School closed. You have to make the time up in holidays!

Belysh

Pennylane wrote: »

OMG .... calm yourself down:rolleyes: I was pointing out (as many others have) that in other countries they get on with life as usual even if it snows. I'm not asking teachers to sweep outside my house or to fit tyres to my car for me am I?

Haha, I wasn't angry or mad when I wrote that. You must have read it in the wrong tone, I was merely making a point that not all countries are the same OR have the same equipment.
Well I might as well sweep outside your house and fit tyres to your car because I don't have anything else to do do I? With only being a teacher and all that free time I have!

donnajunkie

Belysh wrote: »

The think that your not getting is that we HAVE to plan these things. I don't want to sit at home for hours planning the questions I have to ask but I HAVE to becasue that is what my head teacher expects and shows I am assessing and pushing my chilren, helping them to progress. If Ofsted comes, it is what they want to see. So, you can think of them on the spot and most of the time you do, but I am afraid you have boxes to tick.
So you would need to plan them.

so you are capable of thinking of them on the spot and the reason you do it at home is because the head teacher expects you to? why not just say you have done it at home and not bother. they dont know if you have done it or not unless they follow you home and watch over you. you could then tick the boxes to say you had done it. it would not be neglecting the kids because like you said you are capable of thinking of the questions within the lesson.

Belysh

donnajunkie wrote: »

so you are capable of thinking of them on the spot and the reason you do it at home is because the head teacher expects you to? why not just say you have done it at home and not bother. they dont know if you have done it or not unless they follow you home and watch over you. you could then tick the boxes to say you had done it. it would not be neglecting the kids because like you said you are capable of thinking of the questions within the lesson.

Whoops silly me, I forgot you didn't know anyhting about teaching. You submit all your plans to the headteacher for them to check that you are doing your job correctly. Plus if Ofted look at your planning and saw it wasn' t there they would down grade you. You don't literally have to tick boxes by the way.

poet123

donnajunkie wrote: »

so you are capable of thinking of them on the spot and the reason you do it at home is because the head teacher expects you to? why not just say you have done it at home and not bother. they dont know if you have done it or not unless they follow you home and watch over you. you could then tick the boxes to say you had done it. it would not be neglecting the kids because like you said you are capable of thinking of the questions within the lesson.

Have you ever actually seen a lessson planning sheet? They are kept in files for OFSTED to view, along with tracking documents, assessments documents, target setting, etc etc.

They are physical items which have to be available to be produced for every lesson. I can just imagine the faces of the OFSTED inspectors if they were told "well, actually we just pretend we have done lesson plans and really we make them up as we go along!!"

Cue"failing school" grading.:T

continualdiamond

Every school I would imagine has a different policy regarding school closure relating to snow.

Where i work if the school is closed you then have to offer your services to the closest school in the county you work in. If your service is declined then you're to work from home.

Now the school is obviously happy with that policy and trusts staff to use the time wisely if they're working from home. If a teacher would rather waste a day off due to the weather and have to do extra work every night when school is on, then so be it, only got themselves to blame. (im not a teacher by the way)

poet123

Sadly, a child has died after slipping on ice walking to school .

donnajunkie

Belysh wrote: »

Whoops silly me, I forgot you didn't know anyhting about teaching. You submit all your plans to the headteacher for them to check that you are doing your job correctly. Plus if Ofted look at your planning and saw it wasn' t there they would down grade you. You don't literally have to tick boxes by the way.

thats alot of work for the head teacher then to go through every teachers lesson plan when considering there are what 4 or 5 lessons each day.

Belysh

donnajunkie wrote: »

thats alot of work for the head teacher then to go through every teachers lesson plan when considering there are what 4 or 5 lessons each day.

Yes, that is why many of them have mental breakdowns and are well paid. That is probably the easiest part of their job, but I wouldn't know I'm not a headteacher.

gingerwhinger

Belysh wrote: »

Hmm, I'm sure if you read this post someone somehwere wrote that they couldn't go to work because their chid's school was CLOSED. Which means that the teacher can't go in even if they wanted to.

Is it not about safety of the pupils and teachers anyway. There were so many accidents with cars and slipping today that parents were too frightened to drive their children to school. At the end of the day, whether we get paid or not it is not worth risking. An injured teacher is no use to anyone and injured children will miss even more of school.

And Pennylane you mentioned before that you got your mail etc. Well maybe it depends on where you live becaue my bins didn't get emptied for over a week and Argos were 4 days late with my delievery because of the weather. There is nothing they can do about it, just like there is nothing schools can do, so what is the point complaining?

I wish that my childrens' school had taken safety of the commute to school into account on the 13th and closed. As they were open I attempted to take the kids to school and slipped on the ice and broke my back.

I later read an article in the local papers where the school was "bragging" that they had managed to stay open throughout the bad weather. Yay - thanks for that!:mad:

GrumpyGit_3

poet123 wrote: »

I would far rather my LEA spent it's limited budget on educatiiong my child than on defending a case brought by unscrupulous parents out to make a quick buck, or on the other side of the coin, pay out a legitimate claim for a seriously injured child

As a parent of an eight year old and another due to start reception class later this year I also don't want my LEA spending it's budget defending court cases. However I also don't want my LEA waving the white flag and surrendering at the sight of the first snowflake. I'd like to see some sort of advance planning (if you're in charge of an LEA you might be surprised to hear this but it does sometimes snow in the U.K. in January) and if any snow does fall then I'd like to see some sort of effort to make sure schools can open if it's at all possible.