to think headteachers can't win?

[DrSeuss]

I'm a teacher. We are closed today for a snow day. Cue massive whinging from some parents about childcare and lack of notice as 7.15 am was apparently too late. To access the website, the Deputy Head needs to be on site so will have had to drive fifteen miles to put the notice up. God alone knows what time he left home.

My daughter's school is open. Cue massive whinging from some parents about Health and Safety/Let Kids be Kids. OK, some of the parents live a few miles away and may not be able to drive in so their kids will miss a day. However, the two Prime Whingers on the school's FB page live around three hundred yards from the gates! The school asked us all by email last night to send clothes suitable for playing outside today in a scheduled session this afternoon.

For the record, we have 10 cm of snow max, we are in the suburbs in a fairly affluent area where most people have cars. If we had more snow or lived in the country that would be different.

Heads can't really win. Close, open. It never suits. Wonder why so many teachers quit?

I am a teacher.
As I was driving into work at 7.15 this morning, in a blizzard, I heard my phone beep. Obviously I cannot look at it whilst driving.
I got to my school which is normally a 15 minute drive, this morning it took me about 30 minutes.
School closed - that's what the beep was.
I am annoyed - I have exam classes that need to be doing coursework and I have deadlines to work to. I had to drive home again, the traffic was much heavier and it took me 45 minutes.
I have been doing school work (planning/marking etc) but believe me I would much rather have been there doing my job but not my decision.
Don't blame the teachers!

If you are living so far away, in the countryside in the middle of nowhere, surely, this is something you have to take into caving for yourself when you accept the job?
On one occasion it took me almost 2 hours to do my 10-15 minute commute.
I left early and was still exceptionally late because you don't expect a 10 minute drive to take almost 2 hours.

I mean, I'm sure staff should have anticipated every major road being blocked with accidents and traffic being divertes by local roads which aren't priority gritting routes. Tssk. Lazy teachers. They really should anticipate the whole county coming to a standstill. Pesky motorists having accidents. Don't they know some parents will have a fit if school is closed?

School ran on skeleton staffing with kids being monitored in the dining room / gym / hall until enough staff were on site to start the day. We nearly closed the school. The day started at almost 11am. School was still open though.

And yet my school is closed today and we are one of those schools that never close.

In snow situations I don't see why they can't have a common sense rule e.g. only come in if it's safe to do so.

The issue I have (and it’s not just about teachers or HT btw), is what will be considered ‘safe’ varies a hell of a lot.

So today, we’ve had some snow and it wasn’t safe enough so the school was closed.
BUT, my friend over the road is a GP and it wasn’t so dangerous that she couldn’t go to work. Patients would have been most grumpy if she hadn’t turned up because it wasn’t safe.
My neigbourgh works on the assembly like if a big car manufacturer. It wasn’t so dangerous that he didn’t go to work (and hell would have broken loose of people had taken the same attitude and said ‘nope can’t do it’ bevause It costs thousands of pounds to stop an assembly line like that one).
Etc etc
So yes I do know some people in a nice office who didn’t go to work.
But I would argue that it wasn’t any harder or more dangerous for them to do that than for all the other people who had no other choice and did manage.
Some roads were closed. You use another! Keep informed (eg avoiding one specific road where I live) etc....

I really think that in the grounds of ‘being safe’ some people make a really big deal out of not a lot. It’s also used as a way of not going to work (and for it to look ok ish). And to not make a real effort to solve said Issue (like the people who had no other choice did).

It isn’t helped by the mention by the Met Office of not travelling unless necessary. What does necessary mean? And why does it apply to the whole of the country when some parts have seen hardly any snow?

Maisy if the roads were so blocked that it took you two hours when it normally would take 5~10 mins, I would have walked (and have!)

YANBU. Schools can't win.

Except perhaps a few years back when we had snow on an Ofsted day - school was open but some children come in rurally, pupils were told 'come in if safe' to do so.

Only the keen children bothered to go to school, which presumably made the teaching easier.

