Schools as polling stations

Tell her to vote for anyone other than the Tories. If they hadn't spent the last 14 years defunding everything, there would be another facility and the school would not have had to close.

When I was young, our primary school was always used as a polling station, and our teachers used to take us all out for the day (with a few volunteer parents) - I have fantastic memories of us hiking across the countryside and stopping for our packed lunch!

Admittedly it was a tiny village school so probably only the equivalent of a single classroom today 😂

They are open from 7am to 10pm - who is working all those hours? There is also the option of a postal vote which anyone can take.

Possibly to reduce the number of working class being able vote, because they are least able to take time off work. That seems to be how it works in the US, hidden behind ‘it’s tradition’.

All my life I've known schools to be used has polling stations in nothing new.
My local polling station is in the community centre but other polling stations are in schools.

The school where I worked used to be used as a Polling Station with only the Hall off limits to the children but then it became less acceptable to have people coming through the playground and into the building (although they came directly into the Hall through a side door some would get lost). Changing times.

@TerrorAustralis I think there's some reason why elections are always Thursday....I'm gonna Google.......

@AllProperTeaIsTheft but some schools do remain open. The public isn't left to wander around, its in a closed area.

Comes down to building design.

(I remember being annoyed we seemed to be the only primary school open on Pilling day while all the other kids got it off... they used the adult education centre next door)

The issue isn’t that schools are used as polling stations, it’s that the polls are on a week day. If it was held on a Saturday it wouldn’t be a problem.

@notedbiscuits
Yes using schools are polling stations is very annoying.
About 15 years ago I had to take 3 separate days of annual leave because my DC school was used as a polling station within a 6 week period (either side of Easter school hols which also needed covering).
The council Civic Centre was only 5 minutes walk from the school so they should have had the polling station there instead of interrupting children's education.

My local primary is being used as a polling station and will be closed.

My friend is going to be a polling clerk at another local primary and, she said it's staying open.

Some parents aren't happy about either situation.

My son’s teacher has arranged a class trip for the whole of year 3 . I think that’s a brilliant idea .

Schools will take it as teacher training day so the students won’t have any fewer days in school.

Exactly. Schools don't get to just ditch a day - they have to have a certain number of teaching days, training days etc. There's nothing hypocritical about it at all.

I'm older than you and I agree.

It's usually combined with an in service day so we'd be off anyway.

Schools will take it as teacher training day so the students won’t have any fewer days in school.

To give you some idea, I had two visiting teachers here on a language exchange last week. Even though they'd been here several years running, the school knew who they were and had given them named visitors' badges, they were still absolutely forbidden to walk around the building unchaperoned by me.

I don't have an issue of a school being used, but I can't see why it can't also be used as a school at the same time. They only need a hall or classroom for the polling, not the entire building.

No way would this be allowed! These days, allowing a load of random non-DBS-checked adults onto the school site without having signed in, got a visitor's badge and without being accompanied by a member of school staff at all times would be a massive no-no, even if they were only supposed to go into one room!

Appropriate buildings for polling stations can be very difficult to find. DH runs elections for the local authority. He's lost one building because the place is used by an adult special needs group, which won't cancel its booking that week because of the impact of a change in routine to those using the hall. The local university now allocates the room previously used as a polling station to students for revision in the run up to exams and a local church building has been taken over by a new church group, which isn't interested in letting out its building for an election, despite the income the rental would bring. it can be complicated.

My polling station is a school too but they don’t close. They have a side building that can be closed off to the rest of the school.

If it’s being used as a training day, booking the day off was inevitable but unfortunately coincided with his week away. 🤷‍♀️

Oh good grief why is everybody fuming these days?

I'm 61. I remember schools closing when I was a kid.

Fuming because we have the right to vote in a Democracy, and she is mildly inconvenienced.

What a world we live in.

My school was often used as a polling station but it didn't close. Totally unnecessary for that to happen.

Polling Stations need to be wheelchair accessible and they need to have toilets (including accessible ones).
Unfortunately it's amazing how many church halls and community centres don't have this.
Modern school buildings usually do.
As for the child care thing - this is where informal arrangements between parents for babysitting come in great. I usually ended up with one or two of my daughters classmates at my home. All informal so I didn't get paid (didn't expect to - although once I got given a fiver because I said I would take the girls to a local shopping centre and have a Maccyds).
This is why parents at the school gate need to actually talk to each other 🙂

School has been our polling station for 20 years. This year, the bowls club!

I'm 52 and schools have been used as polling stations since I was a child!