To be annoyed at the council for insisting on re-opening schools when it is not safe to get to them

[prettybirdinapeartree]

Glasgow schools went back today (at least, those that didn't have burst piple/broken boilers ) but it was an absolute nightmare to actually get there.

The only way to get to ds' school safely was to walk in the middle of the road The pavements were rutted ice covered with a thin layer of water so therefore impossible to stay upright on.

Ds (10, P6) usually walks to and from school on his own but because we knew the roads and pvements were in really bad condition, today we accompanied him. Dh came back from taking him absolutely fizzing.

Not only was the lollipop man not there because the closest school is shut 'cos of burst pipes (strange dog's leg catchment: even though ds goes to his catchment school, to get there, he needs to cross the road close to the other primary school, which is actually closer to us) but the hill that the kids had to walk down to get to school was sheet ice. On the way back, dh saw two kids and two adults fall heavily while walking on the road - which was actually less slippy than the pavement. The only pavement that was gritted was the one directly outside of the school.

I picked ds up - and had to walk down the middle of our road (relatively quiet so not too much of an issue - but not something a 10 year old should do on their own) and then walk down (and back up) a much busier road (the one where dh saw people falling in the morning), again on the road as it is on a hill and the pavement was impossible to walk on.

Our council said very clearly on the website that it was up to parents/carers to decide if the trip to school was safe enough or not - did Glasgow not give you any guidance then?

YANBU - Fife much the same - councils are doing diddly squat to clear the pavements of snow.

Hope everything gets back to normal next week!

Well here, until today, we have been walking in the roads for a week (pavements under big heaps of snow). Ds1 missed 3 days of school cause of snow, would have been quite annoyed if he'd missed the last 5 as well as the pavements weren't clear.

I do remember one day last winter when the melting snow turned to thick black ice and trying to get anywhere was risking life and limb but on balance I think you are being ABU.

Nope - they just gave us a list of the schools that were shut and said that all other schools were open

That of course, was if you could get on to the web-site. It couldn't cope with the traffic going on to it (to get infomration ) so kept on falling over. The Twitter feed was more reliable - but did mean that yesterday, when they were providing a list of the schools that were closed, it could only be done 140 characters at a time.

I know the head teacher and the janitor were both fizzing. They did not think it was safe to open the school :(

Ours went down for a while, but they put a default page up with the basics and gave up on the usual "fancy" website until they had it working better. They've been pretty useful actually, getting diggers in and keeping us up-to-date. They've even arranged special rubbish collection points for people whose bins haven't been emptied!

Look at it another way, why not open for those who can get there? Those who can't can stay at home. Whereas if they stay shut then there's no choice. I bet some would complain if it wasn't open, whatever they do someone will be put out. I suppose it depends if they will get arsey if you don't show up?I sympathise though- am seriously considering buying ice skates! How the hell I've not gone base over apex yet I don't know!

Barbarianmum - what did you think the day that it was black ice? All the pavements round here are like that at the moment - with the excpetion of the pavement directly outside the school.

I want to live in your council area, AMumInScotland!!!

Well I was fizzing the our school
remained closed. 10 minute walk to my son's school, yes the pavements are icy , our road is still not passable in a car, however with sensible footwear we could easily walk to school. Ridiculous blanket closure by east Dumbartonshire council. Secondary schools reopened today, children come from further a field to attend, so in theory at greater danger of travel disruption and icy pavements etc. Daft. Have you not ventured out all week prettybird, or is just the school
journey that is dangerous?

The day it was black ice I got halfway there and wished like hell I'd stayed at home.

There is ice and ice, I guess. The 3" thick ice we've had here (compressed snow) was not so bad for walking on but most people prefer the roads. Before they were gritted most (little) kids were pulled to school on a sledge down the centre of the road but that wasn't so bad cause v. few cars were about.

But it would have been totally impossible to clear both the pavements and the roads due to the volume of snow - it had to go somewhere. Round here people (not council, apart from big roads) have cleared the road to allow single vehicles past and piled it on the pavements.

Our school has been open this week (Edinburgh
) but we had repeated emails etc from the head saying it was up to parents whether the journey was safe or not and absences would be marked as authorised.

