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

[MittzyBittzyTeenyWeeny]

Should be taken off the summer holidays.

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

[fruitpastille]

I only wish my school did ever close! Had to take DS (3.5) and DD (18m) with me on journey the other day as CM is near work. 1.5 hours in car. Had to park away from school and walk them down hill for 20 mins(too icy for car) in buggy and then back up again late afternoon when they were both tired. And now I have set a precedent that I can get there whatever the weather!! And DH has spent hours travelling so that he can get to his school.

To be honest I would far rather do an extra day in summer than go through this again.

However I don't think it would benefit the children - everyone is on their knees at the end of the school year and not working that hard anyway. And no doubt parents would complain as they would miss booked flights etc!

YABU (ooh, first time typing that )

[MittzyBittzyTeenyWeeny]

Harrumph Am not soBU!

I have just been to town ans there are teaching type people all over the place from my DD's school...bah humbug!

I really didn't know that Inset days were a apart of the holiday entitlement Lyndwatt .

Altinkum.. I am not blaming the schools for everything .. not the icicles in my bath, or loss of income or anything but I am slightly at them being off today, especially now having seen quite a high % of the staff in town..... A school an equal distance from DD's has stayed open and whilst of course parents need to have strategies to cope with bad weather, so also do schools. Especially if bad winters are to be a regular thing.

You are right.. they are there to educate the children and have never considered them as 'babysitters'... not bashing, just having a well entitled grump. Of which I don't have many!

[NinkyNonker]

Well those staff didn't make the decision,did they.

[MeowyChristmasEveryone]

libra,

Have you e-mailed the HT and asked if he can use the Internet to try to catch some of what he's missed?!

[hocuspontas]

If a school nearby is open and yours is closed it could be because the majority of your school staff live in outlying areas where it is impossible to get in from.

[mumbar]

altinkum

I am an LSA in a special school and we've been shut the last 2 days (as has DS school and most schools in Hampshire!)

My friend whos a teacher locally has had to spend the day on the learning platform setting activities and replying to pupils who ask for support - whilst trying to entertain her own dc's. She is a KS1 teacher. She compromised with an hour on computer and 1 hr with dc's. She said being at work is less stressful

Its true - the advice is essential journies only. With all schools shut that takes 1000's of cars off the road/ people off streets/ pavements in every town/city allowing a safer route for those who essentially have to travel.

It just common sense.

How ever if we are closed Monday I may even go a little stri crazy myself

[pagwatch]

Twp of my Dcs get daily emails giving them work with links and sheets if they need it.

Fortunately the work is optional for DD as we have been busy making fudge and snowmen and sitting under blankets and reading harry potter with independent learning

[MittzyBittzyTeenyWeeny]

That is the weird thing hocus, they aren't massively from far away. The head travels furthest and comes by a main cleared A road. It is a very small school so of the staff that I did see today it was probably half of the staff. And they cancelled today opening on Wednesday.

I think the school is great and I still maintain this is a grump rather than a heartfelt criticism of the school. One of the reasons cited had been that the access road isn't cleared by the council. (this is from another parent though) It is about 50 yrds long, and there is a massive carpark next to the school on another side.

And the icicles in the bath have melted and have left even more wet dirty laundry because my feral snow mad DC's used their COATS to gather said icicles in , I don't suppose common sense is something you can actually teach is it?

[tingletangle]

Although we may feel an initial delight at having a day off most teachers get frustrated at snow days. We wanted tonopwn our school but were told by the police not to , they even closed off the approaching roads.

I would not object to adding days on, but at Easter as this would help exam classes.

[pippitysqueakity]

Well here, tho school was closed to pupils for last three days, staff had to come in. So how would that work? Overtime? Ha!

[MittzyBittzyTeenyWeeny]

Lol at It being common sense mumbar... .

I have had two hyper children at home for 4 days that aren't a holiday, relative friends of theirs in and out, 2 sleepovers to contend with.... I may not be functioning on my own ability to think things through.

I daren't look at the forecast for Monday...

[emy72]

Mmmm well I think this is something that needs sorting out. If it starts to snow like this a few times a year then the kids are due to miss quite a few weeks of school, aren't they?

I was a bit disappointed that our local school was closed today, as it hasn't snowed for at least 48 hours now, all the main roads are gritted, all the teachers apart from one live locally (not sure about the TAs) and so do the dinner ladies. All kids are local (school massively oversubscribed so all kids live walking distance).

