To think 'snow days' are pathetic

[Toddlerteaplease]

I understand if you live very rurally and genuinely can't get out. But snow in cities is rarely that bad. NHS staff don't take days off for a bit of snow. Last time we had severe snow. Not one person on my entire unit missed work. Even though schools were closed.

Fridays are my day off. After working i am desperate for me time on Friday along with some banging music on prime while i blitz the house. Plus cat cuddles.
My DDs school was closed so bang goes peace and banging tunes.
She's been hogging prime music and the cat.
On the flip side, at least I'm at home for her.
Snow days 🙄

My school..I'm a TA ..is shut today . It's a special school so 90% of pupils are coming on mini buses and taxis. We have 6-7 inches of snow.. Taxi's can't get around most of the villages (rural Oxfordshire) so we are shut.

Sure in Canada etc they crack on but our roads our cars are not set up for it. I couldn't get out of my road today if I tried!

On the plus side DS1, his girlfriend (both also TAs) and several friends are currently building an 8 ft igloo

Were going to start remote learning here instead of catch up snow days.

Wish I'd taken a snow day last week. I walked home from the station and broke my wrist. Ice and hills don't mix.

Just realising that every day is like a snow day to me

When I went to school in the 80s and 90s I lived in walking distance, so if it snowed I could walk in. However everytime it snowed we were sent home early. At primary school the glass panels in the roof would break as they couldn't cope with the weight of snow, and at secondary school only 10% of pupils and staff lived within walking distance. We always ended up having snow ball fights so not all was lost :)

schoo,s now are healthy and safety gone mad.this is why they close

schoo,s now are healthy and safety gone mad.this is why they close

I disagree, having spoken to a headteacher and heard her reasons, I'm sure she doesn't want a class full of 4 and 5 year olds needing treatment at A+E because they slipped on ice and broke bones.

Secondary schools maybe but I do think it's sensible for primary schools (or local equivalents) to close if it's a danger due to the age of the pupils.

Good flipping grief.
Schools shut more now days because 1) more kids have further to travel, 2) more teachers have further to travel 3) society has learnt that missing one day of school is not worth taking a risk for.
The advice about travelling is always "unless completely necessary", which is a two-food approach. It firstly ensure that people don't take risks, but also ensures that there are less cars on the road, in risky conditions this is a good thing.
You can compare different professions and expect them to have the same approach. Opening a factory is likely to have a higher threshold than a school of hundreds of children.
Equally, a different role within the same profession would have a different approach. If I was still a residential care worker today, I would have gone in, but I'm community based, so wasn't worth the risk.
I can't believe anyone isn't aware of this, and isn't just raising it to put the world to rights, but tot take a pop at professions they have some beef with.
There was no golden age where ppl weren't snowflakes and no one ever got hurt anyway, cos they did, and more people suffered and died.
Equally when you take chance on driving it's not just you your taking a risk for, it's anyone else you might hit, and it's all those ppl who'll have to come rescue you.

I hate these posts. I grew up in South Wales where we all lived much nearer to our schools and where neighbourhoods all helped dig each other out. It was grim though and now that more people can work from home because we're more connected then surely it makes sense. I live 7.5 miles from work and my boss lives quite near me, although not up a hill like me. I spoke to him at 6am & he told me to stay at home & he wasn't risking my hill. It took him 2.5 hours to get in. Meanwhile I worked all day on my laptop.

School isn't childcare. The LA have to privide an education but not childcare. Whether that should be up to the state is another arguement, but currently education isn't deemed as essential travel. Getting school run traffic/buses off the roads when under yellow warnings is a sensible decision. Most employers should enable their workforce to have compassionate leave/carers leave for such circumstances which in most counties are rare.

Depends on where you are. We are high in a very hilly area and always get snow. Makes it very very hard to get to and from home as it is nigh on impossible to get up and down the hills if it is snowing without a 4x4.

Last week we left early and it still took forever to get home. NHS community worker here.....

I work in a village primary school. Last year we made the decision to close at lunchtime one day because the snow was coming down heavily. The last parent to collect didn’t turn up until 2 hours after we sent the message and I couldn’t set off for home until the children had all gone. By the time I left the village was practically cut off and I very nearly ended up snowed in or in a ditch.
That is why we sometimes make the decision to close FFS. Not pathetic - common sense.

