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? 🤪

I used to teach in Yorkshire, tucked up by the moors.
Staff would drive in from the coast and wonder what the fuss was about, I’d be there having walked over snow and ice, feeling like a latter day Amundsen.
Then the country lot would roar up in their land rovers, having dug their way through 6’ snowdrifts and with full survival kit in the boot, sometimes with a rescued person tucked in the back.

OP either the teachers were off for other reasons or the conditions were worse than you have suggested. There is no way 8 teachers stayed off unnecessarily. Unless maybe they are just completely burnt out from the stress of dealing with unreasonable parents? Who knows!

I am a midwife and so really cannot stay off whatever the weather, I have to find a way in. However the more traffic there is, the more problematic the journey becomes, so when the weather is awful I would prefer unnecessary staff stay at home and that schools close. Obviously I am only referring to when the conditions are very dangerous.

Every single teacher that I know are committed to their job and would not be staying at home just for the hell of it.

So basically you and your dinner lady friend have been gossiping in your village about why some teachers weren't in and have worked yourself up into such self-righteous frenzy that you felt a Mumsnet post was necessary to validate your opinion about teachers generally.

I noticed you mentioned your friends 'who have travelled to work today' told you the roads were clear... so it sounds like you did not travel into work yourself.
Took a snow day OP?

Actually, our school closes because the bus and coach companies basically tell the head they won't operate and insist on early pick up and tell the head of the morning run is happening.

On the basis +85% of the kids come via bus and coach, they basically dictate if the snow shuts us down. The council don't grit through the village so the coaches just can't get through safely.

So it's not necessarily a culture within schools. If I can get there safely I will go. I've done two hour journeys before.its normally 20 minutes but safety is the key.

Unlike my Norwegian headteacher who skied to school while all us pupils stayed at home. Not my fault. My DGM couldn't drive me in.

Op it annoys me too! I'm an ex teacher and I remember a particularly bad winter quite a few years ago now and I really went out of my way to get to my job for the sake of my year 10s and 11s really. Other staff brought their children to school with them where there had been school closures. I think that some staff in schools genuinely can't get there but others just jump on the bandwagon. I can accept some lateness but not vast absences.

Ah, a dinner lady? That explains it. They know exactly how the school is run and what goes on.

Good grief.

'Me as a tax payer' Bingo !!!!

I find it a hideous breech of data that the reasons that staff have been unable to get into work have been shared with students.

I sincerely doubt that they were all out due to weather. I would be stunned if there was not one of those off sick.

Maybe it's easier to say the weather than say oh they're really run down and are ill?

Can't believe as a previous poster said you've whipped yourself up into a frenzy with zero facts just idle gossip.

Eh here in Scotland I have rocked up and taught at the nearest school. They were grateful to have me. Would i feck be driving miles in horrendous conditions. And would i feck be explaining myself to anyone except my empower

OP it's people with your attitude that turn a mole into a mountain. No surprise teachers are leaving the profession in herds. The school is trying to do thier best by getting supply teachers to cover staff absences and ofcourse GCSE/Alevel students should also take responsibility for thier own learning by ensuring they complete any coverwork assigned for the class. This probably won't be the case though, if they are too busy looking down on the supply teachers as targets for ridicule and then later going home to thier parents to moan and critise about them.🤔

You know for a fact that 8 teachers at this school phoned in and said they weren’t coming in because of the snow?

Really.

I live less than 2.5 miles from work. On Monday I woke to snow. Not much, but enough to justify snow boots. There was none whatsoever around work. Just because you don't have snow doesn't mean they don't.

I always love how's it's "taxpayers money pay your wages"

As if teachers don't pay bloody tax 😂

Our local authority asks teachers who can not make it to their normal place of work due to weather to go to their nearest school to cover those who have not been able to make it in ...much like the protocol for nhs staff. Seems sensible.

As a taxpayer, I'm grateful when people stay off dangerous roads and don't get themselves into avoidable accidents that the emergency services then have to deal with.

I note you still haven't told us the area you're in OP. You could do that without being too outing...

…. and nhs staff do mostly manage to get into work. During the "beast from the east" last year one fantastic surgeon walked right across the city in thick snow to carry out an op on a patient with cancer. Her patients went to the papers because they were so impressed. AMAZING!

P.S. Not suggesting that teachers need to take it that far though!

Mixedbags If you're that bothered, write to to HT naming the absent teachers and ask why they weren't at work.

Of course you won't, easier to piss and moan on MN.

Lol i live 20 minutes from my work. Same town.

We had about 2 inches of snow which has now frozen solid. At work, about a cm of snow which had melted by the time i left.

If i didnt live on a very well gritted bus route i wouldn't have gone in.

Things can be v different even a few miles away.

People people, you are being unfair on the OP, she has obviously knows where every teacher lives and has travelled every road within a 60 mile radius and knows these lazy teachers are just skiving, right OP?

I wonder if said people disagreeing with me would feel the same if GP surgery staff didn’t come in ‘just in case it snowed later on’ and your child could not be seen.

Yeah because it's the same 😂

@Mixedbags you have every right to feel what you like. Thankfully that has little impact on the teachers you want everyone to join with you in berating. Perhaps the teachers are also parents of dependents who weren't able to get to there school/childcare? Perhaps they live on untreated roads? The lift could go on but if your children are unable to work independently at this stage of their career you may have bigger problems.

Last year there were groups in a few areas not far from me where people with vehicles that could travel in the snow were organising to give lifts to NHS staff who couldn't otherwise get in.

I agree, the "my taxes pay your wages" argument is deeply annoying and, given that teachers pay tax as well, a bit misguided

I don't work in a school AND I am fortunate to live and work in the same town. My housing estate is at the top of a hill, most are.
When it snows 'slightly' I might get my car off the drive and down the road, but there is no way I can get back up my road until it clears and that takes ages as the sharp bend doesn't get any sun. If I do make it to work the our car parks are both on a slope, rarely cleared and if you manage to get into a space at the top your car is likely to slip down to the bottom into another car.
The schools are all in the town which is at the bottom of the hill, in the valley. The children can walk in although for some that means walking down a steep hill, with ungritted pavements next to a road where the cars will be skidding around as they try to get up. The teachers who do make it in will all struggle to get back out of the town at night, especially if it decides to snow again and it is horrible driving in the dark when it is snowing. As hard are the council gritters try they can't keep all the side roads to the schools clear, mainly due to the number of parked cars in our crowded town.

We are not rural or deep in the Dales or on the Moors, this is a commuter town in the northern home counties.

I wouldn't want the teachers or any of my colleagues to risk driving unless it was necessary and I don't think those that do are heros and those that don't are villains.
PS: I have driven in snow in the US and Germany without issue as the cars have winter tires and snow chains and everyone is prepared. In the UK we are not and don't need to be.

@Mixedbags
I feel your pain as I'm Health care professional with two children.
If it snows I still have to work but school closes frequently, which means I have to either pay for childcare or use annual leave.
It’s then incredibly annoying when teachers and TA’s post on FB how much they’re enjoying “snow day” 😡😡