Schools closed or opening late due to ice

[ZappyDays]

I don’t remember this being a thing when I was at school. School closures due to snow, yes, but ice, never. Correct me if I’m wrong!

Tdcp
It makes more sense to close due to ice than snow in my opinion. Ice is far more dangerous to walk and drive in.

Totally this and wish our school would do what others do, the road to the school is a nightmare with a sharp turn to come to the road. If they opened at 10 on days like these it would be easier

In the past, children (and to some extent teachers) used to live within walking distance of school. We still live a minute's walk away from DS2 's primary- which opened at normal time- but I bet some of the many kids who are driven in turned up a couple of hours late, given that our village is 3 miles away from the closest gritted road (and yes, cars just slide off the roads into the hedges left right and centre when it freezes).

DS1'S secondary- 6 miles away down those ungritted lanes- opened at 11.00am this morning, and so did the nearest other primary, 3 miles away in the middle of nowhere.

I trudged to school too, but you can’t trudge 15 or 20 miles. It’s not sensible or effective. Some staff live some distance from their place of work and whilst main roads may be clear, side roads and tracks certainly aren’t. I’m sure that applies to all kinds of professions and jobs. If it’s dangerous, it’s dangerous.

I lived a 20 minute car journey from one job. The main roads were gritted, but I simply couldn’t get from my house to the main road. I tried, but after making no progress, gave up.

Someone always trots this line out but there are plenty of areas where nurses don’t get to work because of the weather conditions.

One of our local Secondary Schools is closed today (and yesterday). It's on a main road into town. Most of the children walk there and the snow is soft and perfectly walkable. The school buses all travel main road routes which are clear. It's bonkers that they're shut again today.

I had several days off school in the nineties and noughties due to ice and the backroads being impassable for the buses 🤷‍♀️

I used to work in a hospital, they had a list of local volunteers with 4x4s who would help staff get there and back if needed.

If you’re snowed in, you’re snowed in.

If you live on an icy hill that isn’t gritted then it’s icy.

If the buses aren’t running then they’re not running.

This with bells on!
Our caretaker is only paid from 7am. She’s in her early 60s. She is now the only member of maintenance team as there’s no money. The school opens to pupils at 08:25am. There is no way that in an hour and 25 minutes she can do all of the usual essential morning jobs she has to do, like ensuring the toilets are ready for use for hundreds of people, and grit the entire premises. Teachers and TAs end up helping her but even then…The solution is opening late.

Snow yes but not ice where I am. Central Scotland. It was -5.5 when I dropped my kids off yesterday. The ground was white with ice but school still went ahead. They have a plan in place and only the main gates are open, kids go straight in to the building. They aren’t allowed out at breaks and at home time everyone comes out main doors only.

I skidded in the car coming out our street and the road outside it where they never grit 😡 everywhere else though roads were fine. School car park wasn’t gritted and completely white as they only grit the pavements.

It's because people live further away from work these days. When I was in primary school, almost all of the teachers lived locally, I delivered newspapers to 3 of them!

My nephew now goes to the same primary school, and the closest teacher lives 5 miles away, the rest further. People can't necessarily afford to live close to where they work any more, and as a result they can't just walk in when the roads are icy.

Years ago we were told that councils sometimes ask for schools to be closed in order to reduce the traffic on the roads which in turn, reduces the risk of collisions and injury. We're in South London and it's clear there's a lot less traffic on the roads when the independent schools break up and again once the state schools finish their term so I can see the logic behind the idea.

None of the schools I'm involved with are closed today, not even the one with a broken boiler. Children have been told to wear extra layers under their uniform and to wear hats, scarves etc or to bring blankets.

Lots of things didn’t happen when I was school age that do now. You are probably not wrong that years ago decisions were made differently, but that doesn’t mean the way things are approached today is wrong.

I dont think any child at my primary school ever had a lift in by a parent - being a "2 car family" was very fancy in our isolated & rural area, cost of petrol, and it just wouldn't have occurred to anyone - there was a bus if you lived further away, and going to your local catchment school was absolute - this was 1980's.

Most teachers lived locally, so would walk if they had to. If they had a teacher off they could combine classes to cover.

There was a grit bin in the playground and the expectation that parents would arrive early with their child to grit paths to the building - enough parents did so that it worked out.

Now, far more people can't walk to school, far more cant arrive early to help grit, roads are more dangerous for pedestrians due to more traffic. Its just a different world.

I remember school shutting due to burst pipes meaning no water in toilets. But it stayed open even if there was no proper heating.

Our secondary school is open for children who can get there safely, it's a rural school with children coming from lots of different villages in the area so some can get there and some can't.

We can't get out of our village, every road in/out is a fairly steep hill and narrow lanes and nothing has been gritted. The school bus has not been able to get here today.

It was the same when I was at the same school in the 90's, snowy days the bus wouldn't show up and we'd get the day off!

It only happened twice when I was at school, but I grew up in London so not as icy/snowy as other parts of the UK.

It’s hard to get a messsage to parents in the 80s

We had a rule where if the bus didn’t come in the snow for half an hour after the correct time you should go home

I remember local radio used to list school closures that is how my mum found out, when my Dc started school there was no internet school closures was on local tv pages on ceefax and the radio.

Happened a lot in rural Sussex where I grew up in the 80s and 90s

Ice is far more hazardous than snow. Our son’s school had a sloped playground that became an ice rink when it froze so school was shut (late 90s).

Yeah where l used to work did this a few times. was on a very steep hill.

Member of staff crashed on steep hill twice.

Opened the schol in a blizzard when all the others in the area closed. Ended up closing at 10.00am. Some staff who lived 30 miles away were unable to get home.

Staf walked in once some from miles away. Ended up closing at 10.30. All staff had to walk home in blizzard.

Teachet slipped on icy playground and broke his leg.

Great idea if head can get in then everyone else can

Ooh we used to listen to the bbc local radio, I think they read out the school names three times per hour, sometimes fewer and fewer school names got read out as the snow thickened, and eventually ‘all schools in this council area closed today’!

I don't know why posters think "we are soft nowadays" when schools did used to close in the 80s and 90s because of adverse weather.

It can be performative to open a school. We had a late opening while they were clearing the site one year, walked the kids to school, carried on (late) to work, phone call half an hour later to say fetch the children. What was the point?

The next day, school opened late, maybe a third of children came in as it was still snowing heavily, headteacher was outside at home time telling us all what a lovely day the children had had building snowmen.

They did indeed: the absolute delight of a snow day!

I vividly remember the winter of 2009/2010 as well, which is now sixteen years ago for those who like to clasp their hands in despair at the soft youth of today. Schools were closed for over a week. The soft sixteen year olds then are now thirty two and probably moaning about how soft today’s youth are. Our own perceptions are often not entirely accurate.