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Original poster

Unaceptable taking a "snow day" when schools are open

409 replies

Creambun2 · 28/02/2018 11:28

It really annoys me that the vast majority of schools are open in my area, yet many, many children have been taken out of school by parents "to enjoy the snow". Talk about lack of respect for the staff and other pupils who bother to turn up. We only have a couple of cm of snow!

OP posts:
Tantpoke · 28/02/2018 12:48

I kept my 2 off school yesterday even though their schools were open and thank goodness I did because as suspected the Schools closed after a couple of hours anyway so it would have been a wasted cold and slippery journey there and back.

As it was they had great fun with all the other kids from the street in the snow.

AJPTaylor · 28/02/2018 12:49

I took dd in yesterday. East sussex but we walk to school.
I assumed wrongly that as year 5 they would go out to play in snow.
They were not allowed out all day, and had to sit an write a poem about snow.
Have sent her in today but if it snows properly tonight or tomorrow she can have a day off
The last proper snow we had she was 4 .

LimonViola · 28/02/2018 12:49

When I was at school the reason I stayed off on snow days was because snow turned the kids into nasty vicious animals, hurling snowballs at each other all bloody day. You couldn't walk from one class to another across the yard without a snowball to the face. I'm all for a snowball fight with friends but the bullies took full advantage of being able to throw stuff at and really hurt other kids and get away with it.

Did anyone on this thread go to a school where that wasn't the case?

IpreferFrieda · 28/02/2018 12:49

knitted yes sorry I see your point and agree it’s the case

beep yes but I expect the stories are about awful parents, and they exist, as that’s a good story over ‘a wine’! Not much copy in the normal everyday generally sensible parents is there.

You are a parent yourself and you may find you have issues with teachers and school from time to time as we all do. You shouldn’t blindly think that all teachers and all schools are excellent. They are not. Just like parents.

You should aim to make good choices for your family with regard to all circumstances and above all don’t rush to judge on things you have no experience of yet.

As a responsible parent I didn’t walk my kids 3 miles with no pavement on a dangerous slippy road with crashed cars even though School was open.

Life isn’t black and white.

LimonViola · 28/02/2018 12:50

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER bet you any money the media have just twisted that into a 'bloody PC nonsense!' story when the actual reason is something like my post just above.

Valentinesfart · 28/02/2018 12:50

Great name valentine - stinky hot air! There's a lot of entitled posts here and on other threads and assumptions about teachers etc that are just beyond cringe. Clue - if you can't see them, yours are probably right in there

Not sure why you've directed that at me... I respect people who choose to teach, it's an incredibly difficult job. It is a job though, like any other, they aren't my children's parents.

I still think that as my child's mother my opinion on their welfare and whats most important is my decision. That's called parenting. I do it all the time, I don't scour MN looking for the kind of parent to not be (whatever that means).

IpreferFrieda · 28/02/2018 12:53

cavoli

Many many parents don’t get their catchment school and even if they do they can be miles away. Not everyone lives in s village Hmm

CavoliRiscaldati · 28/02/2018 12:53

I understand the laziness of some parents who cannot imagine having to WALK 10 minutes to school - the horror, they might start to get fitter, what world would that be

what I can't understand is the ones sending their kids with completely inappropriate clothes and SHOES. It's cold, it's icy, it's slippery. Hardly a big deal, but girls are the worst, why would you put your kids in leather shoes with flat sole and no coat? Why? It's end of February, you must have had time to find winter shoes by now?
It's beyond me. Funnily enough, the parents are dressed appropriately, so they do understand the concept of winter, they just don't care about their kids?

IpreferFrieda · 28/02/2018 12:54

valentine

Spot on there

CavoliRiscaldati · 28/02/2018 12:55

IpreferFrieda
I wasn't talking about the parents who ended up in the wrong school, or live miles away from the nearest one. I am talking about the parents who decided to put their kids at the opposite side of town or the county - refusing their catchment school - and then moan about a long walk.

Valentinesfart · 28/02/2018 12:55

If they had put their kids in the right catchment school, it wouldn't be an issue in the first place. They are the ones creating problems

Offer me a school that doesn't force feed Jesus to children, figuratively and literally in biscuit form and I would happily not walk 5 miles a day thanks. Currently seeing a physio for me knee but why not risk slipping on the ice?

IpreferFrieda · 28/02/2018 12:57

cavoli hsvevyiu tried getting a teenager to wear a coat? Good luck there and you do realise that many high schools don’t allow coats but just blazers and if they do allow coats there is no locker to put them do they have to lug them around all day.

Again suspecting posters posting about things they havnt yet experienced

Valentinesfart · 28/02/2018 12:58

If parents are choosing to go far outside catchment, the problem is not the parents. The problem is that all the schools aren't equal.

Obviously parents don't want their children to go to a dangerous or failing school Hmm

obviously.