(DD walked in. Past the houses of many pupils who did not attend ...)

Married3Children
My commute is 10-15 mins not 5/10mins.
There's one part of my journey where it can get a bit busy at peak times or when there's bad weather & after that point it clears up (hence leaving extra time).

I would have considered walking if there was a direct route into work that didn't involve crossing a dual carriageway and a walking down a national speed limit road with no pavement. I'm not doing that on my own. Safety first i'm afraid. Not matrying myself.

I really think that in the grounds of ‘being safe’ some people make a really big deal out of not a lot. It’s also used as a way of not going to work (and for it to look ok ish). And to not make a real effort to solve said Issue (like the people who had no other choice did).
It isn’t helped by the mention by the Met Office of not travelling unless necessary. What does necessary mean?
Snow hit = more cars on the road as parents decide kids couldn't possibly walk 20 mins on well lit pavements to school in case they get cold fingers = much more traffic than usual = roads at capacity

Add in a couple of accidents and road closures for extra measure, or a jackknifed lorry = gridlocked.

Yesterday my run to work took between 45 mins and an hour. Roads were exceptionally busy. Accidents near a local school at pick up.
Today with most schools closed, when i walked to the shop this morning during rush hour there was traffic backed up where there isn't normally (probably to do with the weather) but nothing like yesterday.

I currently have 2 trees half blown over into my garden which will need dealing with whrn this clears. I think our head made the right call to close today.

But yeah, it's an excuse not to work. Most of my colleagues did the same as me yesterday and brought books and work home in case of a snow day. Our whatsapp group is people asking questions about planning they're doing and I'm onto my 2nd pile of assessments. The work still has to be done. It doesn't get removed from us because the site is shut. We don't get new deadlines.

We had a warning that the school might close yesterday or today, and to make alternative childcare arrangements just in case they're needed. It was open yesterday and closed today, and they'll let us know as early as possible tomorrow whether the school will be open. I think they handled it well. It's easy for me to say, though, as I'm a SAHM and can be at home with my DDs, one of whom isn't well so she'd have been at home with me anyway.

Back in 1970s/80s when it snowed particularly heavily, teachers were told to go to their nearest school, if they couldn't get to the one they worked at. It was easier to arrange then as all teachers were under the employ of the local authority, rather than now where you have academies in the mix.
It meant that as many schools as possible stayed open and ran with as much of the normal school day as possible. It did mean that there were secondary school teachers turning up at primaries and vice versa and you didn't always have the specialist teacher for a particular lesson, but there were more staff to supervise cover lessons and keep pupil staff ratios legal.
A family member walked miles to get to the school she taught at in bad snow. This went on for a week or so. I think she was leaving home at 6:30 am. This wasn't that long ago either.

educatingarti
I'd happily have done that. I have 2 primaries and a secondary within walking distance.

I've got 3 kids in 2 schools. DS8 In a SEN school .... Yesterday had snow day. There was less than 3mm of snow and it had cleared by 11:00am.
They are on a slight hill and worried about carpark and mini bus. The caretaker should take care of the hill and the bloody carpark !!! Today both schools closed and need to be !!!
Teachers are overly invested in schools..it's a job not your life...who cares what a parent writes in Facebook..they are not saying you are shit ...just the school and how it organised itself.

Where i work, the Head is always determined to open where she possibly can. So sometimes this can lead to late decisions to close because, as happened this morning, staff set off to work and then get trapped behind traffic accidents or jams and can't get to work. Children have sometimes set off or childcare has to be found quickly so people get snarky about it.

Early decisions are well and good, but then if the snow is all melted by 10am, people also get snarky about it.

It really is a tough call.

@educatingarti i am not sure how that would work now with safeguarding procedures, data protection etc.

The way I see it Head teachers have two choices:

1. They make the decision to close the night before. This way parents have plenty of notice but the downside is that you will get more unnecessary closures when forecast snow doesn't materialise (cue parents moaning)

1. Head teacher announces closure having checked conditions on-site first thing in the morning. This way you avoid unnecessary closures but parents get less notice of closures (cue parents moaning).

