, there's virtually no clouds in sight and the sun is shining. Exactly as it was yesterday.

kivsy

My childrens schools were all shut yesterday and the local council here have shut all schools in this area today. It stopped snowing here yesterday lunchtime, the problem now being the snow has turned into ice with now thaw looking likely. I for one am hoping that the schools will be shut again tommorow as it wont be safe to get there (where we live is very hilly) but more importantly Im hoping they are shut as its nice to have some time at home with the children!!!

Stop moaning and enjoy what you have

Jo_F

The skies are blue here, with lovely sunshine, and we have had very little in the way of snow since Monday. But.... 5 inches of snow has been compacted down, and its basically sheet ice, that even if they sent a gritter on our road, it would make very little difference.

The temperature has risen from -10 at 8am, to -5 now.

My kids are back at school today, but apparently there are a lot that cannot make it to school, but they have been off for 3 days due to a broken boiler that flooded the school, and it wasn't the head that closed the school, it was the company that own the building and are responsible for its upkeep.

Fair play to them for getting it fixed, and managing to clean up the mess in 3 days, at a time when the temperature hasn't even got near zero, never mind got over it, I really feel foe thos engineers having to work in those conditions.

elfen

kr15, there is also that in some Scandinavian countries the schools actually have a holiday built in for when the weather is going to be at it's worst, so the children miss nothing.
Don't forget the mandatory change to snow tyres and the addition of snow chains if it's bad.

FatAndy

Ok, i live down the road from you..

1) I realise that the weather has been extremely bad in some parts of country but it hasn’t been here. We had one snow shower yesterday which lasted about an hour. There was at best 2cm of snow which pretty much began thawing as soon as the snow stopped. The temperature hasn’t dropped below freezing since Monday and there’s virtually no wind so no wind chill factor to consider. This morning we’ve had blue skies and bright sunshine. Where there was still snow on the ground it was slushy rather than icy. I assume the ice the school was referring to was compacted snow. All the main roads in the area are clear and I’ve heard of no reports of disruption to public transport. If we’d had 15-20cm of snow and sub-zero temperatures then fair enough but we haven’t.

All the main roads are clear? Ok, so your Child goes into school, falls and smacks their head on the floor and is KO'd, you would be wanting a ambulance, yes? Say one from G.Clwyd hospital, yes? Only the long windy road that connects the hospital to the outside world was a big long ice rink that was awful to get down..thus your ambulance would be delayed, as would medical treatent to your injured child be..also no disruption to transport here? Hmm, we not counting buses as transport then as yesterday Arriva took all buses off..but im sure that was not disruptive in the slightest!

You haven't thought this one through have you :rolleyes:. The majority of, possibly all, the teachers made it to the school along with a large number of the children. Had the school been open all those kids would have spent the day in a nice warm classroom, properly supervised and prevented from taking part in risky and dangerous activities. The possibly of an accident would have been miniscule.

However by turning the kids away the risk of an accident leading to serious injury and hospitalisation was MASSIVELY increased. If nothing else most of them would have had to walk back home using the same pavements that the school (or whoever) had decided were too dangerous to walk on. That's doubled the risk of an accident already. Then what happens after that. No doubt a large number of them were let out to play, roaming the streets and once again walking on those 'dangerous' pavements, crossing busy roads, etc.

If you were really concerned about access to Glan Clwyd then surely you would have be in favour of keeping the kids safe in the first place, not exposing them to far greater danger and risk of accident? Perhaps you can re-think your case and try again?

Let's face it this decision had nothing whatsoever to do with concern over the safety of the pupils, who were exposed to far greater risk of injury by being turned away. It's purely down to someone, probably higher up the chain than the headmaster, failing to accept the responsibility they're no doubt paid very good money to shoulder. They need to resign straight away and be replaced by someone who puts the safety of children ahead of any concern over the minute possibility of a future lawsuit.

In any case I'm not sure that the buck was passed as was intended. The parents weren't told the school was closed so no doubt once word got around some of the unaccompanied kids would no doubt have turned round and headed off to who knows where. If the parents are unaware that their kids have been left to roam the streets who is responsible then?

p.s. If any of those kids who spent the day wandering the streets was injured in any way I suppose they could always take them to A&E at Llandudno hospital. It would be much closer and there were no icy roads to worry about.

dizziblonde

Another problem's cropping up - the school I was at today was (obviously) open, but the caretaker there has now run out of grit to keep the paths in and out of the school safe (the kids are already cooped up all day since the playground's sheet ice). Pavement outside the school grounds was like glass it was snow so compacted (schools inevitably attracting a lot of pedestrians in and out) - amazed I made it back to my car (parked on the road as I didn't fancy getting stuck in the school car park) in one piece today!

ellissa

I have not read this whole thread but some of what I have read has left me in hysterics, it really has!

Of course the schools are shut because teachers are skiving. Yes, what happens is, teacher looks out of window at 6am and thinks they don't fancy it. They then phone the LEA and tell them to instruct the head to close their school. Just like that. Yeah, right! Seriously, teachers don't decide anything. Most of the time it is the head who is following strict guidance from the council. In some instances the closure is forced by the buses who refuse to transport kids in (rural schools). So many schools are PFI now (building privately owned) that more often than not it's the company who owns the building who won't let the head open if the site is deemed unsafe.