SparkleFizz · 28/02/2018 12:58

If they had put their kids in the right catchment school, it wouldn't be an issue in the first place. They are the ones creating problems.

This my come as a surprise, but if your catchment schools are oversubscribed, and you live too far away for your child to qualify for a place, then you’re not able to “choose” to ignore the fact that your child hasn’t been given a place and send them off to the catchment school anyway. Not even if you really really wanted your child to go to the catchment school and had it down as your top choice. You end up having to take them to an out of catchment school, which may be miles and miles away from your home.
The problem of schools being too small for the local population isn’t something that individual parents were responsible for and it isn’t something that they have much power to solve.

Beehivesandhoney · 28/02/2018 12:59

'If they had put their kids in the right catchment school, it wouldn't be an issue in the first place. They are the ones creating problems'

If only it was that easy!
Where we live our nearest schools are all religious and oversubscribed.
So priority went to siblings and then after siblings it was baptised church attending children in catchment, then baptised Church attending children out of catchment then others in catchment. Only it was already full by then.

At one point we were walking or busing 3.46 miles each way to another school in another town which we had been assigned and passing another Mum who was walking the same from the other town into our village school which we were doors down from.

When we moved to another area mid term there was no primary place for miles so we had to home educate for a while.

Now secondary level and live between two schools. We live 1.12 miles away from one and the last person to get in was 1.07 miles. The other is a religious one and we live around a mile and didn't get in.

My friends live in a rural area and the nearest school is a long two buses away.

IpreferFrieda · 28/02/2018 13:00

All my catchment schools were 3 miles first school, 5 miles middle school and 10 miles high school.

Think that’s fairly normal. Not walkable in winter and not accessible if the school bus isn’t running

Valentinesfart · 28/02/2018 13:00

Again suspecting posters posting about things they havnt yet experienced

I'm a sahm I walk past the girls secondary and the boys secondary at kicking out time. They're all basically in shorts or skirts. God forbid anyone wear a coat. And it's not even mixed schools, so it's not about impressing anyone. They just don't believe in coats. The boys walk home in PE shorts in snow Confused

poppy1973 · 28/02/2018 13:00

Personally, I would only take my children out of school - if I felt that it was unsafe for me to get my children to school. We don't life within walking distance at our school, and if I felt that it was unsafe for me to travel with them in the car, then I wouldn't.

beepthemeep · 28/02/2018 13:01

Ah, I do so enjoy watching people who are convinced they know best just proving the point Grin

Limon - no, that didn't happen at my school. But I do remember the boys turning half the playground into a massive black ice rink by running and skidding on it at about 100mph. And of course it was the half that was near the doors. That was banned the following year!

CavoliRiscaldati · 28/02/2018 13:01

Around here, you only get allocated a religious school if you ask for one - they are completely oversubscribed anyway, but don't enter in the "catchment list", so if you don't like them , you won't get a place. Your catchment school cannot be a religious school if that makes sense. Sounds like a fair system

lesstressy · 28/02/2018 13:01

As the mother of 2 uni students and a sixth former I see things from the other end of childhood. I have very fond memories of the few snow days they had at primary. The youngest was talking about them yesterday.
One snowy day we marched a mile and a half in the snow (we are rural and couldn't get the car off the drive) to find that though the school was open, they were just drinking hot chocolate and watching films with the advice to go back home if we could.
When it snowed heavily the following year I kept them home and have fond memories of them playing outside and then huddling round the woodburner and heating up baked beans in a pan on top as the power was out for 2 days!

We didn't have the budget for skiing so this was as close as they got.
Several years on they have a good work ethic (eldest 2 are hardworking medical students) and they will have many years of struggling into work whatever the weather ahead of them.

I would have regretted missing out on these very rare childhood opportunities and happy memories that will always stay with us.

Valentinesfart · 28/02/2018 13:02

So priority went to siblings and then after siblings it was baptised church attending children in catchment, then baptised Church attending children out of catchment then others in catchment. Only it was already full by then.

Oh yes, forgot about that actually. Why is that still allowed when they get public funds? Local secondary want to know you've been going to church regularly!?

CavoliRiscaldati · 28/02/2018 13:02

IpreferFrieda
I don't see many teenagers going to school holding their mummy's hands Grin

wysteriafloribunba · 28/02/2018 13:04

My dcs school is open and I'd love them to be there as I work from home and really need some child free time. Unfortunately although the main roads are open the 500m from my house to the main road is impassable. Uncleared, ungritted, and up a hill. There is also an abandonned car stuck in the middle. The journey is not walkable. 6 miles with two under 5 is not possible without a pram in good conditions, and thick snow an ice means even short journies on foot are difficult. I'm so frustrated. My Dh can walk to the station and get the train to London, but I can't get the dcs 6 miles to school/nursery.

Bimbler · 28/02/2018 13:06

Ah, I do so enjoy watching people who are convinced they know best just proving the point

What is your point?