to think closing a school for a day is not unavoidable if you're arranging it five months in advance?

[girlpancake]

Apparently, the local police commissioner elections are to be held on Thursday 15 November. DCs primary school is a polling station so it will be closed on this day. But the school has already set its five staff training days for 2012-13, so they are booking this day in as an Unavoidable Closure Day, like a snow day.
Surely they could move a staff training day that's not happening for months rather than just shutting the school like the lazy shysters they are?
Is this happening at any other schools?

You sound lovely.

Look, I work. My dh works. Taking an extra day off is a big deal for us.

I don't really understand, what do you mean move the training days? If school is a polling station, they won't be able to have training in there?

Looking forward to the "lazy shysters" fallout btw.

The polling happens in the hall. The entire rest of the school is not in use.

I don't think you can call the people who work in the school lazy because some big cheese somewhere has decided to close the school for a day

Every year in may our school closes for elections. The school I work at doesn't.

What would you do if school was closed cos the boiler had broken down or there had been a fire?

Well it is a Unavoidable Closure Day and if it's 5 months away there is plenty of time for you to sort out childcare.

The problem is that teacher training days generally involve teachers training in school?

I do see where you're coming from though, surely they can do their training outside of the hall?

If the school is being used as a polling station then they won't be able to do training.

But - I do think that using schools as polling stations is a bit daft, especially for something that doesn't sound like loads of people will be going to vote at.

If the boiler had broken down, that would be unavoidable, and we would all have to deal with it. But my point is, this isn't unavoidable.
There's plenty of time to organise childcare, but it will be expensive. There are hundreds of children at that school. Do they all have to lose a day's education and all their parents have to run around organising childcare because they don't want to move a training day?

Roll on the summer holidays where most of the mums of mumsnet will be whinging about having to spend too much time with their children. Then the teacher-bashing can start again in September.
OP, why not email the school with your suggestions? Then you'd get an answer that was appropriate.

The problem with elections, ime, is that, for security reasons, staff are not allowed to be in the building. Not sure if that holds for all elections, but I know this has been an issue in the past (I am a teacher). If the staff are not on site, the school has to pay A LOT of money for another venue(hotel?).

It also depends on what the different training days are for- sometimes they involve analysing data, which is only available at certain times of year, or buying in a trainer, who may not be available on that day. They might be training to implement a new strategy (we have a lot of those) which would also be dependant on other time factors.

Givetheanarchist that's exactly what I wanted to know, what other schools are doing. That seems a totally reasonable solution.

It's inconvenient but at least you've been given plenty of time to make alternative arrangements.

it depends what training they are doing. if it needs the school hall, and they invariably do, then yabu... some things could be done in the staff room/other classrooms. the last lot of training at dd's school seems to have been the sort that could have been done somewhere other than the hall.

And I like spending time with my kids, the problem is we also work.

You'd need child care even if it was a training day though so I take it it's a financial thing....

Bit off to refer to the staff as 'lazy shysters'. They won't have had a vote on it y'know.

As others have pointed out, you CAN'T have a training day or anything else going on in a building where polling is taking place. Not sure why but I do know it is a law and nothing to do with the school or even the LEA. I'm ignoring the "lazy shysters" comment as the obvious stir-up that it is intended but I will add a cliche of my own that school is school, not free childcare and the fact that you didn't mention the loss of a day's education until your fourth post rather suggests what your priorities are and what your real problem is about this.

5 months gives you plenty of time.

You will also probably find that the training days have been set already, well in advance.

musttidyup It is a financial thing, but it's also an "asking favours" thing. If you both work, you spend a lot of time asking favours off people and having to try and find ways of repaying favours. If they swapped the training day, that would be one less day that we had to ask favours for, or finance. As it is, they are taking all their five training days, AND this extra day.

I (amoungst others) went to the community council/ school governors after so many closures last year and the result is that the polling station is now the chapel.

Do you have alternative community buildings in your area that you could propose to be used?

The school will be closed for pupils on polling day, but teachers will have to attend. Was the lazy shysters label a joke?

Why don't you write a letter to the Head teacher making your suggestion? That might be more productive than bashing teachers on MN.

There may be particular reasons why the INSET days have been allocated to particular days or they might need the hall for a whole staff meeting.

Honestly, I know that, for some elections, they are not allowed to have anyone anywhere in the building, even if the election stuff is only in the hall.