Schools as polling stations

Oh my goodness. I only said it was inconvenient. It wasn't even my main point.

At my old house the school was used, but it was the hall that had immediate access to the outside. There was no other building available locally. The other nearby buildings were used by people living in a different ward.

It is what it is. I remember having time off for voting, but it may have only been the infant side of the school.

But schools aren't babysitting services. It's fine to feel mildly inconvenienced but there could be a litany of reasons a school is chosen - like a pp said. And some schools can't facilitate both voters and children. It's really important people vote and it's just one day. It's not comparable to parents not being allowed to take their kids out for unauthorised absences either - this law wasn't introduced for the benefit of the teacher, but the wellbeing of the child.

FoxtrotSkarloey

It is NOT an inset day. The school is closed (unfeasible design to remain open). There is no teacher training. I have no doubt some will be working, but it won't be in school.

So the school has given all staff a free day off?

If school staff are not in school it's because they have been required to make up the time during evening twilight sessions or off-site training. Either way the school would still be closed, if not tomorrow then another day.

Schools get paid a tiny amount which is supposed to cover the extra cost of having electricity/heating on from 6:30am - 10pm. However, the amount paid is IME not enough to cover the cost of paying for a caretaker to open up the building extra early and lock up the building extra late. So it's certainly not a fund-raiser for schools!

As PP have said, all local authority-maintained schools in the UK must be open for 190 days a year. So if your school is shut tomorrow it won't make a difference to the total - it will still be open for the same number of days over the course of a year as a school that happens to be open tomorrow.

Our local primary school manages it by having one room as a polling station, and this allocated room has an external door onto the pavement and a ramp.

The internal door is locked from the school side, and not even the polling staff have access to it so couldn't be forced to open it.

(I know one of the regular polling staff so asked! If they need a loo break they need to be replaced by a peripatetic senior polling officer while they go in search of a nearby loo. There's one in the supermarket a minute away.)

@Kinshipug I still can't see how inconvenient it is?
Thankfully we have postal voting as an option so I suppose parents who can't get out the house can do that.

Do you never take them anywhere then? Voting only takes a couple of minutes. I took mine so they grew up always knowing what do do.

Get a postal vote if its impossible for you to get to a polling station.

I believe I said inconvenient, not impossible...

@Kinshipug yes I have met small children 😂
I took mine to the polling station from when she was in her pram.
Surely if you can get your children out the house to school, you can get them out the house to a polling station?

DS was always annoyed that as he went to a Catholic school he never got a day off for this reason while his cousin who went to a local authority school round the corner did!

Our local school doesn't close but sections off a portacabin in the playground so the school can stay open and be used as a polling station.

Have you met small children? Of course it's more inconvenient than if the children were at school.

It won't be dressed up as an INSET day it will be an INSET day although the staff might have done their required hours over several evenings instead.

@Kinshipug why would it make it difficult for parents to vote if their children are off school?
If you are stuck at home with them you just take them with you to the polling station.

@AllProperTeaIsTheft @Icanseethebeach As I said in my post which you've quoted/ referred to. It is NOT an inset day. The school is closed (unfeasible design to remain open). There is no teacher training. I have no doubt some will be working, but it won't be in school.

To be clear, I am not a poster who has said they are fuming.

But I still think it takes the piss and is hypocritical when other venues, albeit requiring more effort, are available. Don't miss a day's school, don't you dare, nope, not even one. Oh, what's that? Polling data again. Too much effort and cost to sort something else out, we'll just tell the school we need their hall again.

Schools should be the last resort option in my opinion, but there should always be an easy way of voting in person.

Well, sometimes.
But it's not just about the number of days. It's the constant disruption too. Aren't we still supposed to catching up from covid? And the teacher strikes?
I suspect making it inconvenient for parents to vote is a factor too though...

@TangerinePlate schools get paid for being a polling station too apparently.
Edit : Google is a bit vague on this.....I might be wrong.

They organize the elections at school because they don’t have to pay for a hire like the village hall. Feck the parents though, they will manage 🙄

The people that complain never seem to base their 'fumin' on anything factual.

Children are all in school for the exact number of days they would have been if there was no polling day.

Why the heck they can’t organize the elections on Saturday then? Uninterrupted school and people can vote. Win-win.

it’s dressed up as in-service day. Every year I’m using all my AL to cover the holidays. 14 fecking weeks of school a year. That includes all school holidays,midterm breaks, bank holidays and in-service days. Then we get the school closed for electricity issues, bad weather and so on.

It's yet another thing education is less important than... but heaven forbid I take them out for a day...
Our school is closed tomorrow. Within 100 meters there are 2 churches, another school and a community hall. Quite why this school has to close I don't know.

@TerrorAustralis ok....a quick Google says that Thursday's have been used since 1931 (except for a rare couple of times). The reason isn't 100% sure but it's believed that because traditionally Thursday is the day before payday people will be skint on Thursdays and won't be out at the pub or socialising. Thursday is also far from the previous Sunday where many people could have potentially been influenced by their Vicar at church.
Thursday is apparently also traditionally market day in many towns so people would have been out in town anyway.
How true that actually all is......🤷

It’s not hypocritical. All the children are off on the same day. The reason you’re not allowed to take your child out of school randomly on other days is that they’re missing education that all the other children are getting.

plus schools don’t get a choice whether to be a polling station or not. They are directed to.

agree with all other posters who are rolling their eyes at all the unnecessary fuming.