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?

YABVU re the lazy shysters comment.

YANBU about everything else. Where I live, I'd have to take a day's annual leave - which would leave me with less leave to take during the school holidays, meaning more childcare costs during said holidays. £72 for the day for the DCs. Childcare providers my way do not take school age children outside the school holidays, they are full at those times. Not all of us have helpful grandparents etc. available.

The point isn't about having to take a day off, it's about having to take a day off at a time not of the OP's own choosing, just because officialdom still thinks all mums are chained to the kitchen sink.

stressheaderic I certainly fancy it! Just not sure I can find the extra day, rather save it for Xmas by then really.

I know from my schools pov it's a pita being a pollling station.

They only get a minimal rental towards the room cost and by the time they pay the caretaker to open up at 6 for set up and to close the building after the poll closes at 10 pm they hardly cover their costs.
Plus this year it was the Thursday before bank holiday so loads of kids took long weekends and it hammered the attendance figures.

I know that if my school could avoid it they would.

I spoke to the election officer and he basically told me they can commandeer any council owned building they like and it's tough if it's not convenient. Saying that though they plan these elections months and months in advance so your school must have known. Anyway it's not impossible to deal with just add a day to the end of the summer term they would have over a years notice to do that.

The school I work in is also closed in Nov for the police commissioner election and also in May for local elections. I do not get paid for these days off and have no choice in the matter. I do not see why other venues cannot be used. There are plenty of church halls, council buildings etc that could be utilised. It is not the schools fault but the councils should be aware of criticising parents fo keeping children off school and then closing schools when it could be avoided

In Scotland, it is illegal for the building a polling station is in to be used for anything else on the same day.

Whenever DS' school is used for a general, Scottish or local election I'm the teachers are always in school. This TES thread even mentions some kids being in school while their school is a polling place.

What do you do for a living, OP?

How is the local police commissioner election anything to do with the teachers being "lazy shysters"?

Or am I just thick?

Someone might have already said this (not read all responses to OP) but the rest of the school may be empty, OP, but most schools do not have any other space big enough for every member of staff to congregate so using the rest of the school for staff training whilst the hall is being used is not an option.

Plus, five months is enough time to organise child care or a day off work.

I'm a Head and luckily my school has never been used for polling. But if it was, it would be because of the council, not because of me and the lazy shysters I am privileged to be working with.
Out of our five training days, 3 are set by the LA (the day before the children return to school at the beginning of each term). I only choose TWO and they are chosen very carefully around the availability of speakers and trainers OR as to the timing of a new initiative. Our chosen dates are published more than 5 months in advance which means that already many parents have arranged their childcare and booked days off work. If one of the days is changed because of something like polling, there will be some parents who are pleased (like YOU, OP) and others that are really annoyed, due to having booked days off work they can't change.
It's a lose-lose situation for the school and all of the lazy shysters in it, who are paid ridiculous amounts of money to work 9-3 and educate babysit your child, OP.

5 months is long enough to bank a load of credits e.g. free babysitting at weekends for dcs' friends. Then when something like this happens you can cash in some of them. Working parents I know do this if they haven't got friends they can ask.

And it's not a training day for the school, is it?

Or am I really really thick?

At our school the training days have already been booked- trainers coming in, arrangments made, this has been the case for a while so we can give parents as much notice as possible. If we were told now about an eectionc losure, we would not be able to move our training sessions.

I am a mother and a teacher, so i understand how annoying it can be to arrange child care, I covered a similar day in my dcs school with a friend taking them out for the day ( I repayed her in the holidays) . with 5 mnths notice, you can sort something out.

election closure even!! What rubbish typing- I will blame the iphone abd not mention the fact I am on a laptop!!

i don't know how working families cope

Well we cope the same way we do when our DCs are sick, or it's half term or the school is closed because of snow or a million other things that happen.

You have got 5 months notice, the teacher didn't decide to have a day off to go on a jolly to the seaside, I don't get what the problem is??

In 5 months you can't book one day of parental leave??

Time to stop using schools as polling stations probably.
Round here they use the children's centre and a church hall.
I expect that your school has tried to change their inset days but can't get the training they need
I agree it is a massive pita for working families

In the Local Authority where I work the schools have to notify the LA of their INSET days a whole academic year in advance - they've just been asked for the days for the 2013/14 calendar. Once they are set they can't change them.

I hate playing the poor me single parents card but I'm gonna do it anyway. You think it's hard trying to arrange childcare with two working parents? Try it with just one parent! You have double my annual leave entitlement to sort out childcare!

Griphook, it might not be as easy as you think to organise an alternative. The school may have booked a First Aid trainer who is otherwise fully booked by the time the receive 5 months notice that the school is to be used as a polling station.

Another alternative would be to keep the day for staff training and hire somewhere out but that would cost money which which most schools do not have just hanging around waiting.

What Panda said - the LA sets the inset days, well in advance, and not the schools. I can see from your perspective that it must be annoying - but the solution is more flexibility between the LAs and the schools for this sort of scenario; you can't blame the school.

Pay them back by turning up really later after a school club/trip/football match. Then they have to hang around for an hour looking after your child muttering 'parents...lazy shysters' under their breaths. Especially good if all the babysitters teachers have come in one car so they all have to wait. Not so good if a member of senior management team comes in their own car because they tend to offer to wait when the parents are lazy shysters a little held up at work.

Please don't try to get schools to change inset days - they are the only bloomin chance we parents get to book a cheap weekend getaway! I'm sure ours are not attached to school holidays for that deliberate reason.

If someone at our school tried to get it changed because of something that they have been given months of notice for, they'd have a lynch mob on their hands... (we met 12 other kids from our school at the local Center Parcs last inset day!!!)

Presumably whether the staff could come into school at all (given the rules surrounding polling stations outlined above) will depend on the layout of the school. My DCs attend a school on the old-fashioned plan of every classroom opening off the central hall. There are no doors which allow access to any other rooms without going through the hall - hence if it were to be used as a polling station then staff would not be able to come in.

Also agree with other comments about INSET days - 3 of ours are out of our hands entirely (day before each term starts). 1 is already booked for a cluster meeting with a speaker booked 12 moinths in advance. Only one has a date set by us, and we set that date a year ago and have booked particular training for it already. All dates have been communicated to parents and so they will already have booked childcare if they need it.

Our school had a polling day this year and took the whole school out on a school trip, cost us £2 each for our children - a lot cheaper than sorting out alternative childcare.

Thought you were making a fairly valid pint until the lazy shysters comment and then I didn't really care anymore. For that alone YABU, I find this kind if attitude towards teachers really sad.