I do agree with posters who say the threat of kids slipping in school is not a valid reason to close schools. But that is not the reason. The reason is because the parents of kids who slip on ice (often after being told by teachers not to go on said ice in the first place)/parents dropping kids in school who then skid in car park and crash then take legal action against the school. Ever wondered why your taxes go up but school budgets don't??? Any yes I know this is not the main reason before anyone jumps on that!

Have you thought how many teachers looked out of their windows to see deep snow and ice this week but as school was still open, they risked travelling (irresponsibly probably) because of their loyalty and responsibility and sense of duty of care for the students? How many teachers (and many other professions I know) had terrible accidents trying to get to work?

Yes it is wrong that your kid's school did not inform you of the closure with adequate warning but it could be unavoidable. Yes you are cross but how many teachers are also cross that they drove in appauling and dangerous conditions to find it closed?

Where schools are closed, how many teachers sat on their backsides or played in the snow? Rather, how many still went into school or worked from home to catch up with marking, planning etc?

As for the training day debate.... seriously, do you think it is a waste of time/excuse for a skive that teachers spend time being trained in safeguarding students and such like? Yes, some is common sense but there is a chain of accountability. Government implements new legislation to LEA, LEA train senior staff, heads have to arrange training for teachers, teachers must attend. If you have issues with training days then knock on the door of Number Ten. Don't blame the teachers.

Here's one for you.... there's a teacher who is also a mother. Daughter's school is closed but mother's school is open. Does Teacher a) sit on MSE moaning about child care having not gone to work b) take said child to work and have them sit at the back of their classroom all day c) do their utmost to arrange alternative childcare and go to work. I'll tell you this much, it's not a.

I'm not saying all teachers would behave in the ways I am describing. I am a teacher, I have worked with many teachers and the majority are the most dedicated professionals you will meet who always put the needs of their students and their families first (often before their own needs/needs of their families - rightly or wrongly just ask my OH) however there are some that will be praying school will be closed all week and they won't be working from home. I'm not saying all teachers are saints or above anyone else, just that we're not scumbags either.

I work in a large school and teachers travel from a radius of 40 miles - that's just the staff I know of. We have been told that regardless of whether school is open, it is up to us to judge if it is safe to travel.

Yesterday we were open and I left home an hour early, drove at ten miles an hour in horrendous conditions (petrified for most of the way) to get to school to find only one third of students! One third! And reception were over run with parents calling to ask why on earth school was open! The same parents, I expect, who wrote a letter of complaint last time snow forced closure to say teachers should have come in at the weekend to shovel snow to keep the site open! Or maybe the ones who said we should give up our easter hols to open the school for the day lost through closure - just not the first week please as their family were on hols!

Today we are closed. I personally have followed the guidlines given. In event of closure, go to nearest open school (with copy of CRB) if suitable to travel and offer your time. If no schools are open, proceed with planning, marking, reports, admin etc. Our school even had all our reports emailed home to us in a format compatible for use outside the school network to enable us to work today. So all schools near me are closed. I have been working all day - almost finished my reports, marked all mock exam papers, written some assessment tasks, planned some lessons. Stopped for a break about 4pm and will continue later (reports due in tomorrow - even in the event of school closure they must be submitted). My school has even set up an online learning environment so if the school is closed for whatever reason, the teacher can still post the lesson online as far as possible and then has to be available for student queries online for the duration of that lesson! How many students use this service? Sorry, I mean how many parents make their kids use this service? Not many, I can tell you - but it is still our fault their child has lost a day off school.

So, yes, there are teachers who will enjoy the 'day off'. Most of us however are as professional as the next person and will not be skiving. School closures are not down to the teachers.
For those of you who think it's just all the fault of the teachers then did you know it's also the fault of teachers that the bin men have not been all week, teachers are also responsible for my OH doctors appointment being cancelled twice due to reduced surgery in the snow. Likewise, teachers are to blame for my post not being delivered all week, for the chinese take away being shut last night and definately the fault of a teacher that my supermarket shopping home delivery was cancelled today.

Anyway, off for dinner then back to the reports.
Rant over
Ells x

Storck

Well done ellissa and thank you for putting a decent response on here about what teachers do. I'm not a teacher, and never would be, but it makes a change for someone to come on and give a real life explanation about what happens on your "days off".

Redalligator68

Having been a teacher now for 23 years, I am somewhat surprised by some of the posts here. In every school I have worked at all my colleagues BAR NONE have welcomed the prospect of snow with open arms as a chance for a day off.

Nothing to do with childrens safety. We are talking snow for goodness sake - kids love it.

No - while my neighbours head off to work (or have to stay home - unpaid, to mind the kids), I will be having a lie in and looking forward to mid term which shouldn't be far off by now.

We teachers are lazy, but at least I admit it. Who wants to work for a living? Bring on the snow!!!