School closed next Monday!

[Schoolclosure]

I’ve been meaning to post this all week, I got a text from my dc’s school on Monday saying that due to the electricity board doing work on Monday 2nd dec the school will have no electricity and therefore will be closed. AIBU to think that it’s a tad ridiculous and. They could have just done the work over the bloody weekend!!??

Hold on, people's schools are closing for SHOPPING DAYS???
What on earth????

We are in the NW, Greater Manchester, several in our area.
I've been asked to look after a couple of kids for friends.
It's not new they did it when my older two were at school and they are mid/late twenties now.
Not sure if they do it in other areas.

schools close for teachers xmas shopping days

I've never known this to happen, are you sure it's not a training day and cynical parents decide it is for xmas shopping?

Our schools don't close here for shopping days. What a great idea for the staff though.

It will be teachers xmas shopping day as well soon.

I work in school. I've worked in various schools. My children have attended three different schools between them.

I have NEVER heard of staff getting a shopping day!!!!

schools close for teachers xmas shopping days .. please tell me this is not really a thing

My own dc aren’t at school yet but I know my nephew school is closing for a staff shopping day next week as I am looking after him! So it is a thing

It’s a training day, which the school might have chosen to flexi by making up the hours as twilight sessions. It will come out of the training day allocationsZ

I’ve never come across Christmas shopping days in 25yrs of teaching. I only ever hear of them on MN.

Didn't take long for this to turn into a teacher bash! Congrats OP

I’m a teacher, and I got a shopping day back in 2003. I didn’t think they were still a thing.

“ Piggywaspushed

Didn't take long for this to turn into a teacher bash! Congrats OP”

Even when the decision is literally nothing to do with the teachers they cop for it don’t they poor bastards

The short notice so close to the end of the year is a pain. Some parents will have used up all their holiday and will have to take unpaid leave, some will find it difficult to get to take leave at all at such short notice, especially at a time when they may have already had to WFH or take some time off due to poorly children.

The electricity board should have done a risk assessment on how urgent the work is vs the impact of shutting off the electricity, what we don't know is how accurately the impact has been measured and did the school have a say and if so did they consider the impact on the parents of a short notice closure. I suspect not, schools are very fond of saying they aren't childcare (always rather insulting to all the childcare workers I think, as if teachers think they are somehow 'better' in someway than childcare workers) and seem to assume a model where there's always an adult sitting waiting at home to look after the children when schools don't fufill their duties to care for the children.

And why doesn't the school have (or rent) a generator to cover this preplanned electrical outage? That would seem the best solution.

I used to get shopping days during my office years, likewise a day off for my birthday, to move house etc. They don't at any school I've been involved with however.

I was complaining about the ELECTRICITY BOARD not the poor teachers I know it’s not their fault as I actually am a teacher!!!....oh and I don’t get shopping days!! 🤣🤣

Some teachers get shopping days, I got them when I worked at college too.

School is not childcare. Can I be the first.

It would cost a small fortune for a generator to be able to provide all of the electricity needed to light and heat a school and power all of the equipment needed. Teachers would be having to replan lessons to take into account not having any technology if they can only power essential items only, they might not be able to provide school lunches etc etc. It's not as simple as you think.

OP, is on a shopping day today. unless she's posting on dinner

Who’s basing teachers?

Plenty of people have told OP when the electric works are done won’t be up to the school.

Shopping days are still a thing, maybe it does come out of the training day allowance as someone said but at my nephews school the school letter says staff shopping day so 🤷🏻‍♀️ I didn’t bash teachers for it, I don’t thinks it’s a bad thing but they are a thing at least in this part of the country.

@Drabarni I don’t work Thursdays or Fridays

schools close for teachers xmas shopping days .. please tell me this is not really a thing..

Never happened at any place I've worked at.
However I'd imagine any school which does do it uses an inset day. Many schools do aggregated days in the summer in a similar manner.

So within the normal 5 days of onset but on one the staff don't go in.

What would normally then happen is the teachers do the inset hours at another time - normally as 2 or 3 evening sessions. They still do the same hours inset though.

This can work well for some training. We do it for the July inset dates. But make the hours up at another time. This year two sessions in January doing specific training which is best done this way.

I work for a company which does Electrical repairs for several Network distribution operators and the National Grid. I can assure you that this decision will not have been made lightly and I would put money on it being
a) something requiring pretty damn urgent repairs
b) scheduled for this time precisely so that you ONLY have a 1 day closure. In this industry a LOT of work goes on around the clock weekdays and weekends. I expect it is a 3 day job and the people involed will probably start prepping the works Friday night in order to make sure they can get it all repaired, re-covered and tested prior to the school reopening on Tuesday.

Obviously this isn't ideal for you but if they've identified a fault which can't wait until the school holidays for repair you should be glad they're fixing it this way. If they allowed the fault to continue until it produced a circuit failure then the school could be closed for WEEKS.

I expect that the electricity board either doesn't do work at the weekend unless it is an emergency, or if there is a bill to pay, it will be bigger as 'out of hours' and the school can't/doesn't want to pay the higher bill.

The school doesn't pay for these works.

If it's pre-planned work, you have to wonder why it can't wait till the end of term.

Well, it could be that they need a road blockage or diversion and haven't been given weekend permission; Streetworks certificate may not be granted for a weekend

Many works are not given weekend permission, so as not to inconvenience home owners.

But lots of utility work is done over weekends, I am currently penned into town by new water mains being laid, they do their worst on Sunday's. DH works on many sites across the UK. Weekend work is not unusual, but only when the requisite permits have been granted.

Ours is closed for an Inset Day. Which may be code for shopping day but I don't think it is.

And why doesn't the school have (or rent) a generator to cover this preplanned electrical outage? That would seem the best solution.

Because we can't even afford glue sticks with the way the budget has been cut. Office staff are providing notepads, post its and pens out of their own pockets because of lack of funds. Also I would imagine a generator would be a health and safety nightmare!