Schhols closed again

Our local primary schools have closed and the teachers who live locally to senior schools are being asked to report there to support the reduced staff. The same thing happens at the hospital where I work.
Obviously not everyone can get to work so utilise those that can and, as Seren says, let the children enjoy themselves while it lasts.

Its not only schools closed, some folk at work ring up saying they can not get in.  Think its more of an excuse to have a day at home. 

Schools close every single time there is snow, so how come by now we have not got ourselves sorted to avoid this?  

Too Much Water wrote (see)

yet another example of lazy teachers.

 

Especially when you take into account they already get 34 weeks holiday a year as it is.....

People these days seem to be a lot more nesh and generally lazier than they used to be.

When I was young and at primary school in the late 70s early 80s the only reason the school would close would be if the heating broke down - it did on one occasion.

This was despite there being much more snow then and the school being in the Sidlaw hills above Dundee. When the roads were genuninely impassable we walked, though you would be surprised at the depth of snow you could get an old 1970s ford fiesta through. 

Nowadays it seems that teachers close schools at the first sign of a snow flake.  

and there were cases a few years ago of parents sueing the school when the children slipped and broke their arms...as the school has the duty of care........fort as long as we continue to follow the americans witha sue everyone culture it will get worse......

trains have stopped so many people cannot get in..........

if you lot beat your bosses into school you just get on with it....You can't have the school open without enough teacjhers there in advance.,

The parentys just want someone else to lok after their kids when they should be out there in the snow making memories with the kids that will last a lifetime.......

when you grow up yoiu don't remmeber the days you sat in school in the snow not learning anything as only half the kids are there,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,you remember the day your parents had a day of work and took you sledging

seren nos wrote (see)

 

The parentys just want someone else to lok after their kids when they should be out there in the snow making memories with the kids that will last a lifetime.......

when you grow up yoiu don't remmeber the days you sat in school in the snow not learning anything as only half the kids are there,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,you remember the day your parents had a day of work and took you sledging

 

But many parents have jobs and their employers expect them to come to work, rather than making lovely memories with their kids.

The snow will probably still be there tomorrow (even more is due) - which is a Saturday.

When I was a kid, the school NEVER closed, we all got there, so did the teachers.  

A bit of snow these days is a skivers excuse, as Cheshercat says.

1978 was the worst winter I can remember and our school only closed for 1 day, that was due to an 18 foot snow drift blocking the entrance, you coudn't even walk to the school.

We had school in the local church hall and was the only time in my life when I've finished a game of monopoly!

If I remember the snow came on a Thursday night and the caretaker dug a path over the weekend; some of the older kids tried to bribe him to stop.

They were building the M4 nearby and they piled a hugh amount snow from one of the main roads under an underpass.  It was still there at Easter.

Teachers do not close the schools. I was on the way in (early) this morning when I got the call that school would not open. I made it back through pretty dire conditions. The roads are now closed and I am officially cut off. We managed to get my daughter to work (she is a carer) and she is now snowed in there! My wife is a nurse and cannot get to work - the staff already there will be staying, along with staff who live close enough to walk.

So, two of us will not be paid today, but at least I will get to run in the snow in daylight!

I want my kids to be educated; part of their education is that skiving is not acceptable. No, I don't want to be taking them out to build snomen on a school day, I want them to be in school. I say again, this snow was predicted, what's wrong with people getting up an hour earlier?

I will cite one local example; our nearest primary school is closed (it's 0.7 miles away). Squish has driven to work 17 miles away and arrived on time; I admit I'm skiving today, but only because I was booked on a course which was cancelled due to the weather; if it were any other Friday, I'd've been at work on time (22 miles away.) Now surely no pupil lives more than 22 miles from their primary school. I've been for a nice five mile run past said school and the roads are absolutely fine; they have a covering of slush and necessitate slowing down a little, but they're certainly passable. We're breeding a culture of wimpishness and skiving.

so you played monopoly all day in school......you could have done that at home with your parents.........schools do not have caretakers atached nowadays......

back then when in school......we had just one  teacher taking 50 kids to wembley .and 2 kids got left at the services on the M4......they were lucky ......

We had trips to the waterfalls and walked over waterfalls with no equipment.......going back now would not go across there with ropes..it is lethal..but we did it then as there was no safety rules...

yes H &S went too far....but then school are responsible for everyone's most treasured possessions in the world...Their kids........so when it is dangerous the best people to take that responsibility is parents....

We've had staff ringing up Human Resources, asking "is the University going to close due to the weather?"

This is central London, there is a thin layer of slush on the ground, so NO, we are not going to send everyone home!

and if you look at facebook there are loads of people who have not gone to work or if they have are leaving early now as there bossess are worried about them being stranded..

its not just teachers............and those businesses only have adults to worry about.......not hundreds of young children

Seren, if you have/had the luxury of being at home while your kids are a school, then that's nice for you and for them if they get an unexpected day off.

A lot people have to go to work, and if the school is closed, they may end up losing a days pay, which many people can ill afford to do.

I can only speak for my local area, but noone is going to get stranded here today; the roads are absolutely fine.

I also don't get what's so bad about being 'stranded'? Here in semi-rural Worcestershire that would mean 'having to walk two or three miles in 3" deep snow in temperatures of about -1' at most. Not beyond the capacity of most able-bodied adults or school-age children, especially bearing in mind that we knew it was coming...

Sorry Seren:

In what way is walking to school dangerous. I admit that some kids who live a significant distance from the school and where there is no access to public transport may not make it into school but walking to school in even thick snow is not dangerous.

It might take longer, it might be wet and unpleasant but it is not dangerous.

The issue is that the vast majority of people would balk at walking two miles in the snow, something that was the norm 30 years ago and that's the major problem.

However if public transport is running, which it certainly is in Hampshire there is absolutely no reason to close the schools.

If staff were docked a day's pay or if the kids had to do an extra day in the summer I'm sure the attitude would change.

My local primarty school certainly has access to what would have previously been called a caretaker.

it wasn't as luxury Wilkie.......I had to give up a full time job because the education department couldn't find a school to take him for over a year......they all refused including the specialist schools in the area.........I ended up having to miss years of pay ........

so I have no sympathy for parents who have to miss school for a day for weather.....they have to have a plan in place incase the child is ill so then they should just use that one........

weather is so unpredictable that it is oimpossible to know if this snow is going to continue or stop.........trees are falling down all over the place.....there was no snow days at all last winter and this is the first period this year so its not like it happens every week.......

CH. Most of the children at our village primary live at least three miles away along narrow lanes, some of them up to eight miles away. The school buses are not running. There is no public transport (this is rural England). It may have been possible to drive them in early (It didn't start snowing until about 6am, but it was pretty bad from 7. If they had made it in hthey would be stuck here as the lanes are extremely dangerous and the main road a mile and a half away is officially closed. Only one teacher lives in the village. Would those kids have been better off sat in school being "babysat" that being at home with their families? What would you have done?

I remember a winter in the seventies. My sisters' school closed at lunchtime. My school, 1km, away, stayed open as normal. At the end of the day there were no buses. I had to walk home! 8 miles, in my uniform, in snow that was knee deep in places. It took me nearly three hours, most of it in the dark. What did I learn? My Headmaster was not intelligenty enough to follow the Local Authority advice to close the school. To be honest, I enjoyed the "adventure" but I'm pretty sure what the press readtion would be now.