I am not quite sure why the school didn't open today and when we enquired we were just told "due to bad weather". I would have at least liked a reason.

We did have a great 3 days with the kids though, they really enjoyed having some family time. Just as well I am still on maternity leave.....

[mumbar]

I'm off work as work in school, have gutted the house, played in snow, walked DS miles on the sledge, run out of jobs to do and still have the weekend - which is meant to be very wet - to amuse DS during.

I was initially very excited and now bordering on going stir crazy! Still object to losing 2 days holiday tho as the last 2 days have not been relaxing - a holiday is.

[mumbar]

Where are you? Forecast here in the South V V V wet and 9°c. Imagine it will be fine unless the temperatures drop again it it becomes snow.

[mumbar]

OK scrap that - just checked. It was meant to be 6°c here now but is actually -6°c but apparently in the next 6 hours it will rise to 6° and become very wet. How the fcuk can it get 2° warmer an hour

[LaurieFairyonthetreeEatsCake]

At the moment DH's school is completely open (about 1cm of snow ) however if his school were to close for a week he would be doing just as much work at home - he would just be doing the work he does shoddily the rest of the time much better (he says he has 37 balls in the air on any one day - which means that stuff like marking gets very perfunctorily marked unless it is gcse/a level coursework).

I would not be happy then if he lost a further week of the summer holidays (as he's usually half dead by then).

The problem is of course that he is given too much to do and snow days/school closures don't impact his actual workload in any real way - unless they were shut for 3 weeks when he would likely design the new courses for next year that he has set aside the Christmas holidays to do

[NinkyNonker]

If this does become a more reg occurrence then hopefully the infrastructures will improve to cope. We only struggle at the mo because we are not used to stand haven't been able to justify cost of certain alleviating measures.

[coccyx]

I think the OP has a good point. Summer holidays too long .

[MittzyBittzyTeenyWeeny]

No. On a serious note Laurie I have a lot of friends who are teachers and have a lot of respect for how hard they work and that holidays are well earned and in some cases especially for head teachers, rarely actual holidays, but time to catch up on paperwork. It is a crime .

Are workhouses an option do you think?

[MittzyBittzyTeenyWeeny]

And the dreadful thing there is Ninkynonk, that if it is bad enough for enough years that we do develop an infrastructure to cope with it, the British weather will then revert to type and we will have another two decades of mild ineffectual winters making the investment in said infrastructure a bit of a waste!

Anyway, I braved the weather forecast and no snow was mentioned after tonight....

So hopefully I can get out to play in it now!

[Dexterrocks]

Our school has an intranet system where the teachers can post work and the children log on with a password and work from home. The teachers and pupils don't have to risk dangerous journeys to school in dreadful conditions but the children are still doing some learning.
I know it is not as good as being in a classroom and talking, sharing, doing etc but it is better than nothing.
Ours have been off for 7 school days already. There is nothing the Head can do to change the weather and road conditions.
Schools are not there to provide free child care so that parents can work. They are there to educate children.
Furthermore, in the holidays people are able to relax and get out and about together and to go new places where they can experience new things. On snow days no one can relax to the same extent as they don't know what is going to happen the next day. People cannot get out and about and have new experiences (apart from playing in the snow of course)
It would be cruel to punish kids for the bad weather.

[roslily]

I am a teacher and agree, we should make up the time at Easter. I am worried about my exam classes. But worry not I have been working on our one snow day.

[echt]

I think from the teachers' point of view, when a school is closed they have, effectively, been locked out of work, so don't owe any days. You wouldn't be able to staff the extra days.

When schoolkeepers struck in the UK, the teachers has to show willing to work, i.e. drive to the gate and wave at the HT, who would tick their name and off they'd go, laughing and scratching.

[MittzyBittzyTeenyWeeny]

I don't see it as 'child care' . I work from home and it certainly not that that is the issue. Given that education is so important and bad winters may continue in UK then I think I said earlier that just as parents need to have severe weather plans, so do schools.
Maybe look at the percentage of staff that are employed who would struggle to travel in reasonable but challenging weather?
The developing online services are new to me but sound terrific for seniors especially ones sitting exams.

It could be that the next 10 winters are mild, but on the other hand if they are long and severe, then it is a situation that needs addressing and NOT from the point of childminding .