I think it may be situational. Mind, I live in Canada so snow days aren't really a thing. That said, if it gets below -20C the kids have indoor recess and if it gets below -40C the buses won't run. (Yes, that DOES happen! That includes the wind chill factor, though.) But if your community doesn't have much in the way of a snow removal budget, it may be reasonable to have a snow day. Case in point: my brother used to attend university in Vancouver, BC. The climate is similar to the UK. The first winter he was out there it snowed. They had to close the university campus when the buses couldn't make it up the hill to get students to the university. I think that was an understandable snow day. But here, if we get 2 or 3 feet and it's not that cold, we just put all the kids in snow pants and snow boots and send them off to school.

agnurse
And places with lots of snow and predictable extended periods of bad weather can justify having the infrastructure to deal with excessive snowy weather.

Could you imagine the daily mail front page about how fat cat local governments waste money on expensive snow gear that onyl gets used once a year? It would be as comical as the 'in my day we walked 10 miles barefoot to get so school and were allowed one piece of coal for the fire per lesson to remove the chill' stories.

Schools can't win either way because there's always an armchair expert who wants to complain.

The high school ds14 attends is 6 miles away. Some of his friends like 19, 22 and 28 miles away. I know some teachers there who live a lot further than that. One of my teacher friends used to live 90 miles from school.

Schools can not risk pupils and staff being unable to get home, especially as some can have a foot of snow and others very little- due to the distance people live. Plus when it comes down, it can come down quickly.

Then you have the safety aspect of children walking from the bus stops to the school on Icey paths, and then around the school. It can be too hard to clear all walkways in a large school and make them safe.

I would much rather have a snow day, then ds walking on the road, as pavements are too Icey and having the potential for cars skidding and losing control, then hitting a pedestrian.

Schools do not undertake closing for a day lightly. Teachers then have to find somewhere for that days teaching to go, in an already packed planning of the curriculum. It’s gives them a big headache!
But safety of the children has to come first.

I would have loved a snow day today. I could have done all the paperwork I'll be doing at the weekend instead.

Last year the school I was working at closed because most pupils came on buses and taxis. All the staff who could make it in came with shovels and we spent the whole day shovelling snow off the long driveway so the kids could get in the next day. Please don't think we just want a day off!

Its attendance. If your school is open and only half turn up because of whatever reason, that has an awful impact on you figures.

You have to have a certain attendance to be allowed each ofsted grade. So if a school is expecting ofsted and their figures are borderline it is better to shut as school closing has no effect on attendance figures.

I'm a school governor and it's usually because the staff can't get in - just because you live in "catchment" for a school doesn't mean the staff do.
You have to have a minimum staff to child ratio for children under 5, someone who is paediatric first aid trained and a cook. Pretty sure you wouldn't want your kids in school if they weren't able to meet these minimum requirements.

Totally agree
Absolute overreaction yesterday in the south east

I don’t think people appreciate what predicted bad weather does either. If all staff make it in but then have to suddenly leave early because a warning has been issue for their area, someone has to sit and sort the cover out for their classes. In a high school this is especially a nightmare. If all the threats are there it is sometimes easier to close than risk not being about to keep students safe later in the day.

Actually I remember one year when I worked in primary school, our head refused to close and most staff made the treacherous journey in (some arriving an hour late having left an hour earlier than normal) A couple of hours in, it became apparent that the snow was not going to stop and the weather warning had been right. Other schools in the area hadn’t opened. The school had to send texts/phone parents to collect children and they had to coordinate sending staff home in priority order and move the kids around. Those parents that did not collect (most did), their children had to stay with the headmaster. Absolute shambles. Parents were so cross as were staff! Everybody had had such a horrid journey in only to be sent home on another horrid journey!

Snow days are a great joy. I used to love it as much as the kids when we got a day off. I say long may they last, for all teachers, kids and parents !

I love it when our school cancels. Sledging with the kids is fun and doesn't happen very often! Lots of people grumbling about it but just enjoy it!

Snow days, I tried to go to work the roads were not gritted and it packed ice and snow. It took be 3 hours to go 4 miles. I should have stayed at home and I live in a city.