AIBU to wonder why school is closed when there is less than an inch of snow

[Frogletmamma]

When I was little we still had to go to school if it was up to your necks. Now one flurry and it closes. To add insult to injury the neighbouring school is open!

pupils stranded, power/heating/food supplies unreliable

God it sounds like the Third World

It really depends on the school as well. In the "big snow" winters of 2009/2010 and 2010/2011, our school only closed on 1 day and opened late 2 mornings; whereas most other schools locally closed for over a week. They had to cancel summer mid-term break to make up the days.

Our school, after the first year (when people just volunteered), set up a proper "snow team" system. A parent is coordinator, and gets a message from principal or caretaker. That parent lets all the other parents involved know. As many of those other parents on the team who can make it in, go to the school for 7-7.30am. Caretaker and coordinator both have keys (and principal tries to get there too) and open up shed to hand out shovels and brushes.

The parents job is to clear a path from the gate to the school door, a path around the school, and space in the yard for the usual "lines" to form (if not too onerous, also some playing space in yard).

The intention is that the school can open either on time, or with a 15-30 minute delay (which principal will notify on the text message system to all parents). But remain open as many days as possible once the building itself is ok (heating and plumbing not affected).

We haven't had to use it yet, since it was actually formalized, but we are ready to spring into action if needed. (We don't get a lot of snow here).

The school may indeed be in a suburban area with gritted roads and lots of buses.

It doesn't mean the sane is true where the teachers live!

To get to my school which, like yours, is on the edge of a city, I have to drive down narrow country lanes. And we have a terrible bus service in my village. It's not possible for me to get to school using public transport.

From memory our school only closed because the boiler used to pack up, so there was no heating, rather than because of the snow.

No snow here in the East Midlands anyway goes to sulk

I never understand the "I can't get off my road, they don't grit it" brigade. I live pretty rurally and if snow is forecast I won't be able to get out, so l leave my car on another road, up th hill, where there is more chance of it being gritted and it's not an uphill start. Then I put my wellies on and walk to the car. It makes life a little bit harder having a 15 minute walk, but at least I get to work. I also have winter tyres, which make a massive difference. Unless there are proper snowwdrifts I get to work. People seem to give up unless they can drive off their own drive without doing a thing.

I have a couple of friends that are teachers/teaching assistants and they say their schools someotimes close because they're in a hilly area and they're worried about someone falling on the sloped playgrounds/entrances and suing.

People are different nowadays.

There is not necessarily a suitable main road to leave your car.

We've dug our street out in the past but it took quite some time & dh made it to school, but late in that occasion.

In my area on the edge of town, we can get a couple of inches of snow up on the hill, but in the centre by the river, it may have rained and not frozen. Meanwhile heading out into the countryside into the real hills, there could be 4 or 5 inches. Our pupils are very local, so no problems there, but you may have staff in very different directions with very different journeys.

A major problem with our climate is that it rarely stays below zero, and it makes it very difficult to effectively plan gritting.

Here, the ice and snow was well forecast... however any grit put down before 6pm would have been washed away by a torrential downpour. The inch of snow that's settled isn't particularly problematic, but the glazed ice underneath is more hazardous.
A climate where it is consistently below freezing is easier to manage in terms of investing in infrastructure and managing changes in weather.

It would be a 45-60 min walk for dh to the nearest gritted road, carrying heavy equipment.

I leave things I have to carry for work in the car. My neighbour's further up the hill walk 40 mins, and it's a heck of a hill. I don't leave my car on a gritted road (occasionally it is), just on a flatter area to set off from. They're pretty good at gritting around here, the gritters are out all night, they wouldn't just grit the night before and expect it to work the next morning.

I'm not particularly talking about those in really rural areas, but a lot of more urban areas. I work at Heathrow, I was working on the ground while injured with a team of 30. When it snowed only five got in, I was one of them. I'd driven 220 miles from a farm in the Pennines, some living 10 miles away didn't come in because of the snow. They were having a snow day. They could all have got in if they'd wanted to. It was just laziness/an excuse.

A teacher who left confidential student files in his car would be in trouble if it was broken into. Plus hundreds of pounds worth of laptop/musical equipment? I don't think so.

DD's school initially opened this morning but I've just had to go and collect her. Most students in, as it's a small catchment and most walk, but not enough teachers. None of the main roads around here have been gritted and many are gridlocked. No one quite understands why nothing has been gritted - we were warned this weather was due but it seems the council somehow missed the warning!!

It took my sister an hour and a half to do a 10 minute journey to work and a friends husband is stuck as his main road to work is so dangerous it's been closed. It's bloody stupid as it could have been avoided if the council had just gritted 😡 .

No clearly I wouldn't leave confidential files in a car (I'd leave them at work, same for the musical equipment if I knew it was forecast snow/ice and I was likely to have to leave the car elsewhere). I don't like doing it, but it's only the odd day every winter. Sometimes I have to walk to my car at 3am in little dark country lanes. I bloody hate it. But I do it, and I like to think work are a bit more sympathetic when I really am snowed in, because I make the effort. And yes it might be a nuisance not having those files/equipment at home for the night, but it's just something you need to do if you're gang to get to work with the stuff you need. It's all to do with what I wrote previously about people not wanting to make an extra effort. I've lived in this area for decades and people seemed to cope much better when I was little, and very few people had a 4x4 in those days. (although cars have more useless wheels/tyres nowadays, I believe).

Wait, what? Some teachers out there are having a snow day?

I guess that's fine if you have an office. Dh doesn't have a form do no classroom & doesn't have an office so other than the staff room has nowhere to leave stuff. He wheels a trolley bag round with him all day.

Maybe lots of staff live in areas with a lot more than an inch of snow and can't get in, or have to stay home to care for their own dc whose schools in snowier areas have been closed, or the cold weather means pipes have frozen or similar. It's highly unlikely that a school which could open with sufficient staff really has closed due to a tiny bit of snow.

Dh has got in easily today but there is a strong possibility he (& Dd who travels with him) that he won't get home tonight so he's gone prepared for an overnight stay in a travelodge.

The teachers should go in because it is there job and it is a little snow. We live in a country where it snows. Highly unlikely any banks, supermarkets and GP surgery’s are closed.

We moved to Maine where it snows a average of 5ft a year. Snow days only happen if it’s a daytime snow storm. In that case the snow day is added to the end of the summer term.

Late starts are common.

Quite silly.

We had about an inch of snow last week, we didn’t close and all staff and pupils were expected in. One member of staff had his car window broken by a snowball containing stones, another member of staff crashed leaving the school car park and it took me 3 hours of treacherous driving to get home and the police had closed the main road into my town. Wish we’d bloody closed!

Pipes might have froze? Eat the mince pies, put the tree up and get festive OP! It's a Friday after all, crack the baileys out too!

I think I may have to sample the damson gin I made for Christmas.

I live about 45 minute commute to school, wasn't planned used to be 20 but moved due to getting married and husbands job - we are in the middle of the two jobs.

On my last snow day (5/12/12 - I remember the date as it is my late mums birthday and I was preping for my wedding!), I spent 2.5 hours trying to get into school. I lived in one town trying to get to another main town, all on A roads etc. At no point did I get more than 5 miles from home and tried about 5 different routes.

It did get to the point where I called my head of department who said to not worry as I only had one lesson left to teach that day and it had 3 students who had turned up!

Even if we don't call a snow day half the students call it anyway and don't show up - this is secondary.

We do now have a company employed who come in and clear the school as much as they can - carparks, paths etc.