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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Polling Day - School Closure

150 replies

user1495955132 · 28/05/2017 09:08

Just trying to canvas opinion as they're very mixed amongst my circle of friends & family. DD's (year 3/primary) school is being used as a polling station and for the first time since we've been attending the school it's being kept open for the day. They will only be using the dinner hall and the two sets of internal doors which lead into the school will be kept locked. All children bring or are supplied with a packed lunch, and all classrooms lead straight into the playground, so no reason for them to be in the corridors or anywhere near the dinner hall. All necessary safeguarding measures in place. However, it just doesn't sit right with me. Not sure whether it's in light of recent events and all the political unrest at the moment, but if anything was going to happen at the school, surely polling day, and giving the general public (and random nutters) access to the school, would create the perfect opportunity. I'm a SAHM so it doesn't make any difference to me, and I appreciate that for working parents taking days off for school closures is a pita, but dates like polling day are worked out well in advance so I don't see why the school can't work these around inset days. It's a smallish village school (approx 360 children) but we are close to an international airport and recently had an incident with a gunman on the loose 2 roads away from the school - cue police helicopters, school lockdown etc. Turned out to be the local nutter with an air rifle who was off his face on drugs, but still ..... We have all been informed that keeping children home for the day would not be looked upon favourably, and as one helpful teacher pointed out, if somebody got it into their heads, it would be easy to stand behind the fence and spray the playground with bullets on any day of the week, so why should polling day pose any more of a risk than any other . So, my AIBU is, should I stick with my gut instinct that it's just not worth the risk? There's at least another 3 mums that I know of in DDs class that feel the same, one of the school governors is not happy about it and a friends mum who works for Ofsted also thinks it's an unnecessary risk, so I'm kind of thinking it's not just me being an overprotective parent, iyswim.

OP posts:

SuburbanRhonda · 28/05/2017 12:50

Schools have fixed their inset days by now and many fix them in September for the following academic year. We've booked training for our inset days so can't rebook with only DC weeks notice as our trainers cover the whole county.

If you're that worried, keep her off. Just be careful you don't pass on your anxieties to your child. I work in family support in a school and I've lost count of the number of children who pick up anxieties from their parents.

SuburbanRhonda · 28/05/2017 12:50

DC = six

Allthewaves · 28/05/2017 12:53

I wish our school was staying open. Im having to take unpaid leave AGAIN for a stupid polling day

hmmwhatatodo · 28/05/2017 13:08

I wonder if you would be feeling the same if you were a working parent who struggled to find childcare on such days. Good on the school I say.

Original poster

user1495955132 · 28/05/2017 13:32

Again - thanks for all your opinions. As I say, I haven't made any decision yet, but was just interested in the general consensus as school (mine, back in the day, and dcs) has always been closed for Election Day. I appreciate that not having to work or worry about time off/child care probably makes these sort of decisions easier for me with regards taking kids out of school for a day at a few weeks notice, so again, this may have clouded my judgement as to why can't the school just close for the day and treat it as a training day. I'd also like to make clear that in no way would I transfer my worries onto my daughter, but thank you for you concern. There are tons of excuses I could come up with for her having the day off school when none of her friends are, although as I pointed out in my op, I'm not the only one with these concerns so I would be incredibly surprised if she were the only child off that day. DDs attendance record is pretty spotless, apart from a few unavoidable illnesses, so an unauthorised absence on her record would not be enough to sway it for me either way. Anyway, it's good to get a broader sense of these things outside of my little social bubble.

Msgrinch - you're still a dick for referring to my daughter as it. Plenty of posters have agreed it is a valid concern so I don't believe my original question was in completely dickish. But if that was your opinion, you could have chosen to be the bigger person and not sink to my dickish level! Fail! Have a biscuit.

OP posts:

Iamastonished · 28/05/2017 13:49

"I haven't made any decision yet,"

There is no decision to make. Just put your big girl pants on and send your child to school. This is really a non issue.

Or keep her off and tell the school why. Then you will always be known as "that parent". I really fail to understand what your concerns are. Yesterday DD and I went to a food festival. There were armed police there, and it didn't make me feel unsafe at all.

"this may have clouded my judgement as to why can't the school just close for the day and treat it as a training day."

At DD's school training days are planned before the school calendar is issued, so we know in September when inset days are, and they can't be changed at the drop of a hat.

PigletWasPoohsFriend · 28/05/2017 13:52

Our local primary is used for polling. It always stays open. It is well cornered off.

There isn't any more of a way that people could get into the school than normally.

PigletWasPoohsFriend · 28/05/2017 13:53

In fact it is used as a way of discussing voting and things to children.

lalalalyra · 28/05/2017 13:55

As long as the hall is secured off then I wouldn't have an issue with this set up at all.

Most of the time that schools are closed for polling it is because the polling area cannot be secured if the school is open - that's where the tight security has always been applied.

