To email Head Teacher about children being kept inside all week?

[mrsvilliers2]

Can't decide if am BU or not. It's an infant school and ds told me that they have had to watch a film for break and lunch for the past week. The first two days I understand (lots of snow and ice) but the last two the playground was clear and not slippy. Dd was allowed out in nursery (same school but different play area). My problem is ds is a child that need to be run

Are you very sure that this is the case? Could you give examples where schools have been successfully sued in similar circumstances?

It all sounds a bit urban myth to me

I wonder why children here are so fragile? I include my own, who also had no playtime outside at school all last week
Have you noticed the clothing children get sent to school in? Girls particularly are generally sent in thin cardigans, tights and open shoes, some of them no more than ballet slippers and some with a heel. Not suitable clothing for rain and ice.

Teachers don't keep them in for the fun of it, behaviour is much worse on days that the kids haven't been able to get outside.

And as for putting on wellies/waterproofs - when do you suggest that gets done? Eating into lesson time (just imagine the 'firmly worded emails' MN would be encouraging parents to send), or break time (and meaning the teacher misses part of their own break)? Young children can take an age to put these things on and need help.

If you lived here, patronising foreign person, or had visited anywhere outside London, you would get it. The UK is not set up for this as we have such a benign climate, unlike many of the hot or cold shit holes round the world.

So we have run out of grit in many places and we don't have snow tyres on our vehicles . also due to the laws of physics there is no point putting salt down.

Also we have hospital infrastructure for 50 million and a population of 70 million. It is vital not to get hurt if at all possible.

‘cold shitholes’ Lol u ok hun

Unless you have personally inspected the entire playground I think you are being "that" parent.

Dd has had indoor play all week and the outdoor classrooms have all been shut off. The sheet black ice has been lethal. They have even had to allow kids to enter and leave through the main office as the playground is simply too dangerous to be walked on.

They won't have taken the decision lightly and if you precious percent needs to run then stop driving him and walk to school or was it too icy for that?

Silly cow alert!

So, sweetybumps, know your science? Been to the UK outside the shops?

( I have all day for this...)

It's not the children who are particularly the fragile ones. It's the parents who complain at the drop of a hat, whatever line the school takes.
No outside play: wrong, too bouncy later at home
Send them outside: wrong- too cold and icy.
Lost un-named jumper: our fault
Un-eaten lunch: our fault for not insisting
Eaten lunch: why did we insist when they didn't want it?
Inset days tagged onto a holiday: why not spread them out randomly?
Random inset days: why not tag them onto a holiday.

DO NOT EMAIL!!

extra hugs to my babespecialsubject who has apparently been driven insane by the kind of winter weather that happens
every.
year.
in.
the.
uk.

At least since 2001 since I arrived here to live from my cold shit hole 😂🤣

My problem is ds is a child that need to be run

And to come back to this - if it bothers you so much, you can come into school and take him off site to run him yourself. When he's in school, they are the ones making decisions on safety. Whiny emails will just make the staff roll their eyes.

No i wouldn't because i'm sure there was a reason!

Just this week alone i have seen two posts on fb about children slipping on ice in the playground and receiving head injuries. One was pretty bad!

@MadgeMidgerson

I very much doubt there has been any such case - but the threat is real enough to preclude sending children outside. Blame culture is rife.

thoughts and prayers for specialsubject in this her difficult time of need

it is vital to avoid injury as there are 70 million people and only 50 million NHS beds or something

Actually, madge, it doesn't happen every year in all areas of the UK. In my part of the Home Counties, it hasn't snowed properly since 2010.

I just wish other parents would keep their sick children at home. I don't want my DD getting sick for Christmas because of other people being selfish.

And when our school opened on Tuesday (when most others locally closed), only half of the children turned up because their parents thought it too dangerous to venture out although not too dangerous to go sledging, apparently

OK so am BU and won't email. I have a few other issues with the school which is maybe why this one has bugged so much.

To those asking why I don't 'run' him myself, guess what?! I DO! When I realised he hadn't been out we all took the dog out for an early walk. I just think it is odd not to try and exercise children during the school day. A bit of a run in the sports hall perhaps? Or games on offer instead of sticking them in front of the ubiquitous screen? If I were to keep my dog in all day I would be shouted down as cruel.

They wouldn't have kept them in unless absolutely necessary - indoor play is way more stressful than releasing them to run wild!

while there are parts which don’t get snow every year, I think you’d be hard pressed to find a year where there has been no ice and snow anywhere in the uk.

In any case whatever. OP there is little point in writing an email as it has been comprehensively proven that children in England can not possibly go out of doors in snow and ice. Everyone, apparently knows this.

Let yours out (if you dare) when they get home, it only lasts a few days so there won’t be any long term damage to them for having missed playtime, even for a week

Well, it's not all day, is it? It's 6 hours out of 24.

Oh please email, Heads just love the laugh such emails engender at the end of a long term. Seriously I yet to meet a member of staff who wants to keep children in. Go to the park in your way home.

Miaow I love the sound of your school.

Madge while it does snow on a fairly regular basis in the UK, it doesn't last long enough to make implementing the permanent infrastructure required to deal with it financially viable.

It also rarely happens at the same time each year. You may not be aware, but the grit used on the roads has a finite shelf life, keeping enough stock to deal with anything but the main roads from October through to March would be ruinously expensive for overstretched local councils.

I'd also be interested to know where the -40 country where no one ever has an accident in slippery conditions is. Sounds amazing.

I wouldn't make a big deal out of it. I know mine said she hasn't gone outside as much this week. We haven't really had any snow and hardly any ice. It's mostly been because they are busy with end of term things and Christmas stuff and the school day has been really flipped around. End of term things always go a bit pear shaped. I would leave it unless it becomes a long term issue next term.