Iam realllyyyy fucking pissed off, I ave come on ere to swear.

[ApocalypseCheeseToastie]

Having battled through shitty black ice for the past few weeks to get the kids to school, (they have transport buses) the school has closed due to around 3 inches of snowfall, for fuuuuuuucccccccccccckkkkkkkkkkkkkssssssssssss sakeeeeeeeee !!!!

It's a bloody insult, I can remember sitting huddled round bunsen burners wearing coats, and hats when I was a girl in secondary because we were snowed in and the heating had packed up, pah !!

But it's not the teacher's responsibilty to decide whether the school is open or not, is it?

Vinegar, I bet theyr'e not the only ones you know who haven't made it to work. Just probably the ones who affect you. The office teagirl who doesn't go in makes little difference to the rest of us.

And for the record, it's not "teachers" who decide whether or not schools open. And look what can happen when they go ahead and attempt to function in atrocious weather. A fair few schools in Scotland last night ended up with staff and kids stuck in overnight. That must have been a barrel of laughs.

any emergency service people out there to answer my bit (i'd be really interested to know the answer) - or are you all at work?

Around here the farmers and 4x4 car owner drivers ferried hospital staff to and from work last winter local hospital also opened up a closed ward to accommodate staff who couldn't get home.

maybe we should be focussing on the heroes who are turning in, rather than on the wimps under their duvets.

kathyb
With regard to schools being closed here it is usually a joint decision between police council and headteachers.
DS's school is closed as are all the special schools in Edinburgh but I expected that.

big cheer for all staff & kids at Hamilton college in Scotland (just on News)!

my mum's school in Northumberland had a room they used as a dorm for snowy weather so the kids didn't miss their education during the winter.

they treated it like a school trip

worked fine

I feel your pain, we got a text at 8.38am to tell us school was closed to nursery and reception children due to insufficient hot water(!), school started at 8.45am and I had my long awaited hair appt booked for 9am. I had to lug ds2 along and cut the appointment short (no pun intended..)

They then asked us if we could return the dc's to the local church for nativity rehearsal at 1.30pm, and then collect them again for 3pm. That would be a no.

altinkum
Also so the councils can attempt to clear the roads of snow and ice.

typically teachers live outside of catchment, which can mean that they have further to travel than other people. doesn't affect all of them, but can do.

when i was a teacher, the deciding factor was the bus company. we were in a rural part of the fens & some buses had to drive along by 'drains' - great big ditches full of water, some of them as big as a river, with no bank or safety barriers. if a bus had skidded there & gone in, it would have been swallowed up whole. therefore the bus co. were VERY cautious. once 80% of the kids couldn't get in (or HOME if the buses stopped during the day), we shut the school.

that's the difference, isn't it, schools are assessing whether it's safe for pupils to come in. staff are expected to make the effort or lose pay, just like other workers. and it's v difficult making safety decisions on behalf of other people's kids.

but, yes, kathy, there are some lazy teachers, though even lazy ones still do at least 40 hours a week & put up with a lot of crap from the kids, so not really that bad, just not sacrificing their every bt=reath to their job.

Not according to my facebook, I feel like the only person who has actually managed to get into work! And now face the prospect of a lengthy journey home. Not all teachers are dedicated I grant you, but some are. My own mum is off today as her school is closed, and moving to that area was never an option for us! And having taught there myself, I'm very glad. Plus, she isn't a confident driver at the best of times, the trains here are cancelled and there are no buses to that area.

At the end of the day it's about making sure the school is safe for everyone! I worked in a school last year, the HT is refusing to shut the school as the kids live locally. But most of the teachers live outwith the area, some of them had a 5 hour car journey last night and still had to make it in this morning. In Edinburgh yesterday it was heavy snow, the kids went to school and then the buses were cancelled due to the extreme weather and then had to walk miles home in freezing temperatures.

Granted though, we are all in different parts of the country with varying extremes. And I'm sure we've all had very different experiences of teachers, good and bad!

we haven't had snow for 3 days now but we had about 8" before that.
Because our council are penny pinching and useless we have streets were you are driving on 3" of compacted snow and ice. They were just not bothered about clearing the snow away from anything less then a major route.

Council run transport have given up so I have to take ds 5 miles away to school and back. It took me an hour this morning, usually 25 mins, and the only 2 roads which were not cleared were mine and the one the school was on. Crashes on minor roads held up the traffic on major roads. If the minor roads were cleared then there would be less disruption

And dd's school keeps leaving the decision so late she is already there when they close.

Also a lot of people don't seem to realise that grit/salt stops working at -6 the council workers can only do their best.
DH and several others have been busy keeping our roads and pavements clear.

I personally haven't seen a gritter or snow plough in my area at all this winter. Don't know about anyone else.

And yes, firefighters have gotten to work, but then some of them live 2 streets away from the station and walked there this morning. And nurses have gotten to work....again because some of them live only a few streets away from the hospital they work in and put their wellies on and walked there this morning!

i live an hours commute away from work and managed to get here, and we have had snow like this in the last 40 years, we had snow like this last January!

I know but 3 inches

Ave just walked into town and back, round trip of 5 miles, it was perfectly fine.

also school closure is about health and safety, there is a minimum pupil/adult ratio that has to be maintained, and if that is in doubt, the school HAS to close.

so in others words, if the teachers cant wont make it to school they have to close?

I think its a tad mean to say they can't be arsed, you cannot possibly know the travel circumstances of every member of a school's staff...not just teachers, but support staff, lunchtime staff, cooks, admin, a whole host of people who are vital to the safe running of a school

but I love you anywayVT!

There is no way schools should be open in Glasgow today - it is -2 right now and only an hour of daylight left. I wouldn't fancy driving home in this, the ice is thick despite gritting.