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? 🤪

Gossipy bollocks

Nope, not angry at all! Just exasperated.

And also just to clarify again - I don't have a negative opinion of all parents. Only a certain special few

Anyway. After a day of covering for my disappointing, skiving colleagues I'm behind on my marking so will leave you alone.
Have a lovely night.

You cannot possibly know what the conditions are like in a 5 mile radius let alone a 60mmile one. I live in Greater London about a quarter of a mile from two very busy A roads. Our house is on a private, unmade up road at the top of a hill. Quite often the 500 yards along our quiet turning to the ‘proper’ roads near by are completely snowed in and there is no way I would or could drive my car down the slope. (On occasions I have had to leave it at the bottom of the hill for a week). To get to the shops or to work I have to put ice gripper things on my wellies and skid and slither down on foot. I then feel like a complete lemon when I get to the busy, gritted, warmer main road and there is not a flake of snow to be seen.

There was no snow in my village at all. One of the schools I work at is only a 25 min drive away, but there were blizzard conditions and deep snow. Many trucks and cars stopped or turning back.

At our small village primary, no snow, but the Head couldn't get in because he lives 30 mins away and was snowed in.

@ohreallyohreallyoh great post 👍🏻
Thank you for mentioning how supply teachers are treated. I used to be one - put me off teaching for good.

The supply teachers probably made it there because if they didn't try, the agency would never call them again.

Am at risk of joining the heads banging off the wall brigade here.. but is it just a teensy bit possible mixedbags that you indeed do not know the reason for each individual teacher being off? Is it just a teensy bit possible mixedbags that your "tight knit community" thrives on gossip and hearsay. Is it just a teensy bit possible mixedbags that snow may well have fallen, black ice formed somewhere in the 60 mile radius from your school? Is it just a teensy bit possible mixedbags that snow may have fallen/black ice formed near where the school teachers live or where their own children go to school? On that point of home addresses is it just a teensy bit possible mixedbags that you don't have actually have a Scooby about where the 8 MIA teachers actually live?

Or are you 110%, absolutely cross your heart and hope to die confident that your interpretation of the events is the only possible one that fits. That in your Occam's razor world its more likely that eight teachers decided to skive claiming snow in the hope that no-one would notice the tropical skies above?

the supply teachers have not been very effective.

To be fair it depends on what the supply teacher has been left as work.

"Make notes on chapter 2 and then answer the questions on p45" is the most common thing to be left - not much I can do with that.

On one day I might cover a number of subjects, one day it was photography - ok students had been looking at David Bailey and I know a bit of that, sociology - well I have an AS level so again not completely blank, music - I do not have a musical bone in my body and I finished of with French.

When I was at school, I had a teacher who was off intermittently for a while, and then stopped altogether for a bit longer. No pupils knew why, let alone parents. She lived a fair way from the school, too.

I found out after a while that she was very ill, and had died.

The only teachers whose personal lives I knew anything about (and I did end up knowing quite a bit) were those who chose to share it - and that was generally after I hit sixth form, not before.

No, I don’t know all the facts. Bravo to all the teachers who made it in. If there are teachers that didn’t go in the last 2 days and could have safely made it in, I am disappointed for my children, the other school staff who have valiantly possibly taken up extra work and me as a taxpayer. You know who you are ...

Make notes on chapter 2 and then answer the questions on p45" is the most common thing to be left - not much I can do with that

My personal favourite is ‘make a poster’. About what?! Give me something to work with!

I am a million miles away from a tecaher basher but I do think a culture has developed - not just among teachers but parents and pupils too - that schools will close at the first sign of snow in a way that is not replicated anywhere else in either the public or private sector

I’m a teacher
With dozens and dozens of teacher friends- I can categorically state that their lives would all be made much more difficult with taking time off than if they had made it to school, so if they could have got in, they would have done.
Are their kids schools shut? Do they have a vomiting/tummy bug? Are you sure there are as many off as your kids say - could they just saying this to bag a day off themselves?? (News flash: sometimes kids fib)
Maybe their cars died? Maybe they skidded on ice on the way in to try and teach your poppets??

Ooh look here comes the snow again as I type!

Unless you have personally gone out and inspected all the roads within a 60mile radius, spoken to each individual teacher who was off and clarified that they do not live anywhere outside that 60mile radius and spoken with the Head who happily confirmed for you the number of teachers absent and their reasons for being absent then yes, YABVVU.

What a petty and ridiculous thread.

@Mixedbags I'm a teacher and I agree that's poor! I made it in last year at 23 weeks pregnant having slipped on snow and ice in the morning while scraping my car! I hadn't hit my bump at all and baby was moving fine, but I had a sizeable bruise. If there's barely any snow and road conditions are still ok, I can't see why teachers wouldn't go to work. Are the road conditions bad perhaps?

@mixedbags. Not goady much are you. I echo @Gigis. Parents like you are a bloody pain in the arse and make a hard job harder and at times soul destroying. Thankfully they tend to be a minority and the vast majority are wonderful and I always enjoy seeing them at parents evenings

Crikey op. Do you know how much work it involves to set cover for a whole day... and then have to mark cover work that you weren’t even there for! It’s easier to go in to work!
Teacher’s don’t take time off if they can help it!

We had snow this week and all the schools stayed open, so that's nonsense. If heavy snow and blizzards are forecast then it makes sense to close the schools. We aren't like anywhere else in the other public or private sector are we? The safety of the pupils always comes first.

schools will close at the first sign of snow

Old buildings on several levels with outside stairs and steps, children who know best and won’t abide my simple instructions, heating systems not coping, reduced staffing ‘cos some can’t get in, etc etc means leaders make decisions they’d rather not in poor weather. Imagine if it was your child who fell and broke their leg on a patch of ice at break time because no staff were available to shoo him away from the area they were told to stay away from but chose to ignore? You can imagine the sad faced headlines! Other areas of the public sector are not responsible yfor the safety of hundreds of children at a time.

If a bad example is being set here, Mixedbags, I would say it is coming from you. You are teaching your children to be malicious gossips. Of course a supply teacher will not be as good as the usual teacher and nobody really wants a supply teacher, or worse, a cover "teacher" (usually not a teacher at all) too often if it can be helped. Of course you have bugger all idea what the weather conditions where the absent teachers live are like, nor do you know anything about their personal circumstances. For you to assume they are unprofessional and workshy because you think you are an all-seeing weather goddess just speaks volumes about you and tells us nothing about the teachers.

bitoutof have you seen the state that many uk schools are in?... There’s no money! Thing such as boilers are old. They can’t afford to replace them

Teacher and workshy just don’t go together.

Oh, I agree Bit. I’ve been teaching up and down the country for over 30 years, since the days of ice slides in the playground and blackboards in the classroom.
But back then, H&M was a lot more basic, and parents a lot less involved in school and less likely to worry and blame if darling Jocasta got cold and wet, Swithin had a cough, Jezabel fell over on the ice or Napoleon left his water bottle at home. Not better, or good old days, just simpler and far less stressful. Now there are far more rules.

@EyesUnderARock 😂😂😂

Autocorrect, not H&M, H&S health and safety.

bitoutof have you seen the state that many uk schools are in? erm yes! I can understand when the boilers broken the school has to close. But not "just" for snow. Nobody here has mentioned the boiler is broken.

Like I say, I don't think it's teachers' attitudes. And I'm certainly not criticising teachers. But it's prevelant amongst school management, parents, society as a whole I guess. It's just become the norm that schools close in the snow, yet hospitals don't, or shopping centres etc.

I'm not even sure why that is.

As a working parent myself I always found it a total PITA f the school closed because I had to then stay home myself or organise childcare