To think this isn’t fair? School and snow

Maybe the head teacher worked from home so that he/she didn't need to meet up with entitled parents like yourself. Possibly the head could have been ill themselves and would be able to be in touch with staff if needs be. Cut them some slack here .It was a tricky day for a lot of people you are not showing much understanding OP.

I lived in a Welsh village as a child and we often had time off in January because of snow. No idea if school was open, but not being able to get there was always a thing.

It used to be that teachers could rock up at a local school if they were unable to get to the one they worked at, that’s not allowed any more!

sorry, just seen CraftyGin has posted the same!

Makes sense for non-frontline staff to work from home if they can, especially if they don't live locally. The head would almost certainly be working from home & contactable rather than simply having a day off.
It's important for schools to stay open wherever possible as we learned from COVID lockdowns.

I grew up in Scotland and never had a single snow day. I travelled 6 miles in the deep dark winter.

A teacher friend (in England) told me that, back in the day, if there was snow, you were supposed to report to your nearest school to cover for teachers who couldn't make it because of distance. Obviously that couldn't happen now with safeguarding and general deterioration of pupil behaviour.

Absolutely agree that schools can't win - people will complain about anything!

Students and teachers were told to try to get in. I assume that if it was genuinely too risky, people called in. Maybe this was the case for the HT? I grew up in rural area and it was quite common in snow that some villages were cut off and some were ok. If enough staff could get in, the school opened.

Maybe the HT own children's school closed and they had to stay home
Maybe the roads are more dangerous where they live.
Their role doesn't have to involve any face to face or affect supervision for one day, they ll have plenty that can be done on a laptop and phone

Schools did used to open in years hone by.
I think they are scared to now because of the suing culture.

Also schools were smaller and teacher tended to live locally.
I knew where our science, English, physics and maths teachers lived as they all lived within 2 miles of each other. and our head lived in the next town

When my kids were at high school the vast majority lived within 3 miles if the school so that is walking distance for a teenager. Friends of my two would call at ours and they would walk in and back together.

Many of the teachers, including the head teacher lived om the other side of the Pennines to us where the snow would typically be heavier. On an average day it took some teachers an hour and 20 mons to get in. Obviously with snow and coming over Pennine roads it would take much longer and be unsafe.

Nothing to do with u

How do you know? Why do you care?

It depends entirely on where the HT lives

Head teacher can work from home occasionally and good to do so if they need to concentrate especially on something. Teachers need to teach their class.

Some jobs require you to be there in person, some don't. If you've got one that doesn't I'm not sure it benefits anyone to clog up the roads unnecessarily just to be 'fair' to people who have no choice. The exception here would be if they could have got in and provided cover for a colleague who couldn't, in which case, they should have.

Are you annoyed that your child was educated today?

"Not fair" is often something toddlers scream while stamping their feet

And how often are parents pleased to be able to get a windfall by suing about a minor accident? In years gone by teachers tended to live closer to the school in which they worked, many didn't have cars and were reliant on public transport.

Yes, close the school. If it’s not safe for the head to go in then other staff are likely to have difficulty too.

So close the school then? That's a win win for everyone I guess.

Schools did used to open in years hone by.
I think they are scared to now because of the suing culture.

I would be pissed off if the head lived next to the school but the reality is likely to be very different.
I'm chair of governors at a school that was open today. The head was working from home as he lives in a rural area and had a treacherous drive home last night.

I agree it’s not fair. It is a shitty way to treat staff as it’s highly unlikely that they all live within walking distance.

Once you’re in the car and on the way to work it doesn’t matter if your journey is 20 minutes or an hour long as long as the roads are passable. If there are lots of roads that are dangerous, then they are as dangerous for teachers and TAs as they are for the head.

Decisions like this are not good leadership and are likely to result in a lack of good will and wellbeing amongst the staff.

You should throw rocks at the head next time you see him or her. That will teach ‘em.

Of course if the school is open staff and children are expected to try to get there. I bet you would have also complained if they had closed. I imagine you would have thought it was unfair that the teachers were getting a day off or some such nonsense.

I suggest that you try to live your life in a different way rather than trying to look for things to moan about.

actually @Tania90if you come back to your thread, could you clarify who you think this is unfair to? Is it the children? (The school have a duty to be open if they can be, looks like the clearly could be so had no justification for shutting) or do you think it was unfair to the other staff who were able to get into work that one colleague- their boss - couldn’t?

or have you assumed the Head could get into work but just chose not to go?

YABU

So you think it's not fair that the staff did their absolute best to ensure your child's education was not impacted?