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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:

Muchtoomuchtodo · 05/12/2021 15:03

@Debroglie

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!

Do teachers just get snowy days off completely? Fully paid?

In the NHS we have to do everything possible to get to work, if we can’t get to our normal place of work we need to report to our nearest hospital and be prepared to do whatever needs doing.

If we can’t do that we have to take any time that we’re not in work when we should be as annual leave.

Stompythedinosaur · 05/12/2021 15:05

My dc had 2 snow days last week! I don't think teachers can be expected to have online learning ready at short notice, I imagine it takes time to prepare.

HighlandPony · 05/12/2021 15:06

We probably still will. I’m in the highlands so internet is patchy especially in bad weather. My husbands out at work just now doing welfare checks on people who don’t have power let alone internet

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Debroglie · 05/12/2021 15:09

Oh no muchto teachers are totally feckless, lazy, work-shy, overpaid good-for-nothings.

wonkylegs · 05/12/2021 15:10

Last time our primary was shut it was due to no power (no heat light or water as it's pumped) but it was a village wide blackout so online wouldn't have been possible either.

Muchtoomuchtodo · 05/12/2021 15:20

@Debroglie

Oh no muchto teachers are totally feckless, lazy, work-shy, overpaid good-for-nothings.

That’s quite a jump from what I asked @Debroglie!

HighlandPony · 05/12/2021 15:22

@Muchtoomuchtodo while I sympathise with the nhs situation, nobody is going to die by missing a few days school. People could very well die when the nhs becomes even more understaffed than it currently is. One of my jobs comes under social care/care in the community and the other is in agriculture. Both of those have implications if no one turns up to work either but id far prefer less people on icy and snowy roads when it comes to it. Less injuries from slips and traffic accidents for the nhs to deal with and less chance of essential workers getting hurt

Orchid876 · 05/12/2021 15:27

When we’ve unexpectedly had to go to online learning since COVID, we’ve had a day to adapt lessons for online learning and the next day we’ve gone properly online. So my guess is that for us, we’d have one day of snow day, then online learning.

itsgettingwierd · 05/12/2021 15:30

When we have had the odd snow day before our secondary always put work online. (South coast so doesn't happen often!).

That's because many secondaries have been using homework apps etc for many years before covid.

I think it really needs to be considered how necessary.

Yr 10/11 definitely.

Yr 7/8 - not so much.

Year 9 perhaps a few pieces of work to do.

pourmeanotherglass · 05/12/2021 15:40

Where we live ( south Bristol) snow days are pretty rare, so it would be a shame not to let the kids go sledging. If it was more than a day ( never happens here ) then it would make sense to go online after the first day.

ZZTopGuitarSolo · 05/12/2021 15:46

In the NHS we have to do everything possible to get to work, if we can’t get to our normal place of work we need to report to our nearest hospital and be prepared to do whatever needs doing.

This is why in my very snowy US state we have snow days. We don’t insist on all the people who don’t need to physically be at work actually going to work in bad weather. The emptier the roads, the more chance essential workers can get to work.

Debroglie · 05/12/2021 16:01

We had to switch to a full online timetable with no time to prepare. We also had to teach pretty much the whole of last academic year without practical work, which meant rewriting most of our lessons in practical subjects.
muchtoo the implication was there and you know it.

Debroglie · 05/12/2021 16:03

My school will definitely ask us to switch to full days of live online lessons if the school closes due to snow. No prep time will be given except maybe the first lesson of the first snow day will start 15 mins late.

MinesAPintOfTea · 05/12/2021 16:04

Given snow days tend to happen at the time of year when it’s dark by 4pm, school material put on seesaw etc won’t stop a few hours of fun in the snow during the day. Just do the schoolwork in the evening surely?

Debroglie · 05/12/2021 16:06

Our distance learning has always been live lessons so can’t be done in the evening.
Plus sledging in the dark is great fun!

MrsTophamHat · 05/12/2021 16:20

I expect that we would be ask to teach online but I don't think it would be expected to be live.

I've worked at my rural school for nearly 15 years. When snow days have happened in the past it has been due to the fact that too many of the staff and students are stuck in miles of traffic jams on the single A road that serves that area, and the school cannot safely open. I've heard about school closures over the radio and had to turn back, sometimes not arriving home until after 10.30am. The school has a culture of not closing if humanly possible, so calling it the night before and giving prep time would not be something that would happen for snow.

I simply wouldn't be ready to get teaching until lesson 4.

Muchtoomuchtodo · 05/12/2021 16:25

@Debroglie I think you have completely misjudged my post and I can only apologise for that.

Flamingolingo · 05/12/2021 16:28

No idea but if it snows here we will all be enjoying a snow day. But that’s because we live in the south so decent snow is a 3-5 year thing and short lived. I think if snow were more regular I would accept online learning.

spiderlight · 05/12/2021 16:43

Our school had to close early and send everyone home one day last week because of some sort of 'technical fault' but they scrambled to put the afternoon's two lessons on Teams and kids were expected to go straight home and log in to work remotely. DS was over the moon because he was due to have double PE so no work went up - he logged in on his phone so he was technically 'there' but I could hardly make him play football on his own in the garden for the whole afternoon. I suspect that if they managed to do that at short notice, they'd do the same if it snowed.

Debroglie · 05/12/2021 16:45

Ok muchtoo if I read it wrong I apologise for that. I may be a bit touchy.

MorkandMandy · 05/12/2021 16:48

When we were homeschooling again at the start of the year, school still differentiated between school days and snow days and just asked for photos of playing in the snow for those days.

womaninatightspot · 05/12/2021 16:49

Online learning in our school is just a list of tasks and links on seesaw. so you could go off on a jolly and do it quickly later

etulosba · 05/12/2021 16:58

When I was a child I remember the excitement of any day the school was closed unexpectedly eg snow, burst water pipe etc.

I’m afraid I can’t share your exited memories. I went to school in the 1960s and 1970s. They never shut for any reason. We carried on working during power cuts with candles in the desk ink wells.

twelly · 05/12/2021 17:24

Given the fact technology has moved on and given that weather warnings are fairly accurate its not too much to expect there to be contingency plans so that lessons can go online.

Debroglie · 05/12/2021 17:50

Who should sort out the contingency plans , twelly? When should this be done?

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