To be disappointed that my children’s teachers have not come into school?

[Mixedbags]

My teenagers are at secondary school in crucial years. They have said that the last 2days many teachers have not come in due to snow and the supply teachers have not been very effective. The snow fall here and within a 60mile radius (relatives and friends all over) has been close to non existent. What example does this send to our children? Snowflakes? 🤪

Mixedbags last February my gran went into hospital for routine heart surgery that was postponed because hospital staff couldn’t get in until the snow has passed. When they could operate and she had a heart attack in the middle of the night and sadly has to be put into a coma to see if drs could do anything when they managed to get to work no one in our hospital blamed the hospital staff. Their safety was important. One doesn’t trump the other School is in no way the same, get over yourself

Excellent suggestion from Gigis.

That should say no one in our family! Not hospital

Unreasonable in the extreme! I work in a school, support staff not teaching, and one of our teachers has an hours drive. Should he risk his life on a treacherous motorway just to get to work?
A lesson or two where they have to learn out of the textbook will do them no harm!
You have no idea where these teachers are travelling from, nor their circumstances

Besides, as more than one poster has said, they could be ill or anything

8 teachers off, in a school with 50 teachers is nothing. I reckon we'd have had at least that many teachers out today and nothing to do with snow. Obviously, if it's 8 teachers out of 10 then that might seem a lot.

I wouldn't travel in if it was going to cause me or anyone else harm. You don't know where they live or what they have to drive through to get to school.

Also, you don't know why they are off, count in some out somewhere preplanned, a couple off sick, a couple out for a school trip and you've got to your 8. They might not even be off for snow.

Your 'friend' has been very unprofessional talking about why their colleagues are off.

what other profession are people expected to risk their own lives to get to work to earn far to little for what they do? next teachers will do the unthinkable...have a lunch hour! its bollocks get your child to do some self revision

I work part time in Primary (I know it's not the same situation) and on Tuesday I went in for the afternoon and had a dreadful journey. I live in a hilly area and lots of roads hadn't been gritted - I live about 40 minutes away and there were lots of near misses.

I couldn't get up the hill to school so had to find somewhere to park on the main road. Lots of people had had to do the same, so I had to go a bit of a distance and it took me ages to walk with my bag of stuff. When I got in I was shaking.

I teach over several classes and over the afternoon children were being collected by parents because of the snow so class numbers were tiny by the end of the day.

Thinking about it, I shouldn't have gone in. The rule is that you don't take any unnecessary risks - and I was told that - but I didn't want to let people down. When I read posts like the OP it makes me realise I shouldn't have bothered.

We had roads made of glass yesterday, multiple bumps and some were serious. 8 miles away was clear. Why should teachers put their and others' lives at risk? No different to any other profession that chose to stay safe. I've seen some horrendous videos of crashes on a local motorway.

I'd argue the same for a GP OP. Why should people do dangerous journeys when there attendance isn't a life or death issue? We only have a small number of snow days, it's not going to cause your child to fail their GCSEs.

Indeed, last year I had to rock up to my nearest secondary ( my own kids in tow) and present myself for duty.

The schools were all officially closed by 11am so we were all sent home again ( and closed for another 2 days).

She’s not a teacher. It’s a very close knit community.

In other words she has no authority to tell you and your community is full of gossips with half truths.

"It's a very close knit community" - otherwise translated as "bitchy gossip is rife." Yep! And your friend is an arse!

Like others have said, 8 teachers is nothing! We have as many off on a normal day ( ill/ training/ trips/ meetings) and we're a small school.

Get off your high horse and stop using the snow for teacher bashing.

In my school many teachers travel a large distance to get in. The weather on one side of the region may be fine but on the other a nightmare. The main roads are generally open, but I live in a hamlet which is never gritted. I'm at the bottom of a hill so I heed the warnings.

A few years ago there was quite a lot of flooding here. School was open as it is on higher ground and a number of teachers were able to get in. I was outside my house with my kids trying to unblock some of the drains when the police drove by in a 4x4. They said not to travel unless it was an emergency until later that morning. I rang school, emailed some cover work in and they said "take care, hope to see you later but don't worry if you can't make it". I did a 20 mile detour and did make it a couple of hours late. Lots of kids were surprised that I was late in, especially those who lived near school. I showed them some of the photos of my flooded hamlet and the cars stuck outside my house and they stopped moaning and thanked me for getting there.

I think the questions C8H10N4O2 has asked are perfect.

I'm not a teacher and don't have school age children. Even I can think of good reasons some of the supposed 8 are off.
The 'absentees' could be ill, their child could be ill, they could have caring responsibilities. Hell, one of them may have been suspended by the LEA for all you know. Maybe one of them has resigned by email with immediate effect because the way education is run in this country is destroying their mental health.

There have been snowploughs out less than five miles from me. Not a single speck of snow in my postcode.

Op how do you know that the reason the staff aren’t in is because of the snow? DH hasn’t been in this week but this is due to him having pneumonia! He’s a very conscientious member of staff and would dread to think he is being labelled as a ‘can’t be a*d to get into school’. However we do not make a habit of telling students exactly why staff aren’t in.

Yes your children’s education is important (we are both maths teachers so 100% agree with this) but the health and safety of the staff is also important.

Our GP Surgery is (essentially) closed (only 1 Dr in for Emergencies only). People bitching on local sites etc that ‘there’s no fucking snow’ etc. The other Drs are all off because they’re sick with this vile ‘cold’ going around...but, you know, don’t let facts get in the way of a good whinge.

🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄

☕️🍷🥃 for all the lovely teachers.

There are shitty parents and shitty teachers - shame we can’t put them all in the the same schools and let the rest of us get on with things!

When we have extreme weather, teachers are supposed to travel to their nearest school for work regardless of whether it is their own school, a primary or secondary etc. Most people (rural areas excepted) have some school within a reasonable walking distance.

The nearest school to me IS my school. It is also a good 45 min walk up a fucking massive hill which is like a skating rink if the temp drops below 0. I wouldn’t even think to try it in the snow.

Your way only works in the city. Rurally many schools are quite isolated and difficult to access in the snow.

Mummy loves wine. As has been stated I am not talking rubbish so away and boil yer heid. I did however fail to take account of the system you have where people are not employed by the council.

@Mammyloveswine Maybe not in your area, but can definitely confirm that it was the case in my city a good few years ago. Only in LA schools though, of course.

OP - the example it shows to your dc is that sometimes, for whatever reason, things change and you need to be sensible and plan ahead. People have to be able to adapt to different situations that may crop up. Maybe dc could do some good revision instead, or read up on any bits of the syllabus not covered yet.

Or, you could encourage your dc to think badly about their teachers, and teach them to disrespect the adults who teach them.
What messages you pass on to your dc is up to you.

Where I live we had a lot of snow but the local town where the local secondary school is had nothing.
They had to send all the outlying pupils back home at 12 today because of new snow falling but it still was totally clear in the town so for sure you have teachers that live in similar areas effected like this.

Those teachers who did make it into school very likely gave up all their protected planning and marking time so that the school stayed open. I'm sure I'm not the only one who had to do that. Had I, and others, not done so, school would have closed, or at least partially closed.

Always nice to see your effort appreciated isn't it 😉

It's not just villages that get cut off. Hilly back roads that aren't priority routes often don't get gritted meaning that, even if main roads are clear, people can't safely get their cars to them to travel.

Sorry for your loss. There is no snow here on the roads or pavements or locally honestly. I just don’t get it. I think it sends the wrong message out to pupils.