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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think that every day that is had off school due to snow...

76 replies

MittzyBittzyTeenyWeeny · 03/12/2010 11:48

Should be taken off the summer holidays.

(4 and counting at my DC's school so far!!

OP posts:
NerdyFace · 03/12/2010 11:50

Scrooge!!!!!!!!!!!

Original poster
MittzyBittzyTeenyWeeny · 03/12/2010 11:51
Grin
OP posts:
CMOTdibbler · 03/12/2010 11:51

Certainly my friends in Virginia have a system where the schools have a snow day allowance, then anything in excess of that has to be made up by losing holidays

NerdyFace · 03/12/2010 11:52

Wink You are mean Mittzy!! haha

I would of KILLED for snow days as a child!

Onetoomanycornettos · 03/12/2010 11:53

Yes, these are the days that are so precious, that if your child misses just one of them due to an absence, say like going to see their grandparents in another country, or attending an important educational event not taking place in a school, you will be disrupting and damaging their education forever...

PeachyPossum · 03/12/2010 11:56

It is precious, but I'm a substantial amount of wages down now just before Christmas :( If they took them off the holidays I would at least recoup some childcare costs.

Lydwatt · 03/12/2010 11:57

by all means...if we also provide schools with the means to stay open (many more gritted roads, school buses that work in cold weather, winter tyres etc.)

then it would be a fine idea!!

alfabetty · 03/12/2010 11:58

So which end of the summer hols? I'd need to know to avoid being away for the extra days!

Or do we all wait till Easter, when the bad weather passes, to book our summer hols? And wait until the last minute to negotiate with bosses, colleagues as to summer leave, while hoping against hope that April, May and June don't involve high winds, school boiler break down and more school closures etc....

Completely impractical (and unnecessary..)

littleducks · 03/12/2010 12:01

Well dds school has sent out on a leaflet about taking children out of school in term time, apparently research has shown that children never catch up if they miss a day of school (direct quote, their emphasis) i was very Hmm and really did want to ask them to reference these studies in future it seems schools take one extreme approach or the other

Lydwatt · 03/12/2010 12:03

I should have added a Xmas Hmm after my 'fine idea' otherwise people will think I mean it!!

Original poster
MittzyBittzyTeenyWeeny · 03/12/2010 12:05

Well there was measure of Confused in my OP as I am also down financially and have no washing machine at the mo, house full of steaming wet clothes and a bath full of icicles.

No I don't actually think it is a great idea but Grin, we are a week into winter and counting......

Now when I were a lass schools didn't close unless the Boilers failed...

I ain't on the old Biddy bench for nuffin you know!

OP posts:
Serendippy · 03/12/2010 12:05

What is meant by children who miss a day of school finding it hard to catch up is that all the other children will be that one step ahead and they will have missed out what may have been an important piece of the puzzle. If all the children are away, nobody is behind. A good teacher can condense learning so that the skills and knowledge are still taught over the year with a few days grace, even a great teacher cannot be expected to help individual children catch up on different things every day.

Scrooge seconded!

RatherBe · 03/12/2010 12:09

In Massachusetts excess snow days are also made up by extra days at the end of the school year. I think it happens in a lot of states.

Onetoomanycornettos · 03/12/2010 12:18

Serendippy, good teachers have to catch children up all the time due to illness. Trying to make out that every single day is so precious and unique, it will never repeated and mustn't be missed (aged 5) under any circumstances is just a load of old rubbish. Teachers may not want to help pupils catch up for other reasons than illness, because they don't think it's justifed, but that's different than saying that it's not possible (repeating information, giving work for home, setting aside time to catch up the slower ones which is done all the time).

PinkElephant73 · 03/12/2010 12:37

I can understand teachers struggling to help a child catch up after, say, a 2 week absence for a holiday, and its not just the work, its the disruption to their routine that may make them v unsettled in the classroom.

however it is fairly typical that in response to people taking their kids out of school for weeks at a time to go to Disney, the school sends out an arsy letter which the people who it is aimed at will ignore and other people will get stressed about.

