Schhols closed again

I live in a village in Hampshire and yet again the school has closed due to a bit of snow. I'm going to work today though I admit I won't be driving, I'll be walking and using public transport.

Why do the schools close so easily when it must cause massive disruption to everyone.

Didn't used to happen

«1345

Comments

  • My son and wife cannot get to school because of a snow drift where a roundabout used to be! My daughter has fallen down a flight of steps and hurt herself...I suspect these and other stories have something to do with them closing. I always get in; 'cos I ride a bike and I do an essential job. And; the schools always used to close at the drop of one flake of snow in my day! But; of course people used to say back then that 'back in the good 'ol days' the schools never used to close when it snowed!

  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭

    I can't actually remember ever missing school due to snow, and i was at school up to the end of the 90s...

    must be a new era of H&S!

  • I went to school in the 80s and often used to get sent home when it snowed, but I lived in Yorkshire and the roads got blocked and the bus company would dictate when it was safe for their drivers to be driving. Bus companies do still call the shots - if they feel they have to bring the buses early because of the snow, or not run at all then kids can't get to school.

    Also schools do not have a big supply of grit and so it can be very dangerous around the school site. How would you feel if your child fell on ice at school and broke a leg/arm? Schools only close if they feel it absolutely necessary

  • Not a lot of now on the hampshire/dorset border.  I made it in by running.  Feel very smug.

    I do nto understand these school closures, from the tintermet the schools by home are closed, WHY?  In my youth we just got on with it and i doubt the snow these days is different from back then.

    On a plus note the office is quiet so i can get on without interruption.  huzzah

  • I think they are right to close if its going to be dangerous for the staff and kids.........back in the 70's they didn't shut the schools.but i can remmeber being 1 of just 11 kids who went to school in the snow one day............

    what was the benefit of keeping it open........no teaching could be done.......just free childcare....when i could have been playing out in the snow with friends.,.....

    and cost a fortune to heat and clear the school..

    we don't have snow that often.let the kids enjoy it and be kids............there are plenty of days to be in school

    and remember nowadays very few teachers live in the village or near where the school is for obvious reasons...............so can't walk there .....

  • PiersPiers ✭✭✭
    So why is it a h&s issue for schools and not everyone else that have to clear snow grit paths, etc, etc. For every school that closes probable over 100 people can't go to work. In my street ther is a couple who ate a doctor and paramedic. One of them will have to stay home today. This is a village primary school with very good transport links, train, bus, etc.
  • Eggyh73Eggyh73 ✭✭✭
    Piers wrote (see)
    So why is it a h&s issue for schools and not everyone else that have to clear snow grit paths, etc, etc. For every school that closes probable over 100 people can't go to work. In my street ther is a couple who ate a doctor and paramedic. One of them will have to stay home today. This is a village primary school with very good transport links, train, bus, etc.

    Medical staff cannibalism sounds like a good reason to move! image

  • Piers.thats being a parent..if one of the kids were ill they would have to stay at home.......part and parcel of having kids

  • PiersPiers ✭✭✭

    Eggyh73,

    image 

    Trouble with typing on a mobile phone with a wet screen while walking in the snow.

  • PiersPiers ✭✭✭

    So Seren you are saying that it's OK for teachers not to go to work but everyone is supposed to.

    In our company everyone was told that if you don't come in today you have to take it as leave or come in an extra day to make it up, which I don't think is unacceptable.

    I would imagine that if teachers were docked pay they would possibly reconsider the ease at which the schools are closed.

    The H&S argument is absolutely rubbish, there is no reason why the paths can't have been cleared and gritted, schools have as much access to salt and grit as any other company, perhaps more so due to their links with the local authority. As to the kids falling over and hurting themselves, what are they going to be doing if the schools are shut; playing in the snow, falling over and possibly breaking limbs, they are probably safer in the school environment.

    I beleive it's easy for the Head to just decide to shut the school, makes no difference to her yet it causes a hell of a lot of inconvenience to others.

     

  • Our school never closed for snow - only for burst pipes and bomb threats! I think it is done now for fear of being sued.

  • Our kids school is closed for the third day ina row now, it's because the busses can't get through. The kids that made it in on Tuesday were stranded as the busses couldn't get back to school to collect them.

    I'd rather my kids were safe and warm at home on days like this.

  • I dont think its just a teacher thing. 

    When I was young - everyone would walk to school. 

    Now people are more mobile and they live further away from school - both kids and teachers.  Is it illegal to have less than X staff to pupils or something ?  If the head is concerned that some teachers might not be able to get in - then maybe the best thing to do is to close the school ?

    Plus imagine if a kid got killed by a car sliding on ice as he walked in. The outcry then ?

     

     

  • This snow was predicted; what's wrong with teachers getting up an hour earlier and starting out an hour earlier? Our road was fine at 9am; our local schools are closed.

    If it's a bit difficult to get home and takes a few hours, that's tough. No excuses. I'm not suggesting that people should currently be travelling in the Heads of the Valleys where the red warning was issued, but in cities? Man up, Britain.

  • Eggyh73Eggyh73 ✭✭✭
    Crash Hamster wrote (see)

    This snow was predicted; what's wrong with teachers getting up an hour earlier and starting out an hour earlier? Our road was fine at 9am; our local schools are closed.

    The teachers do not have a say in schools closing due to weather. It's got nothing to do with them.

  • Didn't say they did; one of the excuses used for closing schools is that 'the teachers can't get in.' This is generally utter nonsense; if they got up an hour earlier, they'd have an hour more time to get in, which in the vast majority of cases would mean the school could open on time.

    Most of these excuses could be countered by 'yes it's inconvenient and very slightly more risky; now get over it.'

  • I don't think schools do typically close easily - my eldest is 14 and the youngest pair 11 and I don't think the eldest has ever missed a day through snow - the youngest pair missed one day a couple of years ago because not enough teachers could get in.  

    It's not like a lot of businesses where if someone turns up an hour late then it's OK - or if they have to leave early because of the snow - in a school you need the staffing numbers all day from 8.30 onwards and you need to pretty much guarantee it in advance.   

  • yet another example of lazy teachers.

    my school never closed in the snow. i don't buy the teachers not being able to get in. don't schools have a caretaker who takes care of all of this, grits paths etc?

  • ...because the schools are shit, and terrified by H&S nonsense.  Common sense has gone out the window I tell you!

  • limperlimper ✭✭✭

    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

     

  • Terribly written Sven Nose but pretty much true. I agree.
  • WilkieWilkie ✭✭✭
    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.

  • PiersPiers ✭✭✭

    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!

Sign In or Register to comment.