School closures are snow joke

RobertoMoir

janninew wrote: »

That just seems to be the world we live in now a days! Nobody takes responsibility for themselves! The poor kid is in a bad way, but it was an accident which could have happened anywhere! I wonder what kind of parents leave their sick child a couple of hours after he was injured to threaten the school with legal action? They have probably already got an appointment with a solicitor and will probably win thousands of pounds in compensation, which will have to come out of the schools budget! We can't win, if we close we get accused of skiving, if we stay open, somebody gets injured and we get sued!!

Hear hear. We opened most of this week and got complaints from parents saying we ought to be shut because it was too dangerous to get across the town to us as there was over 6 inches of snow and more falling. Of course, I "somehow" managed to get across my own town to the main road to the town where I work and across that town to the campus without incident and on time, so I'm really not sure what to make of that. Frankly I give up.

Pennylane

http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/educationoverview/severeweather/faqs/

thought I'd just add this to the discussion.

Pennylane

Here's the bit that I find really interesting -

What if traffic organisations recommend only essential travel?
In the Department's view, essential travel includes pupils going to school to keep learning, and school staff going to work. The DCSF is confident that headteachers and parents will support this.

elisebutt65

Well I went into work today and only a 1/3 of the class were there - which is even more of a pain because we teach to a very tight schedule so I had to deliver the planned lesson to the students who turned up and I will get major whinges from those who couldn't be bothered to get out of bed/missed the bus/ got stuck (yes I had all these messages passed on - even the not getting out of bed one)

So we ended up teaching one scheduled lesson and giving workshops to the others, purely cos we have information to give them that all of them need! I then spent my lunch break on the phone to parents trying to get them to get their lazy !!!!! kids in - only succeeded with 2 of them but better than nowt - Still would have liked a lunch break though :rolleyes: These are the same ones who will all moan when I fail them for failing to submit their work on time as well!

DrDoo

When I saw this thread I actual thought it would just be ignorant people slating teachers and calling us "skivers" - thank you to those who have actually replied with intelligent answers because I have had nothing but stick about our 2 day cloure.

I am no skiver, I have worked hard to get to where I am, and find it appalling that anyone would consider my hard work -ALL year round to be skiving. I have never, in my 6 years of teaching, taken the full school "holidays" they are spend marking, or planning etc, I work every evening, and on sundays, like a lot of teachers. To be called a skiver by the OP is just an insult.

I live in Yorkshire and we have been hit pretty hard, driving conditions have been terrible - but i made it in, after driving 2 hours to get there. Unfortunately, other teachers could not make it in and so we had to close. My school trip, that i had spent a lot of time and effort plannning, was cancelled - i was spending my weekend (my own free time) taking 30 pupils are a revision weekend in preparation for their English exam. This decision was not taken lightly.

Again thank you to those who have actually defended us teachers, I am sick of defending school holidays and teachers pay.

(I apologise if this does not read right, my apostrophe button isnt working!)

Can i also add about the training days - i for one can find them boring, who enjoys sitting in meetings when i have stacks of books to mark? but usually they are about safeguarding - the most important meeting in education - and imagine if something terrible, regarding a childs safety, happened in school and the parents found out that the safeguarding training was not given - i for one would be banging down the doors if it was my child! And similarly, the other big training session is assessment for learning - which is all about improvement of lessons to enhance a childs understanding. Nothing selfish about that.

DrDoo

Jem8472 wrote: »

I did a post a bit like this last time we had snow. But it was about why not do like America does and if they have to close for snow they take it off the next holiday coming up.

But what if a teacher has a holiday booked for that holiday coming up? Will the LEA pay for their cancelation fees?

I go into school every holiday anyway so i make back any "time off" for snow days (in which i spent catching up on endless marking)

DrDoo

qoute: Maybe i'm just getting old, but when I was at school and extreme weather stopped some teachers getting into work, school still opened, with all pupils in the hall, either reading or watching BBC Education programs on BBC2 with the few teachers that had turned up 'minding' them in the one hall. Quote

Because I am a teacher and not a baby sitter.

But actually this happened in a school near by, any the parents went nuts about it! one arguement was "why should my son sit in a hall, not learning when his friends are all out playing in the snow".

Frankly I agree. I for one would not want to try make 600 pupils (if only half turned in) sit in a hall and behave, this would not be possible in my school.

I apologise for so many replies - As I read through the thread I find somehting I want to comment on, and havent as yet learnt how to do all of the qoutes on the same reply.

eezer

Not read all the thread but here goes anyhow.

Here in Warrington we had loads of snow and our school was closed from Tue onwards. Now me and my wife both work but the kids ALWAYS come first. If I can't arrange childcare due to the school being shut then so be it. If it's taken as holidays, lieu time or unpaid then not a problem. We've had a fantastic week off and the memories for the kids will hopefully last for ever. They've never seen snow like it and maybe won't again. Whatever the rights and wrongs of schools closing pales into insignificance with the positive experiences they've had this week.

gregg1

Maybe i'm just getting old, but when I was at school and extreme weather stopped some teachers getting into work, school still opened, with all pupils in the hall, either reading or watching BBC Education programs on BBC2 with the few teachers that had turned up 'minding' them in the one hall. No doubt the aforementioned namby pambies have somehow made this illegal as part of some HSE law because there isn't some European decided ratio of staff to pupils. But years ago it seemed to work well, and in all of that time nobody got injured, kidnapped, spontaneously combusted or fell into icy ponds. Plus the parents knew exactly where their kids were and knew they were being minded in the safe confines of the school and they could go to work as normal, and everybody was happy.


That is because "years ago" most pupils went mainly to local schools!

And is it still necessary to keep bringing up how places like Canada cope with the snow. Of course they can - THEY ARE USED TO ADVERSE WEATHER CONDITIONS!!!

FatAndy

gregg1 wrote: »

And is it still necessary to keep bringing up how places like Canada cope with the snow. Of course they can - THEY ARE USED TO ADVERSE WEATHER CONDITIONS!!!

Hi Gregg,

If I can refer back to my opening post, in my part of the world we had 2cm of snow last Tuesday (cm not inches) and as far as I could determine the lowest overnight temperature was 0c. However on Wednesday my daughter's school was closed without warning. This is hardly my idea of adverse weather conditions yet the local authority still couldn't cope.

It's a different story in areas which had 6 inches of snow and where temperatures dropped to -20c. If we'd had weather like that I'd have fully expected the area to grind to halt but surely 2cm of snow shouldn't be so difficult to cope with?