AIBU to think school closures ignore parents' work commitments?

Yes, it's difficult but remember that teachers have kids too and they have to be in school earlier than their kids and stay later due to after school meetings, planning, marking and parent's evenings, open days, extracurricular activities, twilight revision sessions and detentions..

We probably need to get real about how to prepare our homes, schools, hospitals and work places for the extremes in heat and weather we will be increasingly be seeing as temperatures rise globally so that life doesn't come to a grinding halt every time it gets really hot or really cold. Unfortunately the things we probably need like AC aren't exactly environmentally friendly or affordable.

I think it's just easier to be balanced in response to someone else's frustration than your own! I'm definitely not immune to complaining about things that inconvenience me 😅

School isn’t a childminding service. The children are the schools’ concern, not the parents.

Can I recommend speaking to your MP about the need for the government to fully fund education in general and to specifically fund AC for all schools? That would make a big difference to how many schools need to close.

They could start by actually funding their proposed teacher pay increases each year, so that schools aren't forced to cut everything they possibly can.

‘Forced’. I think state over reach has led to this but then you can’t be surprised when parents see you as a childcare setting. If you’re checking my kids teeth, telling me they’re not too sick for school, teaching them about things I haven’t okay’d (many examples of ideologies being taught in school as gospel) then you’re going to be looked at as childcare because you’ve over reached into parenting.

Im not saying I agree but I’m saying that’s why parents see it as a blurred line and then get annoyed everytime teachers knock off for the day when we already struggle to fit in the school day hours, holidays and many inset days.

I agree with schools closing in an unprecedented heat wave, but I understand parents annoyance as it’s always something and it’s hard enough juggling kids and work now.

The school’s obligation is to the safety of the children. I’m not sure how conveying the information in anything other than a concise factual way makes a difference. It’s not their fault it’s hot!

As a teacher I really don't like the schools = childcare attitude. School is for education and in 40 degree heat, nobody is learning so what is the point in being there? Besides, I am sure most schools have an arrangement for those that really cannot accommodate.

Schools are being forced to step into gaps left by parents and I do agree that ideally they should just step back from all that, focus on academics, and let social services take over if parents won't.

No teacher wants to brush a child's teeth, or potty train them, or feed them, but someone has to.

And there's enough people complaining that they didn't learn "life skills" at school and that geometry was a waste of time, as if your parents didn't bear any responsibility at all for preparing you for adulthood.

Home schooling is an option, it's much less convenient than school and economically very challenging. If school is the only option that works around your family life, you have to abide by the laws and respect the fact that there are 29 other kids in your child's class and they don't have time to wait whilst your child is caught up on missed content. And also, that they will only be open when they can provide a safe environment for education.

That's quite a big presumption, but yes - someone with caring responsibilities for the child always needs to be contactable - what if they are suddenly desperately unwell? You'd want to know asap surely?

I am a widowed single parent funnily enough - my employer knew I had childcare responsibilities, and as a manager myself, I also gave huge flexibility to all my staff with children, men and women. I made it one of my priorities to ensure my team could all manage their work/life balance as well as possible.

The employers of both parents should be understanding of parental responsibilities and both parents should share emergency cover equally.

I'm not sure how you've crowbarred domestic abuse into this.

Employers need to be much more proactive in how they are part of a good employee work/life balance.

The sole and total care of a child 9-3pm, Mon-Fri, is not the duty of any school.

My first thought was that not every parent is able to take time off at short notice. Schools should stay open for those children whose parents aren’t able to take time off.

Still not addressing my point that schools often overstep their boundary between providing education and trying to be a secondary parent. Maybe they should sort their boundaries out if they don’t want to be seen as childcare and merely an educational institution. The line is being blurred continuously, even things like Labour saying they want teachers to brush kids teeth.

This is also most likely why home schooling is on the rise. A lot of parents are rightly getting annoyed at the lack of consistency from education settings and the way schools can just decide to close at the drop of a hat (on top of ridiculous holiday amounts) leaving parents in the lurch who have work.

If we’re being forced into school as a mandatory option in the UK then yes, it is a childcare setting. Home schooling is usually not an option due to cost of living.

In fairness, these temperatures are unprecedented. And we don’t have extreme heat and cold often enough to make changing infrastructure retrospectively worth the money.

If they were meant for childcare, they wouldn't care about attendance.

They aren't.

They are one option for fulfilling your child's right to receive a full-time education. If you choose to take that option, you are bound by their T & Cs which require all children to attend on the same days so that all children have covered the same content. If they close, they close for everyone (although in some circumstances they may agree to provide childcare for some children) so no-one falls behind anyone else.

If you do not want to abide by the T & Cs, you can take a different option for ensuring you meet your responsibility to provide a FT education.

Its hot. The same heat we strive for when we go on holiday. Its nothing too difficult to cope with.

Trouble is, and i say this because ive seen it ALL over FaceYak, the mothers are kicking up a holy stink about it. Every other post on local pages is about schools putting childrens lives at risk etc etc. They are damned if they do, they are damned if they dont.

Somehow these parents think their children are better off stuck at home than they would be at school for some reason.

Why should they discuss the disruption to you? Did they create the heatwave?

I wish my children’s secondary schools would close tbh!

Secondary school kids are often the ones travelling further, to less suitable buildings in less suitable clothing, with teachers who have fewer options for taking kids outside/ to cooler spaces.

And it doesn’t really cause such a problem for parents.

Yet it all seems to be primaries closing!

The current weather is unprecedented and, in places, a threat to life, not just for the vulnerable (including children!) but everyone.

It really dismays me that people are saying words to the effect of "it's just a hot day". It's the same self-delusional denial that got us into this climate breakdown.

In Germany part of the starting school paperwork is declaring where your child will go in a heatwave.

If you say they can come home/go to grandparent, you get no warning, your child just turns up at home if it gets above a certain temperature in their classroom. It’s not just the UK that can’t cope.

It would be nice if they gave even a hint of recognition that this is unbelievably disrupting.

I often thought this when mine were primary school age.

Like you usually understood why they were shutting - toilets not working one example - but the expecation of nearby someones to step in quickly always struck me as odd especailly as a lot of the staff were or had been working mothers themselves.

I can completely understand it is for the best if school close with the heat - though long term changes - awnings - blinds - air con - all need to be considered - but the juggling behind it all not easy.

The DWP thinks it’s childcare, that’s why you’re expected to find a job once your child is in school.

A service can have more than one purpose, yes it is education, but while your child is being educated they are also being cared for. The school assume childcare responsibility across the hours that they operate.

Do you expect them to go on bended knees to you @OhNoItsThePinkyPonk

They are putting your child first. You should do the same.

Yes and I live in an area with high deprivation/high child poverty. So I question the idea that this is for the children's safety. More likely going to result in swathes of children out in the street unsupervised in 37 degree heat or left at home alone.

All of this. ⬆️

OP said it wasn't the emergency that bothered her but the way it was communicated.
Your communication implies that school can stay open for some. And I agree that it should. But her issue was the way it was communicated. I would be more bothered about the outcome.