School closes for memorial

[memorial]

Small village primary school, about 120 children from nursery to Yr 6.
A young girl is diagnosed with a brain tumour a few years ago, and died last week. She has a younger sibling in the school. Obviously all the teachers are heartbroken.
But a lot of the children and parents dont know her or her family. Her year group are now in Year 7 so have left the primary.
The school is closing early at 12pm for the memorial. There are obviously a fair number of families who wont go as they have no link or ties to this little girl. But equally all the teachers want to go, and there will be a good number of children and families going.
The memorial is at 1:30pm very close to the school.
There are some disgruntled parents that the whole school is closing.
I am purposefully not saying which side of this I am on.
Is the school BU to close early?

Oh for gods sake I don't know about the pay arrangements individuals made for the couple of hours they were at the funeral. It really wasn't what was on people's' minds. But if you're worried about financial matters then I can tell you that the family raised over £15000 for the local air ambulance in memory of their boy. From the community who continue to think of and mourn him.

Amy is goading. Ignore her/it/him.

We are suggesting a few staff don't go to look after the children
School is not childcare.

We all know it's against the rules to troll hunt; thankfully on this thread we don't need to, as it's plainly obvious who the goady fucker troll is.

My son's school remembers the fallen from world war 2 and ex pupils who have died in more recent conflicts every November. (One lad died very recently in Agfanistan and there are teachers who knew him.) The school has its own war memorial to remember former staff and pupils who lost their lives in conflicts.

Sometimes we need to take a step back and think what school is for.

Schools often shut for lots of inane reasons like a pathetic amount of snow.

SallyMcgally The LEA I worked in allows school staff up to 5 days paid compassionate leave at the discretion of the head.

Tapirbackrider I opened the thread in your post and it made me cry - how beautiful that your colleagues all attended.

Very sad thread but lovely to hear of people supporting those going through such terrible loss.

The school is absolutely right to close. And if I were to fully and frankly express my unexpurgated opinion on amybear2's posts, I'd probably be banned.

I am really not heartless, I can totally get that some teachers genuinely feel the need to go and support the family and of course they should go.But a public sector organisation closing down for a whole or half day, is, in my opinion, just not on.It is taking the piss

I truly believe that the paid day/afternoon off for a service which will last an hour tops,is a factor.
The OP asked a question.I have answered it and then replied to the torrent of abuse that has ensued.If anyone finds the thread upsetting then why not hide it?

A poor child has died been taken away from her family, and some parents are peeved at being inconvienced that the school dare to have a memorial for this poor girl and pay their respects. Plus the school is closed for 3 hours.
Honestly the selfishness and the carry on out of some people on this planet is beyond disgusting.

Similar to others on this thread, a girl died in my year when she was 15. The school didn't close for the day (it was massive) but the funeral was in school grounds and the whole year was allowed to go. Even those of us that didn't know her well wanted to. Her dad taught at my brother's school and a load of them came too. It was the right thing. No way would either school have worried about any of us missing class. It was far too.important.

I am really not heartless,

and

I truly believe that the paid day/afternoon off for a service which will last an hour tops,is a factor.

You think that teachers are going to a child's funeral to get the rest of the afternoon off?

katese
That is a completely different scenario.Any of the children who want to go to the memorial can do.Nobody is worrying about them missing classes

"Sadly when your DC get to secondary school, by the law of averages 2 or 3 children will die during your child's time there in a typical 1000 pupil school. The school does not close"

That's not correct.

(a) The annual death rate for children 10-14 is 0.1 per 1000 population, and for young people 15-19 is 0.3 per 1000 population -- so on average for a secondary school aged child the annual death rate is around 0.2 per 1000 population and so by the law of averages around 1.4 children will die during 7 years at secondary school (if you leave after 5 years then it would only be one child on average).

(b) The secondary schools do (at least sometimes) close:
Logan Kehoe: School to close so pupils can attend 13-year-old's funeral
Leasowes High School, in Halesowen, where the 16-year-old was a pupil, was closed today to allow children and staff to join her family at the service
The teenager, who has been named locally as James Lock, was a pupil at Olchfa School. It will close at 1pm today as a mark of respect.

Ah the funeral only lasts an hour so the teachers should get right back to work afterwards?.

I do worry that in the future schools will face sanctions for doing things like this. It seems to be the heartless way the education system is heading :(

The point is that grief is a family thing - and families are far bigger than blood ties. That's what people mean when they say the community came together, it is us recognising how bonded to one another we are.
When my bil died the children at the school where he worked wrote to my sister, they decorated the church for his funeral and they held their own memorial service there too. I don't think anything comforted us quite as much as the love those kids showed for my bil. I guess that they will always remember that too. Someone they liked died and they were given time and space to mourn him. It's enormously important and it's the responsibility of every organisation which employs or cares for people to facilitate community mourning when that's needed. It's about being human.

OP - may you and your friends have peace of heart and may the children who are grieving remember their friend with joy as well as sadness.

Well I am very suspicious about the cases where the school has closed for a whole day.What about catering staff for example at the OP's school?.It is closing at 12 so no lunches will be needed and therefore no catering staff.So a whole day off for them.

Amy I tried to give you the benefit of the doubt. As parents we send our children to primary school and hope they get a compassionate introduction to learning. The infant teachers in particular. They help our children to grow up to be adults.
To deny that care and feeling as taking the piss? Twattery.

Fuck community eh?

Amy, public sector organisations close for far less. Strikes, snow days and the inset days are all part of the joy of parenting. There are lots of inefficiencies in schools, closing early because of a death.

Schools in my LEA have an occasional day which the head can pick a day their discretion. It would make sense to use the occasional day if a head wants to close the school for a day. Academies have more freedom with holidays than lea schools.

Some really horrible things on this thread.
Of corse the head is right to shut the school. Thpe memorial is for the community, of which the school is a big part. And the children will learn about compassion I times of adversity, a lesson a couple of posters seemed to have missed out on.
Amy - I used to be involved in corporate litigation. One day the judge in an ongoing case explained that court would start later the next day as he was going to a funeral. The real world does indeed work like that. It's just that you don't live in the real world, but in some place without normal compassion.
And my heartfelt thoughts to those who have experienced the loss of a child.

Tragically is right that the death of a child is rare. It also has to be remembered that disportionate number of children who die attend special schools.

I imagine that in mainstream many teachers will only experience the death of a child once or twice in their career.

Is that really what you are bothered about? That the catering staff have a day off? It hasn't occurred to you that in a school of 120 the catering staff probably knew that little girl well, and know her siblings as well? That they too might want to show their respects. I very much doubt that they will be benefitting from 'a day off.' The chances are that they will be at that service, grieving. That they will go to the wake, grieving. That they, too, will be trying to comfort those young children who shouldn't yet have to be thinking about death. I can't imagine anyone giving a damn about loss of productivity on the part of the catering staff in the circumstances.

It made me cry too Snapple - I didn't know that they had arranged it. The funeral procession had a police escort, and the coffin was carried into the church through a 'guard of honour'.

The genuine love and affection they showed me that day has lived with me, their care and concern for me was a light in the darkness and kept me going when I absolutely thought I couldn't.

to all those touched by the loss of someone close to them.

tapir.