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Original poster

Will there be no more snow days at school?

64 replies

choosername1234 · 05/12/2021 10:33

When I was a child I remember the excitement of any day the school was closed unexpectedly eg snow, burst water pipe etc. They were the best days ever!
Now, after Covid, it seems that the teachers are ready to switch immediately to online learning. So no more snow days?

OP posts:

ParkheadParadise · 05/12/2021 10:35

I loved a Snow day.
We would hear it on the local radio that our school was shut. No FB at the time.

ElfontheShelfisLookingatYou · 05/12/2021 10:36

No, many schools can't still switch on line so yes there will be snow days.

Hippywannabe · 05/12/2021 11:38

We have been told no more snow days and that we would be expected to be online that day.

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Borntobedifferent · 05/12/2021 11:45

One of my favourite memories was aged 14 being sent home just after lunch as the snow was coming down so fast.

The excitement was electric as we all figured out what to do with this new found freedom. Some of us had to go and find younger siblings and we made our way to a local park with a big hill. Some kids had managed to get trays etc and we spent the afternoon with about 150 teenagers having the time of our lives!

Waxonwaxoff0 · 05/12/2021 11:45

DS's school shut in January due to snow and it was online learning!

Xmasprrssiehelp · 05/12/2021 11:46

Well we won’t be switching to online schooling as we will be both using our laptops to work. In lockdown DH was furloughed so wasn’t so much of an issue

HumbugWhale · 05/12/2021 11:53

I was discussing this with some other teachers at my school. We were saying it would be difficult at very short notice (we don't normally know about a school closure until 7am or sometimes even later) as lessons need adapting to work online. Also new students to the school e.g. current yr 7 have not done online learning in our school before and different schools do it in different ways so it might take a bit of time to set up. Add into that the fact that most of us would have our own kids at home wanting to play in the snow/need looking after and the fact that all the kids we teach would probably opt to play in the snow rather than logging into lessons we couldn't really see it working in practice!
My personal feeling is that we don't get a great deal of snow and it would be a massive shame for kids to miss all that fun in the snow on the odd occasion it happens. I would prefer my own dcs to be building snowmen and sledging, missing a day of school won't hurt them!

Sirzy · 05/12/2021 11:55

Ds school was shut one day last week after the storm took out the power. Work was out online for each lesson.

If it had been a snow day there would have still been plenty of time for fun in rne snow!

Halene · 05/12/2021 12:08

@Xmasprrssiehelp

Well we won’t be switching to online schooling as we will be both using our laptops to work. In lockdown DH was furloughed so wasn’t so much of an issue

Good point - how many families will have a spare laptop?!

DinosApple · 05/12/2021 13:04

I think 95% of parents, and all teachers would be happy for it to just be a snow day. But parental expectations have changed and there are some who would expect work to go online for their DC.

In my own household we have one pc, an archaic laptop, a clunky old iPad and a few phones. And none of them would be working on a snow day .

ZZTopGuitarSolo · 05/12/2021 14:17

I’m not in the Uk. Pre Covid we had 5 snow days built into our school calendar every year. It’ll be interesting to see what happens now.

Our schools are ready to switch straight to online learning - all staff and students are provided with devices and they use Google Classroom heavily already. I suspect snow days have gone for good.

For practical purposes that means that the summer holiday will start a week earlier, and the vacation will be 12.5 weeks rather than the usual 11.5 weeks.

ZZTopGuitarSolo · 05/12/2021 14:19

OTOH we get fairly regular power cuts and I can see those becoming ‘snow days’ as not enough people have generators, and we also often lose internet if trees come down and bring wires down with them.

Debroglie · 05/12/2021 14:22

As a teacher - I will be taking my snow days and playing with my own dc.
Last winter when it snowed and we were already online I set some optional work for my students and told them I’d rather they were out enjoying the snow like I planned to. Life’s miserable enough without taking away snow days!

PotteringAlong · 05/12/2021 14:24

We shut this week in the wake of storm Arwen - no power. We also did our lessons online.

HPandTheNeverEndingBedtime · 05/12/2021 14:25

All of our remote learning is still on the schools site and I believe will remain there for any student missing school for any reason, snow days, recovering from an operation or just for students to revise from.

educatingrati · 05/12/2021 14:27

Well our last snow day took out the power for three days, so no chance of on line learning!

gogohm · 05/12/2021 14:36

It's no bad thing, for days where it's borderline they used to open, now they can do online, for rural families it will make life easier assuming they don't loose power. I have friends who live pretty remotely and they can choose to join class remotely if the parents let the school know by 8.30am, even just heavy rain

PiesNotGuys · 05/12/2021 14:38

I didn’t think they were that common anyway. I had one snow day in my entire time at school and my DC have so far had none (in 13 years)

TakeYourFinalPosition · 05/12/2021 14:41

I’m 31 and never had a snow day at school. I’m not sure they are that common?

luverlybubberly · 05/12/2021 14:41

@PiesNotGuys

I didn’t think they were that common anyway. I had one snow day in my entire time at school and my DC have so far had none (in 13 years)

I'm down south and had kids in school for 15 years and they've had at least 5 days off. Didn't your kids even get a day off during Beast From The East due to teachers not being able to make it in ?

Aroundtheworldin80moves · 05/12/2021 14:46

The nearest my children have had to a Snow Day was one time the school closing at lunch time due to high winds, and the other time me collecting them as the snow was bad out of town where we were (we couldn't even drive all the way home, they had to walk the last mile up the hill) , but not in town where the school was. In the first instance, the teachers were trying to get home safely and storm proof their homes. In the second, most of the children were in school.

I'd expect Secondary schools to have better provision than Primary... but the provision would need to include loan devices and Internet dongles for those who cannot afford them.

Thepowerofthelook · 05/12/2021 14:49

Our school (secondary) was shut on Monday due to snow and by 8am they'd been sent their work on teams. Dc were a little miffed when they realised the only good thing about snow days was now a thing of the past.

KateInHappyland · 05/12/2021 14:52

@Borntobedifferent

One of my favourite memories was aged 14 being sent home just after lunch as the snow was coming down so fast.

That sounds like a lovely memory!

twelly · 05/12/2021 14:53

I think that school should now have contingency plans in place for snow days - there is no excuse.

RosieLemonade · 05/12/2021 14:55

We would 100% be asked to put work on Dojo these days. We have to do it for any child isolating, anyone off with things like chicken pox, external exclusions and school refusers.

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