schools opening when it has snowed!

toshkininny

Hi, just wondered out of interest whether heads of schools will open the school even though it has snowed quite badly to make their stats look good?

Tiglath

Yes in the case of DH's school - it doesn't close under the new head, although it did a couple of times under the old head when there were H&S issues (like the ceiling falling in). All the other schools in the borough will close; the staff think the political point he's making is that he's a complete idiot.

quinechinoise

toshkininny wrote: »

Hi, just wondered out of interest whether heads of schools will open the school even though it has snowed quite badly to make their stats look good?

That is surely not a sufficient reason to endanger kids on the school run?!

The only schools that should be open during heavy* snow are boarding schools - and day pupils will be expected to stay home if the driving conditions are poor.

As for me, I fully intend to keep both of my kids at home tomorrow. I notice the local council *still* hasn't sent out any gritters or snow ploughs. *While it isn't heavy-heavy, like it is in some countries, it's the condition of the local roads that count. Just for the benefit of any, say, Alaskans or Canadians visiting the forums.

balletshoes

our bus routes and main roads are clear, the buses have not been cancelled here since the snow hit heavy on Friday so the schools are reachable. So the only reasons the schools here would close would be broken-down facilities (ie boilers etc).

We are not rural though, we are in the city suburbs.

Nicki

We live in an inner city area and the catchment area for schools is measured in metres usually! No excuse for most of the students not to get in as if it is too far to walk you won't have been able to get your child into the school in the first place!

Can't get my hand round the idea that it improves stats to keep the school open though. One of the key stats Ofsted looks at is pupil absence so it would be worse from a stats point of view for a school to open if parents were going to be like quinechinoise, than just to close.

quinechinoise

balletshoes wrote: »

We are not rural though, we are in the city suburbs.

We aren't rural either but they still haven't gritted the roads! My kids' schools are 15 minutes away by car. I noticed that several kids at the local school (walking distance) were travelling via sled (towed by adults, of course), on Friday!

thegirlintheattic

We are a rural school and only close for H&S reasons:

- too few staff can get in (only happens in really heavy snow)
- boiler has broken
- the site is not safe for the kids

Sometimes school buses are cancelled if some of the very minor roads are impassable but we still open for those who can make it in. It's very rare for us to close.

As a parent it's your judgement whether you can safely get your child in or not.

balletshoes

quinechinoise wrote: »

We aren't rural either but they still haven't gritted the roads! My kids' schools are 15 minutes away by car. I noticed that several kids at the local school (walking distance) were travelling via sled (towed by adults, of course), on Friday!

they never grit our local roads, but i'm only 2 streets away from the nearest bus route, so i've had my car parked around there since Friday - no way I'm risking sliding up or down the hill to and from my house in the car.

365days

On Friday all the schools were shut around here. People moaned. The police were telling everyone to only travel if absolutely essential. People ignored them and crashed on the roads. People moaned. People got held up in traffic chaos. People moaned. The ambulance service said please don't ring unless absolutely essential. Then were rung for said crashes. People moaned.

If all the teachers and parents and children had added to the traffic chaos/accidents people would of had far more to moan about.

quinechinoise

Nicki wrote: »

No excuse for most of the students not to get in as if it is too far to walk you won't have been able to get your child into the school in the first place!

Not everyone goes to their closest school. To clarify, my eldest's school has already told parents (this weekend) to assess road conditions on Monday and put safety first. We don't actually skive all the time, on a whim. They'll be open because of the boarders but I don't want to risk it, if I don't have to. As for youngest, I don't think nursery schools mind terribly much...

johnnyl

rather strangely, everyone else in the country can manage to get into work.