To think closing schools or making them "optional" during the heatwave is putting pressure on working parents and is just a bit silly?

The rest of us have to work too.
We don’t all have air con either.

Not every workplace can manage without staff, and just shut up for the day so parents can look after kids that should be in school. Masses of them, not the odd kid off sick, but a whole school. What do you want an A&E department to do exactly when it's staff can't come in?? It's not unsupportive to not let people stay off work. We need the workforce in order to survive.

I'm not going to be quilt tripped by working parents that it's not fair on working parents. Not everything is about what's best for working parents. My concern is for my children who in this heat are better off at home where they can be kept cool. If working parents don't like this to bad. Giving the option for parents to keep children at home is the best option, it fits everyone's needs. But I'm not going to be guilty tripped by working parents when it comes to my children's health and safety. Who the hell do you think you are?

You clearly have no idea how unbearable it is in schools atm.

A school would not be closed without good reason. They are accountable to the council and have to justify closure. They also can't always give adequate notice. They don't have a magic ball to know weeks in advance just how hot things are going to be.

I find it strange that school are getting a lot of grief for nti thinking of employers, when it should try other way around. We should be questioning why workplaces in this country are so inconsiderate of these things and cannot be more flexible.

During events like this discussion always focus on failure of schools to recognise the strain they put on parents whe ln they know all too well. Teachers are, believe it or not, parents to. And face the same problems everyone else does when schools close.

I would love for the conversation to shift as to why companies are allowed to be so unsupportive of family needs? Why do they not have plans for events like this? Why do they put pressure on employees to put their childrens wellbeing second to work?

Yes they did all the things you said but they also call home to ask for pick up if a child is ill, has an accident, it snows, it's hot, is suspended etc etc. yes they care for kids during the school day but it needs the parents to pick up as soon as they are asked which means parents always need a plan b.

Yes, that's how childcare works. This is the same with nurseries, childminders, nannies, all childcare. They are still our kids, we have ultimate responsibility. We all know this and it doesn't mean that school isn't childcare.

Canceling it without good reason and without adequate notice isn't acceptable. Parents rely on it. Parents are expected to rely on it. It is their children's education and their childcare.

Yes they did all the things you said but they also call home to ask for pick up if a child is ill, has an accident, it snows, it's hot, is suspended etc etc. yes they care for kids during the school day but it needs the parents to pick up as soon as they are asked which means parents always need a plan b.

Yes, that's how childcare works. This is the same with nurseries, childminders, nannies, all childcare. They are still our kids, we have ultimate responsibility. We all know this and it doesn't mean that school isn't childcare.

Canceling it without good reason and without adequate notice isn't acceptable. Parents rely on it. Parents are expected to rely on it. It is their children's education and their childcare.

It depends on the area and how cool they can keep it inside. Have you been inside a school when its 35 degree? It’s dangerous.
Giving the option is great as it also means fewer bodies in class. You do realise theyre not actually doing proper lessons in this heat? Mine spent the whole day being hosed off and eating ice creams and playing wirh water in the hall. My little one‘s nursery is closing midday because toddlers collapsing with heatstroke isnt fun.

Yes as a country we need to adapt our building with air con and potentially start ‘tropical hours’ like other schools. It’s not the 80s anymore where the maximum is one day of 30 degrees. 40 is very different.

Why was I unlucky because my parents worked??

School isn't childcare. Yes they did all the things you said but they also call home to ask for pick up if a child is ill, has an accident, it snows, it's hot, is suspended etc etc. yes they care for kids during the school day but it needs the parents to pick up as soon as they are asked which means parents always need a plan b. Schools can call for a child to be picked up at any point during the school day because ultimately child care is the parents responsibility not the school, they are their to educate.

Really? That does depend on age group When I was 18 in 1989 it was about 1 in 5 school leavers went to uni.

Might be 50% of younger ones. But are you sure it's actually degrees and not other qualifications you are speaking about.

Around 50% of working age adults have a degree so theres no reason to assume she doesn’t.

And if she doesn’t, she can also get a bursary to train as a teacher on some undergraduate degrees.

Don't you need a degree? Not everyone has them you know

I think you where just unlucky that parents weren't at home. I was definitely picked up during the day when I was ill and like I said someone from the school even went to my grandparents house to ask them to pick me up because they didn't have a phone. Yes there was a sick bay but children where also sent home. Sending children home is definitely NOT a new thing

That sounds horrendous.

Why not retrain as a teacher? As you say, you’ll be working shorter hours, have better pay and conditions.

You’d also have the same holidays as your kids so no need to find childcare.

You can get a scholarship or bursary to train as well as a loan for tuition fees, so it won’t cost you anything upfront and you’d still have an income to cover the essentials.

Sounds much better than your present job, so why not go for it?

https://getintoteaching.education.gov.uk/

Have you ever been inside a care home, in an old building, with no air conditioning, and zero money to buy fans?

For 12 hours? Whilst cleaning up literal shit and being kicked and punched? for minimum wage?

Do we get time off?

Are our buildings not a danger to our extremely vulnerable residents?

And no school isn't childcare but what do you want the keyworkers you all clapped for, to do? Just not go in? No police, fire service, nurses, doctors, prison officers etc? Then what?

I was at school in the 70s and 80s myself. I remember being in the" sick bay" on the day of the school fete. Got told to lie down and rest and they'd ask my mums friend to collect me when she picked her own kids up . I was 6 at the time.

My mum would've been at work and dad wherever ( he was a postman so not a clue what shift he was on) And we didn't have a phone at home until 1984 when I was nearly 13, or of course if dad was working doing his round no one could've got hold of him till he got back in the sorting office anyway

The fact is there ,WERE these sick bays I assume your dad was either at home or worked where there was a phone instantly available as there weren't any mobiles then

It's not new. In the 70s in infants someone in the school would go round to my grandparents house as they lived closer if I was ill then they would pick me up. In the 80s during secondary my father was called several times to pick me up during the day due to illness or accident. So no it's not a new thing

People love to trot out that "school isn't childcare" line when it suits them, don't they?

School is childcare when you're on UC and they decide the hours you must work/look for work because your child is now of school age, or your benefits stop because you'd child is in school now.

School was childcare during COVID when they decided to only let the children of keyworkers into school so their parents could work.

But when you have to go and work in a swelteringly hot, high pressured environment, and the teachers decide they can't handle their swelteringly hot high pressure environment so need a paid day off - school's not childcare! You're on your own.

And the parents, the ones that have to rush around finding childcare, or take the financial hit, are in no way entitled to moan, apparently.