School closures are snow joke

pulliptears

Governors often take the decision to close a school, it's not always the staff. Every member of staff could have been in the car park but the decision would have been taken out of the heads hands.

If being a teacher is so beneficial FatAndy, why don't you change career?

Bree

All my kids have a snow day today. We live in a rural area, not all of the roads are gritted and alot of children are transported to school by coach. The Senior and Middle schools are closed because the coaches are not running. Not sure of the reason for the first school unlikely to be because of the coaches as only a minority arrive by coach. (last year the kids had 2 snow days because of the coaches and buses not running, but the first school was only closed for one day) Although when talking to the coal man, he told me that one of the first schools was closed because the food delivery would'nt be happening, and so no school dinner for the children.
I know one of the teachers went into school, because I saw him going back home past our house.

wallbash

A reasonable response from 'FatAndy' after the orig

quote It seems that yet again the teachers are taking advantage of the slightest excuse to have a skive.

So are you surprised that those closer to the Teaching profession took exception

I don't know the reason why 'your' school , in Sunny Wales is closed , but I can see out of my window why are local schools are closed.

A lot of people are saying it would not be a classroom teacher that would make a judgement call to close the school, in our situation , its not even the headteacher.

Its the Coach Drivers :eek: so many kids are bussed to school , most by the coach company . If the coaches dont run.... the school has no kids!

wallbash

Ps , its also a worry about getting the kids home .
It was only a few years ago some had to stay at school over night!

NotQuiteNorbert

FatAndy wrote: »

I’ve just had the opportunity to read the responses (mainly from teachers, funny that)

Have only noticed a handful of posts on here from people stating that they are teachers, work in schools, or are related to teachers? Out of over 40 replies to this subject I don't really think that's 'mainly', so not sure where you're getting this from.

Ivory_Tinkler

FatAndy wrote: »

I’ve just had the opportunity to read the responses (mainly from teachers, funny that) and would like to respond as follows:

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.


5) Teachers are not ‘free child-minders’. I pay huge sums of money in income and council tax to pay their wages. I can’t understand in this particular case why, given that the majority of the teachers and the majority of the kids had safely arrived at the school, the teachers weren’t allowed to get on with the job they’ve been paid for. As this is a primary school I can’t imagine there’s a huge amount of marking to be done. They had a ‘teacher training day’ on Monday so the kids have only been back in one day so how much work could they have done?

To pick you up on 2 points - firstly do you work for the met office or the highways agency? If so then I might go along with your explanations if you don't then I can't see how you are a weather/transport expert.

On your 5th point, have you ever worked in a school even for just one day to see the amount of behind the scenes work that a teacher does? I have worked in education and can tell you it is not just about teaching a bit of English and Maths and an hours marking. Would you expect a teacher to know all the in's and out's of your job and tell you how long it takes to complete a task?

You have been inconvenienced but isn't it better that this happens than a teacher/parent/child gets killed on a road going to school (maybe one you haven't inspected to know it has/hasn't frozen)?

My children haven't been back to school yet after the hols, it is inconvenient but I have made contigency plans. Maybe you should do too?

loopy_lass

if you have children you look after them, if they have to be off school ill, holidays, snow... its your responsibility. If you want a career then have one, if you want children, be prepared to bend in the wind... your children no one elses...the reason your school is closed has problably not been made on a whim without consideration all round.

But what happens if teachers childrens schools are closed? should they demand they be open to serve your children?

life aint easy, and life with children is a damn site harder....

loops

dizziblonde

I'm a supply teacher - if I don't work, I don't get paid - I took the decision for my own safety that I wasn't going to take a work booking today (cost of potentially crashed car > income I could make = simples), so hence I'm on here.

As for the marking load in primary - there's assessment, filling APP grids, planning (takes hours), report and policy writing, co-ordinator duties reviewing subjects across the whole school, making resources which can take hours, setting up flipcharts and powerpoints for future lessons... lots and lots of other things involved in teaching beyond sitting there with a red pen (not that we're allowed to use red these days - self-esteem) and ticking or crossing (not allowed to cross - self-esteem) pages of sums!

Dorastar

Just wanted to add that there may have been plenty of support staff in your daughter's school, most of ours live locally and got in by the start of school. They are legally not allowed to take classes or large numbers of children (unless they are trained and paid at a higher level) as they are not qualified or insured. Schools can only open if they have enough actual teaching staff - so that might explain the busy car park.

Once the snow has gone, why don't you write or speak to the parent governor and ask if the school could improve their communication to parents. Our school did the following yesterday - any of which might have helped you - put info about closure on school website, council website, 2 local radio stations, sent texts via a scheme the school has bought into, sent a letter to parents of those children who had made it in, put posters on school fences.

voiceofreason

FatAndy wrote: »

I’ve just had the opportunity to read the responses (mainly from teachers, funny that) and would like to respond as follows:

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.

2) When my wife arrived at the school at 8.45 this morning there was the usual procession of parents and children heading for the school gates. When they arrived they were met a teacher who told them the school was closed. When my wife asked why she was told it was because it was too dangerous to get there. By this point of course she along with lots of other parents and kids had already safely arrived there! Bearing in mind that no attempt was made to warn parents of the closure and that all the roads in the area were clear I’d imagine that the majority of the kids arrived safely at the school only to be turned away because it was too dangerous for them to get there! Could a teacher please explain the logic behind this because it makes no sense to me whatsoever.

3) Apparently the teacher’s car park at the school was pretty much full as usual. I don’t know where the teachers live, other than the one that lives just around the corner from me, but it seems that the majority of them got there without difficulty. Not surprising really given that the roads in the surrounding area are all clear. I would also point out that whilst there are parts of the country (e.g. South East England) where teachers might have no option to commute to work due a lack of affordable housing but that isn’t the case in Conwy county. If any of the teachers live any great distance away it’s through choice rather than necessity.

4) Regarding the compensation culture. As I said in the opening post once the kids are safely indoors then keep them there. I suspect that it there’s heavy rain they’re kept inside during breaks so why not simply apply the same principle if it’s icy. This is what’s referred to as ‘using a bit of common sense”.

5) Teachers are not ‘free child-minders’. I pay huge sums of money in income and council tax to pay their wages. I can’t understand in this particular case why, given that the majority of the teachers and the majority of the kids had safely arrived at the school, the teachers weren’t allowed to get on with the job they’ve been paid for. As this is a primary school I can’t imagine there’s a huge amount of marking to be done. They had a ‘teacher training day’ on Monday so the kids have only been back in one day so how much work could they have done?

6) We weren’t forecast any bad weather and haven’t really had any. If we’d woken up this morning and seen lots of snow, or if the school had informed that local radio station that they were closed (as lots of others did) then we could have made other arrangements. But there wasn’t and they didn’t.

7) There was no mention of any problems with the boiler etc. Can’t imagine there’d be burst pipes seeing as how the temperature didn’t appear to drop below zero last night.

Points (1, (2, (4, (5, (6 and (7 are really not down to the teachers themselves, are they - and if you're right on point (3, then they're not quite the "Skiving Teachers" you mention in the thread title.

I'm not a teacher myself; but then, neither am I posting such utter, utter nonsense.

Sort yourself out, go have a good dump to clear your head, make your mind up exactly what it is you want to say, and only then post - else you just look very silly.