To think when there is bad storms like Doris, kids should be kept off school

[LardLizard]

Seems crazy that children are going out in dangerous conditions like that

Based on where I live (40 minutes away from Milton Keynes) and the strength of the wind and the fact that there were a few showers then blue skies, I would have been shocked if the DCs school had closed. We had some trees down, mostly lots of branches, but the way to school was pretty clear. DD said that one teacher had to move her car which was parked under a tree that looked like it was threatening to drop a branch on it, but there was nothing to suggest they were in danger at school. No more than on any other day.

In the right circumstances it would absolutely be correct to shut schools, but where we are for this storm it would have been unnecessary.

Do you trust the school to keep your child safe the rest of their time? If so, trust them in this situation too. If not maybe you need to be looking for another school.
The journey to school is your responsibility. Access the risk, if it's too great keep them off.
I think it's common sense really.

I'd don't think the schools should close. But if individual parents want to keep their children off then fair enough. But there's more chance of a traffic accident than a falling tree. Sadly.

Christ on a bike! Let's just keep the little darlings at home full stop shall we, just in case? What a load of tosh, closing school because of high winds!

My tubs of primroses blew over, not sure if they'll recover

We've had a few trees down and there were many rogue bins (to the pp who said don't put them out, if we'd missed the collection we'd have had another fortnight's worth of dirty nappies to stuff in before the lorry came again, so it's not like there was much choice but to put them out). But generally life went on. It is truly tragic about that poor lady in Wolverhampton, but that was a one off piece of terrible luck. You have to crack on with life, you can't go into hiding every time it gets windy or wet!

Just to go to school

Clearly you don't value your child's education.

I agree with the OP but where I live seemed to be quite affected, trees down and roads closed, a roof fallen off a block if flats and as mentioned already, a school roof caving in which injured a child afaik.
The wind blew parents over in the playground at pick up!

Clearly you don't value your child's education

I just don't get the point of comments like this.

TheFullMrExit. My kids wouldn't be going back there, I wouldn't leave them with people who have proven themselves to be so stupid.

OP. Shutting all schools because of a bit of wind is ridiculous. Schools can make their own decisions if they're in a particularly vulnerable situation & parents can opt not to take children in if their particular set of circumstances makes it dangerous. But keeping an entire nation of children home because of a storm is beyond ridiculous.

I had a run in with a large branch of a tree coming down when I was on my way to school at pick up time. I was on an A road, not a hugely busy one, but there was a car behind me right up my exhaust pipe. He'd pissed me off a few minutes earlier as he'd done an illegal RH turn onto the main road almost hitting me. Anyway, I saw this huge branch wavering, clearly about to come down - if he hadn't been behind me I'd have stopped, but I knew if I did he would hit me, so I accelerated like fuck & prayed to all those the gods (none of which I believe in!) and fortunately it fell behind me. He managed to stop - & very unlike me, I left him to deal with it. A little bit of rough justice for the absolute git.

So if the school had been closed I would have missed out on that adrenaline rush! 😂😳

It was pretty bad where we were, I gave DS(10) a lift to school when he usually walks on his own.

I later gave DD a lift into town. We were passed by a police car screaming in the opposite direction. I dropped DD off and headed back and the road was blocked by a massive tree. It must have fallen down minutes after DD and I drove through.

Horrifically there was a very crushed car under the tree. I drove home and had a bit of a breakdown to be honest. Amazingly about an hour later we found out on the local police twitter that the driver had walked away. But it has put me off going out in a storm again.

Tinkly I'm glad you and dd were ok

I think a lot of people commenting it was just a bit of wind were not in areas so affected

OP it as pretty bad here, lots of trees down, property damaged etc, but I still took the DC to school. Just drove a bit slower on the country lanes we have due to the wind and rain. School kept them in for break times as winds too strong- still got a full days education

Or maybe the posters on here have seen some much stronger storms before and therefore have another idea of what a strong storm is.

It's winter. There has always been storms in winter. The winds where we are haven't been as bad this time but go back a couple of years ago, we had the damaged fences and roofs, the fallen trees etc...
And my children have still gone to school. Just like people have gone to work too.
Life can't just stop for a storm.

Some of the comments on this thread are just nasty
I'm a childminder, and it's still half term here but if it had been school time I would have refused to do the school run in the weather.

1. there were roof tiles flying off the houses opposite. I would not have taken the children outside and risked them getting hit by roof tiles in order to walk down the road to the first school I drop off at.
2. when a little girl was getting dropped off, she was stood next to her car whilst her mum looked for her coat and a gust of wind blew her over into the car. She was very upset, more by the shock I'd imagine, but I think that highlights that in some areas, the wind really was rather bad. Had the car not been there, the gust of wind would have blown her into the road.
3. I live on a court, and three trees had fallen down on the road leading to the court, so we wouldn't have been able to drive to the second school anyway, not that I would have wanted to risk a tree falling down on our car anyway. I think it would have been perfectly reasonable to shut the schools on Thursday (had it not been half term). Everyone is more than entitled to disagree with me, but to be rude because you don't think there was a risk is pointless.