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?

So what happens about pay? Presumably it is unpaid? What if one teacher wants to work, do they lose their pay too?

Amy, I can guarantee you that not one teacher or member of staff had given their pay a second thought.

What a very few people here seem to fail to understand is that when a teacher goes to work it isn't like going to work in a office. Despite what the government are trying to do teachers do not think of the children in their class as statistics or numbers on a page. In primary school especially we know each and every child we teach personally. We know their families, often we have taught siblings or even the parents.
The children you teach or have taught are not just someone you know, like you might know the guy who has the desk near the photocopier, but they are some you have spent a year having an emotional attachment too. You care for them, you nurture them, you hug them when they cry.
In a small school most teachers will have had this kind of relationship with this child.
So I'm sorry if wanting to go to the funeral of a child means that someone has to take an afternoon off work or ask a friend to pick up their child for them.
Schools are not business, they cannot operate as businesses, they run on emotion and love, not profit margins.

Amybear, your last post about even the catering staff getting the whole day off was unbelievable. I really hope you are not anyone's boss. I would imagine working for someone with so little compassion would be awful!

As an aside, when our school closed for a reason I forget a lot of the mums sorted out group childcare between them. Parents who could mange it had a couple of extra children each.

Why would it be unpaid?
Many people get paid leave to attend a funeral in state and private sector ime. Or in many jobs they can take holiday leave. School staff can't take holiday leave. Why should they have to forgo pay? It's half a day for goodness sake - 3 hours to grieve for a lost child or a colleague (in case of DD's teacher.)

120 pupils. It wouldn't hurt to get a couple of supply staff in and for them to supervise a film showing in the hall or something. Then the parents have an option of taking their child out or leaving them at school. I bet most would be taken out though.

And yes, when DD's school closed for the afternoon we did have to find childcare. Do and myself both work. Most of the parents worked. We all managed perfectly well.

But the school Got grief from
Some parents and did put on childcare - some of the newer nursery staff volunteered to stay behind and provide it. I think two or three children used it in the end - but sad it was even thought necessary. One parent apparently even asked if there'd be a refund of fees for the missing hours of education (independent school) which is just unbelievably crass.

The school is being perfectly reasonable to close its doors for the afternoon of this little girls memorial. Schools are a huge part of a community and when a child dies, communities come together, people want to show their respects and support. I think that's a normal reaction for most people (although obviously not all judging by a few comments on here and some parents of the school in the OP). For what it's worth, when my son died, I didn't think about how people would manage their childcare arrangements, I didn't think about how much my sons death and funeral/memorial services would interfere with their schedule or how put out they would be. All I could think about was finding and holding his lifeless body in my arms and that I would never see him again. My son died and his funeral was held during the Christmas holidays so closing the school wasn't an issue but they were (and still are) extremely supportive and I am so grateful for that.

The memorial service we held in the UK (we are overseas) for friends and family that couldn't be at his funeral was attended by several of his old teachers from the school that he left 7 years previously! People who remembered him and were a part of his life and who wanted to show their respect for him and us.

I'm sure it might be a bit of a ball ache to have to make alternative arrangements but please don't bleat on about inconveniences when a child has died and lives have been shattered. For some of us this is reality and something we have to deal with for the rest of our lives, for others it's just a rearrangement of half a day to show a bereaved family how much their child matters and that they're supported.

"Loads of people of people died when I was at school"

Don't belive that for one second. I lost a teacher very suddenly when I was in Primary School, and then at High School two children were killed in a house fire. That was it, in the first instance the school closed for the afternoon, in the second the funeral was held in the school holidays but Ive no doubt they would have closed for it had it been term time.

I'm wondering if Amy has some kind of disability that prevents her from showing empathy and compassion? I refuse to believe that someone can be that much of a heartless fucker.

That poor family I think the school closing is lovely and the attitude and wailing about childcare and state funded buildings is heartless selfish a school is part of a community and a young girls death has affected that community yet arsehole parents cant see past their noses its pathetic.

I remember a boy got run over when i was in primary he was the year above me not only did the school close on the day of the funeral the shops closed at the time of his funeral as a mark of respect

Childcare can be a massive issue both me and my husband need 6 weeks notice and our yearly annual leave entitlement would already have been planned to cover holidays. We are lucky and have my parents locally so it wouldn't be a problem but what if everyone isn't so lucky?

Perhaps people should approach the unhappy parents and see if they can help if they really are stuck?

Oh xposted with lobster

Lucked - by law companies have to give you reasonable time off to sort cover in emergencies. Schools close with no notice sometimes. It happens.

From LEA website (it is a PDF so I don't know how to link

'In the case of a funeral for a member of staff, pupil or governor this is not viewed as a reason for closure. The Authority recommends that there is representation from the school at the funeral, but the closure of the whole school would not be appropriate.'

grapejuicerocks your comment about school paying supply teachers to supervise a film for those who couldn't be collected just confirms the widespread idea that schools really are just childcare. 'I don't care what you do with my child, just don't inconvenience me' attitude.
If all of the staff attend the funeral would you really be happy with strangers who don't know the children, parents or school dealing with the kids? What about collection time? How will they know which child belongs to which parent? Safeguarding guidelines would not allow this and I am sure no parent would want it either.
As many other posters have said, it is half a day for an important/emotional event. A one off. If you can't arrange child care for your child you really need to up your parenting game because unfortunately these things do happen and you need a contingency when it does.

Luckily amybear, most schools use common sense and improved moral grounds when making these decisions.

Never known a school to come into problems with an LEA when this has happened, so maybe not all LEAs have this rather dismissive uncaring approach.

this thread has made me glad my child what to an sn school.
no parent would have ever moaned if this had happened. because we would have felt lucky to have child care to worry about.
having seen how devastating the loss of a child is. a few hours inconvenience is nothing.

Amybear2 the school has chosen to close they will have had formal permission from the LEA

Dear god amybear you really do come across in your posts as something of a cunt
Here's hoping that's not what you're really like

Sorry amybear but you are fighting a losing battle. In fact you have lost. Sadly for people like you who redefine entitlement, the decision has been taken by someone with a shred of compassion.

Amybear, I have read your posts with increasing incredulity.

When travelling behind my father's coffin to his funeral the lollipop man at the end of the street stood up straight and removed his hat. That is called respect and compassion, both of which seem to be unknown qualities to you.

I was very touched by his gesture and went and thanked him a few days later. He didn't know my Dad, he was just doing "the right thing".

For all your protestations, numerous people have told you that schools, business and local/central government organisations do close/allow staff time off to attend funerals. Your experiences are clearly at total odds with the vast majority of posters and I am going to be charitable to hope that they have shaped your heartless attitude.

FWIW - when I've attended the funeral of a work colleague 9and there have been at least 10 in my 30 years of working) the question of whether or not I am being paid does not enter my mind.

What do parents do when school closes because of snow usually at 8 45 just as kids have been dropped off or their kid pukes in the car on the way to school what do they do about childcare then