NeverArgueWithAnIdiot · 03/12/2010 12:41

But they're not missing a day of school. They haven't missed classes where new material has been taught. They're not falling behind what their peers have learned. They're not missing bonding experiences with their peers. School is closed, it's like another day of the holidays as far as each child is concerned.

lazylula · 03/12/2010 12:46

Ds1' school sent a newsletter out on Wed, with a bit about bad weather closure and where to listen for info should the need arise. It made me giggle as she went on to state that it was her intention to keep the school open if at all possible 'as any absence has proven to be extremely detrimental to a child's learning.' I think she is trying to cover herslef ready for the complaints from parents that the school can 'choose' to give days off, but parents can not take their children on holiday!

In answer to the op NOOOOOOOOO, YABVU! Xmas Wink

BoneyBackJefferson · 03/12/2010 12:47

strange that children are sooooooooooo precious to their parents until the school closes, then we must open schools all the time.

Libra · 03/12/2010 12:48

Actually I would like to agree in part with the OP.

DS1 is in his Highers year. His prelims are after Christmas.

Today is the SEVENTH day he has not been able to go to school. However, the school has only been closed for two of those days. It has been open to the children in the town in which the school is based.

50% of children attending the school come from outside the town and the school transport has not run for seven days.

We are forbidden, as parents, to take the children into school ourselves. Apparently, if there is no school transport and the school has to close early (which admittedly it did a few days ago) then the children would all be stranded.

So we have a situation where classes have run for at least 5 days and half the children have not been there.

I know it is great fun for the younger children to be off in the snow, but I am dealing with a very conscientious 16 year-old who is now panicking about what the class might be covering without him. He spend most of the day revising everything they have covered so far, but worries about what he is missing.

So, yes, I would like to know (and will be asking the school) whether extra classes will be laid on for the exam-year students in these circumstances. Particularly since I am worried that this is not the last day he will spend at home this winter because of the transport situation.

ClenchedBottom · 03/12/2010 12:48

Schools really cannot win.
Weather turned horrible again here yesterday, when I collected DC (at usual time) loads of people complaining, saying that the school should have closed earlier in the day.

These were the same people who moaned last winter when the school was closed for a couple of days due to awful weather.....

bumperella · 03/12/2010 12:56

I used to teach English in a Baltic country. The schools would close when the temperature got low enough (I think it was -25C but not sure). One memorable day, EVERY school was shut. EXCEPT MINE - it was absoolutely freezing and felt like an incredibly long day. AAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!

littleducks · 03/12/2010 13:00

Serendippy i agree that sometimes children struggle to catch up, but i think the use of 'never' is foolish

Serendippy · 03/12/2010 13:15

littleducks I agree that saying children can 'never' catch up is foolish. I was trying to point out the difference between missing a day of work/social interaction and having what is essentially another day holiday for all children meaning none will be at a disadvantage compared to others.

Original poster
MittzyBittzyTeenyWeeny · 03/12/2010 13:47

Boneback, I kept DD off on Monday because she has had a rough time recently and I felt a day being spoilt and given TLC would boost her for the rest of the week, whereas going feeling so miserable would be detrimental to her in school. I do it very rarely and tell the teachers honestly why they are off (have done it with DS as well)

It isn't anything to do with their 'preciousness'.

IF it were a serious proposal, even though my OP was tongue in cheek, I would support it. I happily support their school learning with home based learning, don't we all? But Many children have some time off through illness, some days are lost through Inset Days (they have just added another one to my DD's term) and add to that more time off through the weather and I think that if the severe weather were to be a regular, yearly thing, then the balance would need to be redressed.

However if there is snow on Monday and it is cancelled again my scroogeness will be elevated to a higher grade!Grin

OP posts:
Lydwatt · 03/12/2010 14:03

for information all INSET days were taken from holiday time. Teachers lost one weeks holiday for them...children lost nothing at all in terms of curriculum time.