I don't see the children being in any more danger at drop off or pick up as you never have control of who is outside a building at any point.

maddiemookins16mum · 28/05/2017 13:55

I hate that schools are used. I also think there are plenty of other places to vote, church halls etc. What your school is doing sounds fine to me.

Iamastonished · 28/05/2017 13:58

"I also think there are plenty of other places to vote"

Clearly there aren't

A previous poster posted about accessibility. In order to get the maximum number of people to vote polling stations have to be somewhere that people can get to easily, and in areas where there is lots of housing. Schools fit the bill beautifully.

Where we live very few churches have church halls, and there aren't many community buildings.

SnickersWasAHorse · 28/05/2017 14:01

why can't the school just close for the day and treat it as a training day.

Because schools are only allowed 5 training days in a year. To make the polling day into a training day they would need to cancel one of the pre booked ones. Most of them have people booked in to do training, so they can't be cancelled really. Also parents might have already made plans for those days. There do tend to be ones at the start of the school year which teachers use to get their classrooms ready for the new class. Cancel one of those and tell the teachers they can label books etc unpaid on their own time.

PigletWasPoohsFriend · 28/05/2017 14:02

I also think there are plenty of other places to vote

Not really. They did move ours once to the church hall. Up a steep hill and bad accessibility. The turnout was very low.

SnickersWasAHorse · 28/05/2017 14:07

In my last house our polling station was a different place each time. One year it was the theatre and another it was a public toilet!!

lalalalyra · 28/05/2017 14:07

The idea that there is loads of other places that can be used as polling stations is a bit of a myth. They do not choose school buildings if there are other buildings available.

The criteria for a polling station is pretty big. It has to be in a location easily accessible to every voter so walking routes and public transport routes have to be taken into account. The building itself has to be accessible to all. The building also has to be secure to control the flow of people and also to keep casted votes secure. There also has to be certain facilities for the polling staff due to the length of their day (they aren't allowed to leave the building all day).

Chloe84 · 28/05/2017 14:07

I think some of you completely missed the point of my thread - ok, so maybe the date wasn't worked out aaaaaagggggeess ago, but elections are generally held early summer, and a decision made 6 weeks ago was imo enough time for school to say they're closing for a training day.

I think you've missed the point OP. This was a snap election, elections don't tend to happen 2 years after a previous election, so the school would have not been able to foresee this.

And if you're not a teacher or trainer then I don't see how you could know that 6 weeks is enough to prepare for an inset day?

TheSnorkMaidenReturns · 28/05/2017 14:08

You just have to send your daughter to school OP. Your fears are out of proportion. We could all be victims anywhere any time of any horror. The election will not make your child's school more vulnerable. Time for stiff upper lip and keep calm and carry on, etc .

6 weeks is not necessarily enough time to arrange an inset day - the school may have already planned all of the five days this year. I know my kids' schools had done long ago.

SnickersWasAHorse · 28/05/2017 14:08

Lala. Am I also right in thinking that it can't be a place of worship? A church hall is ok but not the actual church itself?

LadyWhoLikesLunch · 28/05/2017 14:09

mycalmx the reason polling is always on a Thursday is because historically people were always paid on a Friday and so by Thursday would be pretty short of cash and unable to go to the pub therefore leaving them fit and sober for voting

Iamastonished · 28/05/2017 14:13

I like that one Lady

ComputerUserNotTrained · 28/05/2017 14:15

I read somewhere that Sundays weren't favoured because people could be overly influenced by their ministers. I'll Google...

specialsubject · 28/05/2017 14:16

Teacher is talking sense. Listen.

Saturday elections have been talked about, but like most low cost common sense measures they don't happen.

ComputerUserNotTrained · 28/05/2017 14:19

The reason for choosing Thursday, it is said, was as follows. On Fridays the voters were paid their wages and if they went for a drink in a public house they would be subject to pressure from the Conservative brewing interests, while on Sundays they would be subject to influence by Free Church ministers who were generally Liberal in persuasion. Therefore choose the day furthest from influence by either publicans or Free Church clergymen, namely Thursday.

From a (presumably quite old)Grauniad Notes and Queries

BackforGood · 28/05/2017 14:19

The idea that there is loads of other places that can be used as polling stations is a bit of a myth. They do not choose school buildings if there are other buildings available

Yes they do. Obviously I don't know the OP's locality, but I live in a big city and, can think of 1/2 a dozen places within a couple of hundred yards of the schools they are closing, that meet all those criteria.

I too think YABU OP. It is ludicrous to close schools when there are viable ways not to. It is so disruptive not only to the schools, but to all the parents who work and all the employers who employ them.

Minstrelsareyum · 28/05/2017 14:25

I don't know why they can't use church halls. There are several in every ward but they prefer to inconvenience hundreds of families instead. I emailed my MP about our school closing for polling day and had a rather vague and flaky response. I wouldn't be happy about part of the school being used as a polling station though, OP, for security reasons...

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