School closures are snow joke

carolfunkydiva

The Ops problem - his kid's school WAS NOT listed as one of the schools which would be closed, yet when his wife rocked up in the morning (along with a ton of other parents), he learns the school has in fact closed due to a little bit of ice on the grounds.

Well if I were him I'd be bloody annoyed too.

Yes that I do agree with. It should have been on the local radion and/or their own school web site.

FatAndy

carolfunkydiva wrote: »

I always find it strange when parents complain about their childrens education though - surely they can find something for the kids to do at home if they wont let them enjoy the snow. Write about the snow, draw it or calculate how many angles there are in one snowflake. Whatever - please accept that we only ever close when its the best interest of the children

Hi Carol,

Allow me to explain. My wife and I both work full-time in 9 to 5 jobs. We don't do this out of choice, we do it to survive. We do it in order that our kids have a home to go to, have food on the table, have new (admittedly usually cheap) clothes and so on. Last year I found myself unemployed for five months so we are in a finanical hole at present and it will be quite a few years before we emerge from that hole. Losing even one day's pay would be a severe blow to us at present. So last Wednesday when our school was closed, with no warning, due to the presence of 2cm of snow on the ground taking a day off wasn't an option. We only found out the school was closed when my wife arrived to drop my daughter off at 8.45am. My wife has to be in work by 9.00am and it's a 10-15 drive from school to work. This hardly gave her much time to make other arrangements.

Fortunately my wife has an understanding boss and my daughter (she's eight by the way) spent the day sat in a corner of my wife's office. They made a detour on the way in to pick up her DS but she still had an extremely boring and extremely miserable day. She didn't learn anything and she couldn't even go outside and play in the snow because there wasn't any!

Now I'm sure that there are some parent with the financial resources, not to mention an understanding employer, who take off a day's unpaid leave at 15 minutes notice, but in our current financial predicament we can't. Personally I think paying the mortgage and keeping a roof over my kid's heads is more importment than making a snowman. And so do millions of other parents. So that's why we complain.

wallbash

Did you read this thread as it was originally posted ??
It was amended ( when the OP was overwhelmed )
Then it turned , rightly , to agree with FatAndy that the problem was communication. I have read no postings that actually disagre that FatAndy was badly treated. If I had turned up , found school was closed , AND could not . or was not told WHY!

But the constant digs at the teachers are not , justified.
quote ..and 'idiot'
Thats what I called him ( twice :rolleyes:) Read all his postings ,

His posting above ,is thoughtful and makes compelling reading , if it was his first , I might even hit the thanks button.

wallbash

Welshwoofs you are being a bit selective on your reasoning .
The idea that teachers determine snow days was an early argument , alongside
if the kids are there , where are the teachers . Our answer

The know-it-alls can also forget the argument about teachers having to live far away from the school because of house prices - you can be assured that on the average teacher's salary you'd be buying houses in the centre of any town on the N.Wales coast.

Might be true , will take your word for it . Try living in the S.E
( Hertfordshire is my area) Starting Salary of a teacher might buy them a garage in my Village.All the teachers commute.

Welshwoofs

wallbash wrote: »

But the constant digs at the teachers are not , justified.
quote ..and 'idiot'
Thats what I called him ( twice :rolleyes:) Read all his postings ,

Well I don't happen to buy into the fantasy that all teachers are hard-working and all teachers are selfless champions of children's education and well-being. I happen to think that teachers, by and large, enjoy above-average salary levels, pensions which are unheard of in the private sector and bloody good holidays.

I know 4 teachers, 3 are friends and 1 is a step-sister. To be frank, and they've admitted this themselves, 2 of those who went straight into teaching after school/university wouldn't know what a hard job was if it slapped them on the !!!!! and called them Mary. Yes, they do a bit of marking in the evenings, sometimes even at weekends, but all but one admits that if you averaged those hours out over a year they still get far more time off than their friends working in the private sector.

Now as these sorts of opinions are generally followed up by some wit suggesting that the poster should become a teacher if they think it's so great....I can't stand children, otherwise I think it'd be a rather attractive career option...particularly if I didn't want to starve in my old age.

Money_maker

FatAndy wrote: »

I think paying the mortgage and keeping a roof over my kid's heads is more importment than making a snowman.

I do agree - reluctantly - although something about the way you state this makes me feel very uncomfortable about you.

Will they still want to make snowmen with you in another 10 years?
Money can't buy time. You will see.

wallbash

I happen to think that teachers, by and large, enjoy above-average salary levels, pensions which are unheard of in the private sector and bloody good holidays.

Well just to cheer you up . My wife is at a private school .
Enjoys a greater salary than the standard pay grades for state schools .
Longer hols .... two weeks at the Autumn half term break .

A secure job , they held an open day recently and had 5 kids applied for each vacancy.

Five times as many children fighting to get into school , makes me believe that those parents think my wife and her colleagues are doing a good job.

footiemad

To Welshwolfs

I do not usually post on here but having scanned through a number of boards to look at various things I came past this one. How dare you criticise teachers? My mum was a headteacher for 20 odd years and after finally succumbing to all of the stress and pressure she was diagnosed with stress and depression caused through work. This is because she put her life into teaching and her job. She was passionate about teaching and cared about the education of all children. Teacher pensions aren't good, have you researched this as I think you will be proved wrong. Yes the teachers do get holidays but they are constantly working through them. My mum had to arrive at school at 7.30 in the morning and usually left at 5.45 if she didn't have other meetings etc. My mum worked through ALL weekends and evenings just to get the job done. And she sometimes missed out on her lunch. How many people who work in the private sector have a job like that?? If you actually went into teaching and put your passion and effort into it you would understand.

mikey72

FatAndy wrote: »

I've found one, Mikeys wife!

See post #161 - http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=2187575&page=9

Wrong end of the stick I'm afraid.
I've never said my wife didn't go in when the school was open, or that she wasn't in the same situation as everyone else, in finding out that it was shut as she was travelling to it.
I said that the kids school was open, and we, as parents, didn't send them.
My wife started off to her school, is a different county, was phoned in the car to say it was shut, and came home again after an hour or so each way.
She has then been in since when the school was closed to children, but open for the staff. She has never missed a day in the snow when the school was open.
I'm self employed, so I stayed with them, and tbh, had a great time in the snow as well. (I've said that earlier in this thread)

bugbabe1970

Why do some people think that teachers are on huge salaries???
The pay isn't bad but it is by no means a fortune. If you pay to go to uni for 3/4 years to get yourself a half decent job then surely the least you should expect is a half decent wage!!