Conclusion: parent's moan. Just get on and do what you think's best.

How on earth can parents work on such short notice of school closures. They can't. It means they have to take a day off work if they have nobody on hand to look after children. What would happen if hospitals, police stations, fire stations and so on closed down if a snowflake falls. It's bad judgement IMHO.

Oh please. A school and the emergency services are not the same thing. No emergency services could mean lives are lost, little Tabitha missing a day of school isn't anywhere near as important.

Having to find childcare at short notice is just one of those things you have to accept as a parent. Schools are not there to babysit for them.

You need to be able to access website/texts etc remotely. Social media can also be accessed remotely.

In the event of a crisis, when you can't access school, you need a system in place. Also, webiste access should be available to other SLTs not just one person.

This should be incorporated into critical incident plans.

I think by the time you'd reached head teacher status you'd realise you can't please all of the people all of the time. Nor is it your job to please people. I think councils/ schools could give more rationale behind their closure decisions e.g. "travel safety for pupils and teachers" and that's job done. Wild generalisation but I suppose a lot of teachers might have been the "good kids who liked to please" and therefore it's hard for them to take unfair flak?

How on earth can parents work on such short notice of school closures. They can't. It means they have to take a day off work if they have nobody on hand to look after children. What would happen if hospitals, police stations, fire stations and so on closed down if a snowflake falls. It's bad judgement IMHO.

My DS threw up at 2am this morning. Even without a snow day he wouldn't have been going to school.
Surely all parents who work have a contingency plan for when their children are sick or ill, which often happens at late notice.
Ok, snow can screw that up. If the grandparents are snowed in for instance.
But surely people plan for these things in advance.

Our school closed for a flood a few weeks ago. Oh the moaning and whinging about it. It was really pissing me off to listen to it tbh and I knew the HT would have heard no end of moaning so I made a point of going up to them and thanking them for the notice we were given, thanking for the two text messages AND the email that was sent and telling them I thought they handled it brilliantly, which they did. I bet I was the only one though.

’What would happen if hospitals, police stations, fire stations and so on closed down if a snowflake falls.’

Schools don’t work like that though. The police and hospitals have an incredibly huge set of staff. Schools don’t; if a number of teachers can’t get to school because they live so far away then the school has to close.

Also, paramedics, police, fire crew, etc all deal with life or death situations. Teaching may be a public service job but it’s obviously not comparable to emergency services.

’What would happen if hospitals, police stations, fire stations and so on closed down if a snowflake falls.

That would be bad, obviously. But wtf has any of that got to do with schools? Since when were teachers saving lives and keeping law and order?

Not really answering your question but I didn't realise that in some areas it's up to the HT to decide. I teach in Scotland and here it's a council decision. Council alerts heads who then let staff know whether we're expected to go to our nearest open school or whether we get the day off. Councils also tweet the decisions and let radio stations etc know. Parental outrage is then directed more generally at the council rather than at a specific person.

It means they have to take a day off work if they have nobody on hand to look after children.

Why do you think for the most part, the parent who ends up staying at home (mums), suffer in their careers?

It's part of parenting and a risk you take if you work and have children.

I do wonder about other professions though. Presumably we expect hospitals to stay open and nursing staff to make it in. There must be lots of people who simply don't get paid if they can't get to work. Parents will have lost money having to stay home to look after kids. On the other hand, the fewer people taking risks on the road, the better. Kids and teachers alike. I'm sure it's a newish trend though. When I was growing up in south Yorks in the 70s and 80s I only recall one 'snow day' and that was because the boiler broke down and there was no heating. Everyone was expected to be there. Is it a health & safety thing these days? And I'm not criticising teachers - I work from home and did flexitime in order to take the kids sledging so have no cause to complain.

Yanbu. People would have moaned if they got the text at 5am.

The having to be onsite to update the website sounds worryingly archaic.