To ask whether snow day = fully paid day off for you?

[temporarynamenothingtoseehere]

I am following a row on Twitter with a lot of high-profile teachers getting very cross indeed that they are expected either to use snow days for PPA (planning and assessment admin) or lose a day's pay.

I do understand that losing a day's pay is horrible if your place of work is closed and you don't have the choice of whether or not to work.

However, I'm surprised by the expectation that professional adults should expect a fully paid day off with no work when it snows. I've never worked anywhere where that was the case - you don't come in if it's dangerous to do so, but you either work from home or lose a day's pay.

AIBU to think that's the norm?

I'm a TA, I would still get paid if the school closed, as would the teachers. I would not be doing work at home.

That should say do something. I hate this new iPad keyboard.

I am fortunate enough to work one and a half miles from where I live, so I can always get in. (I usually walk anyway.) If they send me home, because THEY choose to close, they have to give me the time off with pay, and cannot make me use leave... They sent me home yesterday (at 1.30pm,) and there was no question of my holiday leave being used. (Or me not being paid.)

Re teachers and schools.....

I am not gonna jump on the teacher bashing bandwagon as I genuinely think they do a good job and it's a hard one, and they don't work 5 hours a day for 32 weeks a year like some people say!

However.......... I have to say, when I was a kid (1980's and early 1990's,) and when DH was one (1970's and early 1980's,) we never, ever, ever, ever, ever had - through all our 12-13 years at school, a single day when the school shut because of snow.

And the winters were severe then. (Pretty much like we have had for the last 4 days!) And a few of them had snow that went on for 3-4 months!!! And we had no heating sometimes! I am not going all '4 Yorkshiremen' - it's true!

Maybe it's because of 'elf and safety' who knows? But neither of us ever had our school shut because of snow, and our parents and grandparents say the same. And everyone else I know (aged 40 or over.)

It seems like they do use any excuse to close. And yet you get fined for keeping your kids off for a day to take them to the beach or the zoo.

It's double standards. They make up the rules to suit themselves. And THAT is not a generalisation; it's a fact! This weather has been severe yes, and IMO it has been acceptable this time to close the schools. But many schools have closed in the past, for very little, on many occasions!

That's just not generally true olive. It may be true of your particular school days but schools shut for all sorts of reasons in the 80s. Strikes, heating problems and -yes- snow.

My school was shut for a week in 1987 because of deep snow and ice and I remember snow days in primary school.

cardibach they can't because we don't do cover!

Well yours may have closed for snow - back in the 1980's @piggy! But mine never did, (neither my primary OR secondary.) And as I said, neither did DH's schools, OR any of our parents, or grandparents, or anyone we know over 40!

Maybe some people are made of tougher stuff than others!

Sounded awfully like teacher bashing that olive

The difference is that the trip to the beach (which as a one off I have never heard of a fine being raised for btw) happens when a school is fully up and functioning.

As I said, the schools themselves are rarely in control of the closures.

This is the first day my school has been closed for years. We had no water for nearly a week and didn't shut. It was bloody miserable. I have also gone in to completely unheated schools and schools hot beyond belief.

you sound awfully teacher bashing.

I can't control how you take things @piggy

Guess you are just over sensitive/precious.

olive I am not sure you can be 100% sure of that.

But, anyway, well done you.

But schools definitely did.

Everything shut down for ages in the Winter of Discontent.

I am a teacher and I don't get how PPA time can be moved/ taken away? is this a primary thing??

Yes, my PPA is covered by an excellent HLTA and she could be placed elsewhere if necessary. It happens more often than it should but as I'm in a school that gives excellent support in many other ways, I tend to just accept it on occasion.

It seems like they do use any excuse to close. And yet you get fined for keeping your kids off for a day to take them to the beach or the zoo.

Who introduced fines for abscences? Was it teachers?!

Haha - definitely not precious. You said you weren't teacher bashing!

Perhaps you might want to avoid all the 'they's and phrases such as dpuble standards

They make up the rules to suit themselves. And THAT is not a generalisation; it's a fact!

Who are they? Where is your evidence to prove this fact?

Oops double standards!

However.......... I have to say, when I was a kid (1980's and early 1990's,) and when DH was one (1970's and early 1980's,) we never, ever, ever, ever, ever had - through all our 12-13 years at school, a single day when the school shut because of snow.

I'm the same age as your DH and we also didn't bother wearing seatbelts or using carseats for small children.

Ahh those wonderful old days

All the teachers at my school worked at home on their laptops, planning etc. Some who could, went to school to help clear the site and make it safer ( no caretaker)

I think heath and safety rules have been tightened and rightly so. I remember lessons in an unheated portakabin in th 80s where my fingers were too stiff and cold to write!

@BeALert

I'm the same age as your DH and we also didn't bother wearing seatbelts or using carseats for small children.

This has got nothing to do with the subject in the OP. Quit reaching!

If my school closes, not my choice /fault, I would not be expected to work at home. One headteacher did tell us to set work one year that no one did. Next time, we created folders they could access on the system. No one did anything.

When I was a kid, in London in the 1980s, our school was closed for at least two days for snow - the heating broke and the teachers were struggling to get in even though the school was just off the high street. I know this to be a fact because my Mum was a teacher there and I was tasked with ringing round parents whose children weren't in on the day we closed early to let them know that the school would be closed the following day.

This has got nothing to do with the subject in the OP. Quit reaching! confused

It's another example (like schools closing when travel would be dangerous) of how life has changed to keep us safer. It's not that hard to work out. Others managed...

we never, ever, ever, ever, ever had - through all our 12-13 years at school, a single day when the school shut because of snow.

They make up the rules to suit themselves. And THAT is not a generalisation; it's a fact!

neither of us ever had our school shut because of snow, and our parents and grandparents say the same. And everyone else I know (aged 40 or over.)

Yeah, I think I'll ignore any poster who expresses dodgy recollections in such emphatic terms.

Civil servants are also technically expected to go to their nearest office if they cannot get to their normal place of work because of snow / Acts of God. I've never known anyone actually do it, though, not least because it would surely be more disruptive than helpful for a load of random people to turn up at a random DVLA office and try to work there for a day

I think a complication arises when parents have young children at home because their school is closed - are they really working from home? Or should they have to take leave in order to look after their kids, even if they could otherwise WfH?