schools opening when it has snowed!

pollypenny

In Abercarn, South Wales, a bus went off the road and was hanging over a steep embankment.

Thankfully, all escaped with minor bumps and bruises.

This is why bus companies and head teachers err on the side of caution with school closures. Pity Abercarn PrimAry hadn't closed.

thegirlintheattic

Lunar_Eclipse wrote: »

I can understand small and rural schools closing, but there is no reason why most schools can't open tomorrow.

Anyone worried about being able to get to work needs to investigate ways of getting closer ahead of bad weather and staying there. Just as my husband might consider staying in a hotel in London for example, some teachers, family issues aside, could do the same.

Who would pay for that? How long would it have to be for? We've had snow predicted since Friday but none fell till today, and the main roads were still passable. I doubt anyone would be seriously suggesting shop workers should stay nearer the store or sleep in to make sure they could get in?! Shops etc. have lower staffing levels (do they even have a legal minimum?) and less responsibility than schools. If we remain open (which we have so far) there is the real possibly of nearly 1000 children with only a handful of staff to look after them. We couldn't even sit them all down in one room and supervise them - no room is big enough. Far better to assess the conditions and close, than end up at 9 am having to call parents to collect children. A lot of parents will be more angry at having to come back out in the snow than to just have school cancelled to start with.

Don't get me wrong, if a school is safe to open then open. We did today and all but three staff made it in (who all live in very remote rural areas). I made it in, even with a treacherous 30-odd mile journey that took me twice the time it should on rural roads. All staff call in before 7:30 if they can't make it or will be late due to the weather. If there are too few staff to open safely, then the announcement is made that we are closed. Very rarely happens because most of us will try as hard as we can to make it in; most of us feel a huge amount of pressure to attempt the journey even if we think it is dangerous.

As for the arguments about clearing the school site. The condition of the school site in terms of snow is almost always the last problem, as long as one path can be cleared.

As for closing early, parents would be up in arms if the school was open but kids ended up getting stranded because of the weather. A large majority of our pupils travel from very rural areas to the school, so get collected by the bus company early if there is heavy snow so they can get home. Even in places like the US and Canada where they are prepared for snow schools have 'early finish' in case of snow, and also late starts, so teachers have a chance to get in and roads can be cleared.

re: poor attendance. If a school is open but kids can't get in due to the weather they are marked with a Y, which doesn't get counted in the absence stats, so closing doesn't have ANY affect on absence figures or Ofstead.

bylromarha

johnnyl wrote: »

and incidentally, that is approximately 20% of all schools that are shut. I challenege anyone to find any other group that has 20% of its operation shut because of the snow.

Southern Water refused to take my phone call on Friday, and Saturday, and made me wait longer due to reduced operators just now - reason on voicemail service...due to the snow.

100% of the call centre of a large utility was closed for 2 days.

Maybe if I'd needed to ring other companies, I'd find more were closed.

poet123

The high school my son teaches at is down a long drive, transport providers refused to access it, so they are shut. They have booked a snow plough for tomorrow.

I work in a college, I couldn't get my car out so I walked it in, and there was only one member of staff missing. the one who lives 25 miles away, first class four students out of fifteen were in, at lunchtime they all went home, another class six out of 21 were in.

bylromarha

thegirlintheattic wrote: »

.

re: poor attendance. If a school is open but kids can't get in due to the weather they are marked with a Y, which doesn't get counted in the absence stats, so closing doesn't have ANY affect on absence figures or Ofstead.

Disagree with that one - all my kids away today were marked as unauthorised absence. If my head could have found a way round it, she would have!

poet123

zoominatorone wrote: »

They should be going in "for the sake of it" anyway--no wonder teachers get a bad press, they think they are above the rules of everyone else.

People would soon start kicking off if supermarket staff started callin in en-masse because of the snow and shops had to close! Or are they somehow less worthy than teachers?

Staying overnight for the sake of it.

And lots of businesses closed, several shops in my area were closed.

gregg1

Deanied wrote: »

The point of it is that if everyone did it, very few school would have to close, because they would rely on the teachers living in their communities to keep them open. I guess if the first school is closed you then walk to the next closest and so forth, all of which will be easier to get to that your normal school or else you would have gone to work as normal.

But in effect that would just be babysitting and that is not what schools are really about (although I actually think it does mean that to some parents).

My OH would have been quite happy to walk to her nearest school today. It was closed;)

The thing is that if my OH's school is closed it is more often than not because it is a blanket closure county wide.

mrcow

johnnyl wrote: »

There are apparently 5000 schools shut today.

Are there 5000 doctors shut, or 5000 offices shut, or 5000 chemical plants shut, or 5000 post offices shut, or 5000 shops shut, or 5000 pubs shut.

There is one group that is consistently shut the second a snowflake hits the ground. The reputation is fully earned.

Lloyds bank telephone banking service were apologising to customers yesterday for the unusual delays in their service. Reason - bad weather.

pollypenny

Lunar_Eclipse wrote: »

I can understand small and rural schools closing, but there is no reason why most schools can't open tomorrow.

Anyone worried about being able to get to work needs to investigate ways of getting closer ahead of bad weather and staying there. Just as my husband might consider staying in a hotel in London for example, some teachers, family issues aside, could do the same.

Cities may have a number of hotels, small towns, which often the centre of an area and have the secondary school, rarely have hotels.

The one hotel in my town closed two years ago.

Perhaps you think teachers should camp out in their classrooms?

Valli

johnnyl wrote: »

are there 5000 chemical plants shut

There aren't even 5000 chemical plants

(the one I used to work at closed down - all staff redundant:()

- and this includes pharmaceutical and toiletry manufacturers - which isn't *quite* the same.