To think that 8.35 am is too late for a secondary school to give notice if they are open or not!

[Beehivesandhoney]

It's snowing really heavily outside.
Dds school because of its type and the area. has a catchment area which is huge. Some kids are 25 miles away. Many are 5-7 miles away. Most do two buses.

Two days ago when the snow wasn't as bad they announced they were open at 8.30am they were still open. They are expected to be there for 8.50am so most will have already set off well before that.

Aibu to think that most secondary schools have people in earlier than that?
What time does your school let you know?

Dd has two buses. One out of the village and then the main one. So if she gets stuck we are knackered.

We knew before 6:30 as staff had been at school at 5:30 to check. My children are a terrible two schools opposite each other. Tuesday one open, one closed then the kids sent home before 11. They said police said no non essential travel. Dh gone to work. Once off our close the roads are clear though but already it's snowing and due to do so for four hours.

We received a text just before 6am this morning. I'm raging that they are shut, we are in London and there is very little snow, but can't fault them for advising us so early.

Ah you have to love mumsnet with its hilariously obvious population of outrageously ignorant posters who genuinely believe everyone lives in London. Some of us have lots of snow. Proper lots, not "omg the train's running ten minutes late, whatever will we do?!" London snow. Some of us also live in rural locations. Not naice villages in the Cotswolds full of tea rooms and branches of Joules but actual rural with cows, sheep, hundreds of acres of fields and no A roads, streetlights or anything resembling public transport. But hey ho we'll just release the kiddies into the wild and say "off you go. Just trudge your way the 8 miles home and try not to fall in a ditch and snap your legs."! Only on mumsnet.

Snow is back on here. Glad schools are off

Dh not going to work just yet!

@FlyingElbows

Some complete hogwash on here!

Make sure your kids carry emergency money! If they are walking a distance in this weather, make sure they are wearing suitable footwear. Stuff the school shoes, they can change into trainers in school if necessary. Take spare socks. Wear warm clothing, coat on top of blazer, warm trousers and change at school?

Most importantly, have a back up plan. - someone who lives nearer school and can offer refuge if necessary. I have said to my son, any of his far flung schoolmates are welcome to come to ours if they get stranded.

A mile walk to a (public) bus stop here (no pavements on that walk either), then a (public) bus to our catchment school which is 6 miles away.

Yesterday loads of kids were out doing that waiting for buses that never arrived. Yes it’s a 2 mile round trip walk to then get home but what is the point in making them all do it when schools could have just called it earlier and avoided it?

Schools should have to decide and declare either way in this weather by 7am. There is a council list here but a) you can’t ever get on the webpage and b) the default is set to open each day- which is of course fine most of the time but on days like this week the default column should IMO be blank until they declare open or closed, so people aren’t looking at out of date information.

I had similar today for DD1 - but it was on the twitter account a good 40 minutes before which luckily I'd checked and DD1 caught a few friends who had longer journeys in but only access to texts.

We don’t live rurally so for it would for most have just been a wet cold walk out.

I grew up rural though. Got free passes do over 3.5 miles out from secondary just one bus in and out and if you missed it you’d be stuck. As soon as we were dropped off it became a difference service.

The only bus service that ran to our village every hour between 10 – and 5 from other town not the secondary school town so it wasn’t really a question of money but logistics it was often quicker to walk the full way back.

If we missed it was either a 3.5 + mile walk home or try nearest town bus to next town and hope hit a bus from there before they stopped.

They weren’t bad with the few school closures we had – local practise was local radio station would let people know so if there was any chance of a snow day radio would be on all morning so we’d know. I don’t remember every closing early which would have been a nightmare with transport services – though my DC schools seem to favour getting them in then closing early so it a rare full day of closures here but then it red warning area.

We got a text saying all school cancelled at 6am. I'd already turned off the alarm after following the bus company's Twitter feed and learning they'd made the decision to cancel all services today around 4am. No point in getting her up if the buses aren't running.

'Make sure your kids carry emergency money! If they are walking a distance in this weather, make sure they are wearing suitable footwear. Stuff the school shoes, they can change into trainers in school if necessary. Take spare socks. Wear warm clothing, coat on top of blazer, warm trousers and change at school?