Tbh the journey the last couple of days has been horrific because the pavements are wet sheet ice - but If anything I'm less annoyed at the council than Individual householders - why on earth haven't more (able) people cleared a path outside their flats/houses. I appreciate it's hard when the ice is so hard packed but it's bloody lethal out there and I don't think the council can possibly clear every single street in the city.

Th ecouncil are re-opening on schools, not insisting that you make your children go.

I agree that mor e people should shovel their own pavements and roads.

weeny i must be your neighbour! my 2 could easily have walked to primary.still very slippy out there though

Our school might be closed for Years R-4 on Monday as the boiler is broken. Years 5 and 6 will still be expected to go.

pretty bird et al who have had problems with official websites for snow related school problems...

why not try to persuade your school to create an offical facebook page for the school, get the head teacher and school officials to create offical profiles (ie they shouldn't use their personal ones!) and make sure they get a good facebook name so they can give out a url that is facebook.com/schoolname.

OK so I know that not everybody likes fb but when lots of people are trying to access info at the same time, the chances of facebook falling over vs council info site falling over, I'd go with facebook. And if they set it up right, people won't have to be friends of the school to look at it, although they could if they wanted to see the updates automatically.

The head/offically designated people shouldn't find it too difficult to post a message on themselves, and they will be able to add any extra info along the lines of 'don't come if it's too dangerous' or 'remember to bring packed lunch as kitchen's packed up' or whatever.

Depending on the school you might want to encourage parents or pupils to put up responsible comments like 'xx hill is sheet ice, beware'. You can always have a moderator or two to remove anything inappropriate.

Rest of the year can be used to post up term dates, reminders of any big events and so forth. Doesn't need to mention any individuals or pupils so no privacy worries.

Hell, they could go the whole hog and set up an official school twitter account while they were at it, useful for those that follow tweets! Plus it would teach students of some of the responsible uses of social media, useful all round.

Lots of people do keep an eye on facebook and twitter so this would help them, especially if things change through the day. For those that don't it's just a different website to check things out on so no real difference to them.

Zippy359 - that is the right description: wet sheet ice - althogh it is knobbly, not flat, with all the people walking on it.

Weeteeny: we went for a walk to the aprk on Tuesday when it was still snowy, not compacted ice. I drove to Silverburn on Wednesday and it was really hairy: compacted snow and ice six inches thick on our street (which wasn't actually too bad as it is wide, flat and quiet) but even the main roads were still rutted and covered in a mix of snow and ice and I had to really concentrate to drive safely, uing all my snow driving skills. Yesterday I drove to Clydebank which was OK - the snow on the north side is not nearly as bad as the south side.

In many respects, it would be safer to drive to the school - but for the majority of kids there, that is not an option.

We have cleared a path outside our house - but the distance to the school would be too great - it's nearly a mile. The hilly bit is nearly half a mile long.

The school does have its own website: in fact, dh was its original webmaster (and is still able to amend it). However, it is not the school that makes the decision, it is the council - and the school is often not told until after the web-site is updated. Dh and I have been keeping our eye on the Twitter feed, so that he can update the school's web-site on its behalf.

The teachers find it really difficult to update the web-site because the school's link to the internet is so pathetic. They have to do most of thier "updating" work from their home broadband connections.

Our council told people who complained about getting their weans to school on such horribly icy pavements that it was the parents' responsibility to make 'alternative arrangements'.

Real fucking helpful.

we were off agin today which means the kids have been off school since last Tuesday lunchtime (they were supposed to have gone back monday this week but dd was ill - the school closed early anyway due to the heavy snow).

That's a good idea :)

I wouldn't mind so much about the web-site falling over if it hadn't now been going on for well over a week. The capacity should have been upgraded by now - and I know that it is easy to do - and I know who the contract is with (and that company is more than capable of doing it )

pretty bird - I must admit I was assuming that the school had its own website, that this would be more of an extra...

Lots of people I know don't like having to update websites per se, they like to use a webmaster or somebody at work who they know 'knows' what to do.

However, most people don't seem to mind sticking an update on a facebook page, and given that you can update it in so many different ways, it should be relatively easy to get an update on there somehow.

And sounds like the council should be organising a different way to be letting head teachers / school officials know about school closures!

On a separate thought, can you sign up with your council to get text updates? Our council you can sign up in advance for your school and for the number of years that you think you are going to be at the school for (eg 3 for infant school, 7 for senior school, but can change later if needs be) abd then you get a text as soon as the decision has been made to close a school...