School closures are snow joke

woohoo_postingid

Presumably if the teachers are in the schools, planning, marking etc then there's one less "Baker" day they'll need to take later in the year.

Now, Baker days - they are a skive and I challenge any teacher to say otherwise !

ckerrd

woohoo_postingid wrote: »

Presumably if the teachers are in the schools, planning, marking etc then there's one less "Baker" day they'll need to take later in the year.

Now, Baker days - they are a skive and I challenge any teacher to say otherwise !

What is a Baker day?

chris_n_tj

FatAndy wrote: »

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

Just to add, I am not a teacher nor have I children of school age, (mine are grown up) I might add I was a stay at home mum until my child was old enough to look after herself.
I just cant abide the stick that teachers get. They work hard, and in many cases long after school is over. Give them a break, they help to make your childrens memories. I for one remember a special teacher from many years ago, dont you?
Remember also teachers are human they have feelings, and they are the ones that have todays youngsters longer in a day than the parents, just a thought.
Chris n TJ

wendall

woohoo_postingid wrote: »

Presumably if the teachers are in the schools, planning, marking etc then there's one less "Baker" day they'll need to take later in the year.

Now, Baker days - they are a skive and I challenge any teacher to say otherwise !

What is a "Baker" day?

dizziblonde

woohoo_postingid wrote: »

Presumably if the teachers are in the schools, planning, marking etc then there's one less "Baker" day they'll need to take later in the year.

Now, Baker days - they are a skive and I challenge any teacher to say otherwise !

Baker days (now called Inset) were taken from teacher's holidays to be implemented and not from term-time. Just correcting the common misconception.

mad_bad_spender

My local authority announced at ten last night that all schools in the area were closed.

It was not on an individual school basis and the teachers and head teachers had no say.

Even if the school had made the decision i dont think it is made lightly, they have to look at all factors

>might not be snowing in the morning but what is the forecast for later on?
>do they have enough teachers and support staff, canteen staff, janitors etc?
>are they able to receive their lunches/supplies required?
>would they be able to safely evacuate in an emergency? i mean you could always CARRY your child in in the morning but what would you expect the teachers to do in an emergency? carry them out child by child?

i would always err on the side of caution when it comes to my kids safety and would prefer them to have a few days off than put them in danger. Even walking on the pavements is dangerous at the moment with cars losing control and mounting the kerbs at times.

To the OP if the roads are as clear as you say i am sure the school must have had a good reason to close. Perhaps they were planning on opening but the LA have advised them to close the school? Maybe that is the reason for such late notification. I must say i wouldnt have been happy at getting there to be told to go home but in no way is this the teachers fault or down to lazyness in any way

wallbash

We are going off topic here

As stated , husband of a teacher ( one that has taught for over thirty years)

My last inset day was undertaking training in safeguarding children. Waste of time? I seriously don't think so and I'd challenge you to say otherwise.

I think ( well I know) that my wife does not need more days wasted on training to
safeguard kids / more ways of teaching sex education / problems with bullying and the latest drug scare..... if she can't teach now , she never will. These days might help the younger staff but my wife has had the practical skills for years. Sitting and listening to a 'so called expert ' half her age , who has not had the experience IS a waste of time.

pitkin2020

I’ve just had the opportunity to read the responses (mainly from teachers, funny that) and would like to respond as follows:
you obviously havent read every post as only a handful are from teachers

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.
The weather can be sunny and clear but 2 miles down the road they can be under snow and ice.

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.
Yes the school should have given you as much warning as possible but if they only just decided to close the school it was unfortunate parents had already arrived. The reason for closure could actually be 1 of a handful of reason, weather forecast showing a change with more snow, frozen pipes, broken heating, gas leak, power cut etc etc, just because you were told at the gate it was too dangerous to get in there (your words) doesnt mean the playground is covered in ice,


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.
teachers like anyone have the right to live where they chose, if they chose to commute for an hour a day thats upto them, and if the conditions between there home and work place is unpassable then that is unavoidable.

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”.
Heavy rain and ice are totally different things, yes once inside they could be kept inside, but whilst on school property trying to get into the school and they slip on ice could land the school a claim

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?
You dont pay anything towards teachers, binmen, fire, police or ambulance workers pay, you pay a tax which charged to everyone, your council then decides how to distribute the money they receive in taxes, people who say "i pay your wages" to public sector workers are generally narrow minded and think they have a priority over everyone else because as they say "I pay your wages", contact your local council and ask them where your money, and i mean your exact money you paid in tax last year, i guarentee they wont say mr Smith the english teacher!!!

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.
Maybe you should check the weather again, as the BBC this morning reported the MET office have issued severe weather warnings for most of the country and wales was included!!

Your initial post was complaining about teachers skiving but yet again you appear to be at work possibly using your companies time to reply to a forum!!

battleram

Come on guys, I think the OP is getting pretty hard feedback on this matter. When there are two working parents and children interruptions like this can be really stressful. He's allowed five minutes out to post a thread on a website surely?! How many of you are reading the thread from work?

Yes, I agree that for whatever reasons, the school is shut and the gritting problems are to do with the council, not the school. However, the school SHOULD have made it known that it was shut before people started dropping their kids off. These days, the schools are told to contact the local radio, update websites etc. There should be no need for parents to make pointless journeys to take their kids to closed schools.

Give the guy a break.

pitkin2020

i agree the school should have made people aware asap without a doubt, but the OP started a thread called "Skiving teachers are snow joke", and that is what has got peoples backs up, you cant just make an accusation and expect everyone to agree, yeah lazy teachers!!