Most importantly, have a back up plan. - someone who lives nearer school and can offer refuge if necessary. I have said to my son, any of his far flung schoolmates are welcome to come to ours if they get stranded.'

Change at school. Yep. Ours don't have lockers. They'd have to carry it all round with them. Emergency money would be spent. When you live rural, chances are, most of the people you know are also rural/far out so there's no one 'nearer school' they know who can operate a refuge shelter.

Exactly, Flying!

So she doesn't live too far away and can walk home then.

Yes cos walking 3 miles in -5 and snow/hail and fog along a country road in school clothes would be just fine.

Ffs!

"Got free passes do over 3.5 miles out from secondary just one bus in and out and if you missed it you’d be stuck. As soon as we were dropped off it became a difference service"

That is exactly how it is for us. We live 4.4 miles from school, and walking a long a bendy icy road with no pavement is extremely unsafe. There is no way I would expect anyone to do this unless the road had been closed and there were no cars.

Apart from feeling incredulous at posters who have no idea what life is like outside of cities I am beginning to think they don't have children at secondary school. As expat and a few others have pointed out many secondary schools either don't provide lockers or they are too small to put snowy outerwear in. The school uniform rules are stupidly strict and children aren't allowed to wear boots in school (although I would like to think that with a new head teacher he will be a little more understanding), or jumpers/hoodies or anything else that contravenes the uniform rules.

Make sure your kids carry emergency money! If they are walking a distance in this weather, make sure they are wearing suitable footwear. Stuff the school shoes, they can change into trainers in school if necessary. Take spare socks. Wear warm clothing, coat on top of blazer, warm trousers and change at school?

There is nowhere to keep all those extra clothes and i presume boots in school. My kids have wellies (not suitable for walking miles in) but not anything else suitable for walking in this weather why would they? Its not like they need them on a regular basis.

As for the money...what for? so they can stand at a bus stop in -5 like it was here yesterday for an hour hoping a bus going thier way might arrive?

And thats even before you consider that sending kids out to walk 3 miles in a red weather warning is complete madness. Red means 'danger to life ' hey lets send the kids out for a 3 mile walk in it along a twisting country road. With minimal visibility cos the wind is whipping up the snow from the fields across the roads like a hurricane, what jolly fun that will be for them.

We do not all live in cities with public transport every 10 minutes and cafes and shopping centres and straight well lit streets to walk along.

I grew up 15 miles from my 'local' high school in Scotland and that certainly wasn't the furthest distance in the catchment. There was literally one bus a day that wasn't the school bus and it frequently didn't run. And there were NO villages or towns in between, not one, so no chance of walking somewhere else to catch a different bus. Agree that some posters gave very little idea how rural some parts of the UK are compared to a lot of areas of England. Having said that, if the weather is that bad I'd be keeping kids off school regardless of whether it was open or not - we missed a couple of days each year due to snow, no big deal in the long run.

Ds’s school has said no uniforms until further notice, which seems sensible.

Ours decided at 9.20 yesterday and put a message up in the afternoon about today. Nothing as yet about tomorrow but I can't see us getting the car out or up the hill and it's far too far to walk.

That's ours off tomorrow now.

For all those quoting me, no, I don't live in London or even a town. Unless it's a chartered bus to a church school, or dc fancy catching the sporadic rural bus at stupid o'clock and then freezing at a connecting bus stop for an hour, the vast majority all have to walk at least a mile to catch a bus. So they don't have much choice about dressing suitably for the weather. Maybe it's different if you have a local bus stop or can be available to drive them.

None of the counter arguments have anything to do with whether school is closed. If you're concerned dc might be stranded, that's fair enough, but irrelevant to whether school notify you or not. I wouldn't make a decision on whether dd can get home from school based on the building being open. So what time the school notify you is irrelevant to dc potentially being stranded. Or are people suggesting they are only concerned about dc stranded at 9am, but there are obvious solutions when the roads are busier after school, in all probability worse, the temp is dropping and it is also heading towards dark?

thehogfather
how old are your kids ?

Teen, why?