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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

School closed next Monday!

261 replies

Schoolclosure · 28/11/2019 12:15

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!!??

OP posts:
TheWaiting · 28/11/2019 22:13

X posts with Aragog

BoneyBackJefferson · 28/11/2019 22:15

CountFosco

How many generators would it take to power the entire school?

Even if we just take the basics, of lighting, heat, water (pumping hot water around the school) and phones (most are linked to the power system and internet). ignoring any computer classrooms and workshop machines.

In a school of approx 1500 pupils, that is somewhere in the region of 80+ classrooms, the main office, reception, various computers + interactive white boards (you would be pushed to find white boards etc.)

Then there is cabling + fuel. Actual access/exit to/from the school, and lessons that can't take place due to not powering the equipment.

TheWaiting · 28/11/2019 22:19

And cooking school dinners too. Some primary schools have extremely high levels of FSM. For many of those children, that’s their only hot meal, perhaps only meal of the day.

drspouse · 28/11/2019 22:19

Inset days may be arranged to meet the needs of the school pupils and parents too, as where extra time is added on to a half term because mainly agricultural workers can't take holiday in July or August.

Drabarni · 28/11/2019 23:18

Boney

Glad we cleared that up Grin I respect you greatly and have taken lots from your posts on many educational topics and threads.
Tbh, I didn't know how the days were managed as I was pt lecturer and only for a while and was never explained at the schools my dc attended.
They did bring letters home as I described though, stating teachers shopping day.
I apologise if I gave the impression of being goady, it never entered my head. I respect my dd teachers immensely. Thanks

MrsHobo · 28/11/2019 23:44

I work at a special needs school. The council had to do emergency has works and close the road a few weeks ago and the site was closed for 3 days with only a days notice!
Obviously of the school could choose they would not have done it this way because not only is it hard on the parents, but the students found it incredibly stressful!

Pineapple1 · 28/11/2019 23:50

Schools don't have shopping days.
Thats something parents (mainly woman) have made up. Need to blame someone else for having to look after their own children I suppose.

Motherontheedge1 · 28/11/2019 23:54

youngestisapsycho

Definitely wouldn’t mean a shopping day at our school. All teaching staff would be in the full day.

blue25 · 29/11/2019 00:01

Schools are not childminders. If the work needs doing, it needs doing. It’s just one day.

CallmeAngelina · 29/11/2019 00:17

As ever, there's an awful lot of shit being spouted on this thread.

Some counties operate an "occasional day," which is a day (not affecting the 190 days of schooling + 5 INSET days) that can be taken at any point in the year that the individual school chooses. Some elect to tack it onto the end of the summer term, which can make a difference if the end of term happens to be on a Monday, as they can then break up on the preceding Friday. However, many schools choose to use it on a Monday or Friday in December, as the Autumn term is a particularly long and arduous one. Somehow or other, this has been bandied about as a "day off for teachers to go Christmas shopping." This is nonsense - it is a day off for staff AND CHILDREN and how everyone opts to spend it is entirely up to them. Personally, I'd rather chew my own arm off than venture into town (tomorrow, as it happens, for us) when half the district seems to be off.
I'm interested to see the number of people on here who genuinely seem to resent the fact that teachers might be benefiting from such a 'treat.' There is a massive retention problem in schools these days, with workload and stress being the main reason teachers are leaving the profession in huge numbers. But you just carry on harping about the unfairness of these lazy teachers - but don't complain when your little darlings have no one left to teach them in future.

northernknickers · 29/11/2019 06:06

Bloody hell!! Where are all these schools that close for a Christmas Shopping Day?? 28 years teaching full time (in 5 different UK counties and 2 overseas posts) and not ONE Christmas Shopping Day 😢😢 And this year we are working until Friday 20th so that'll be a fun weekend 👍 (not!)

exLtEveDallas · 29/11/2019 06:34

At the start of this year DDs school had to close for a week because thieves had stolen metres of electric cabling to the school during building work. It wasn’t discovered until the building was opened in the morning and teachers tried to put the lights on! It cost thousands of pounds to put right and still parents were complaining about the school being closed. Smh.

Dementedmagpie · 29/11/2019 07:11

And this year we are working until Friday 20th so that'll be a fun weekend(not!)
Our school normally finishes on 19th/20th, my workplace normally finishes on 23rd (if it's not a weekend) when would you usually finish? (Private schools sometimes finish earlier)

LolaSmiles · 29/11/2019 07:13

And this year we are working until Friday 20th so that'll be a fun weekend(not!)
I much, much prefer working until the 20th/21st and hate having a week off before Christmas. Having the week after new year always feels more restful for me

BoneyBackJefferson · 29/11/2019 07:16

Dementedmagpie

when would you usually finish?

Anywhere from the about the 17th to the 23rd.

AChickenCalledDaal · 29/11/2019 07:27

My children's school is closed today for an inset that appears to be actually a shopping day. My daughter is in sixth form and knows that one of her teachers is off to see his family overseas for a long weekend. Good. They work incredibly hard and a day off to do pre-Christmas stuff seems perfectly reasonable.

Bluerussian · 29/11/2019 07:37

Is it terribly cold where you are, Schoolclosure? Where I live (SE London outskirts of Greenwich), it isn't cold yet except at night, I have put the heating on low but then it becomes quite hot indoors and I turn it down. I haven't yet felt the need to put on a jumper when going out or even a jacket sometimes.

When I was at school it was freezing! We had radiators which were hot but you'd have to be right next to them to appreciate the heat - or sit on them (& we were told it caused piles :-) ). I can remember travelling to and from school and not being able to feel my hands or feet despite thick gloves and socks. Also thick fog!

Times have changed but so has the weather in this country, winters are milder than they ever were - except when we have a particularly cold spell - and freezing pipes, etc, virtually a thing of the past. I can remember my mum having burst pipes, it was dreadful. I am a 'chilly' person and feel the cold dreadfully but I've noticed in recent years it has not been bad at all most of the time.

Still I suppose the school has to take regulations into consideration and probably has to maintain a certain temperature to satisfy the H&S people.

Does anyone else remember having to play hockey in freezing weather, with red knees? What a nightmare those days were. Climate change suits me - not the environmental impact, just the temperature. In mediaeval times, England was sub tropical!

I expect the children are delighted to have a day off. That doesn't help working parents but usually there are parents within the friend group who aren't at work on a particular day and don't mind having an extra kid on board.

Hope all goes well for you and yours on Monday, op.

BooseysMom · 29/11/2019 13:05

@ThinkIamflyingundertheradar.. oops you've been rumbled!! .. that's hilarious!! Grin

fedup21 · 29/11/2019 13:19

@ThinkIamflyingundertheradar.. oops you've been rumbled!! .. that's hilarious!! grin

? Who are you talking to/about here?

BooseysMom · 29/11/2019 13:41

@fedup21..sorry i didnt copy the thread. Hang on, i'll go back and find it

BooseysMom · 29/11/2019 13:43

Here it is..

A few years ago my DCs school had an inset day so I took DC to an agricultural type show about 40 miles away. Whilst there we bumped into the deputy head, their class teacher and two TAs! They hastened to assure me that they had been working hard all morning and had only been at the show for a few minutes. I don’t know who was more embarrassed me or them but DC were delighted to see them and insisted on waving to them enthusiastically every time our paths crossed.

It just made me laugh Smile

CountFosco · 29/11/2019 15:17

School isn't childcare

Teachers keep repeating this like a mantra but that doesn't make it true. Teachers act in loco parentis, parents don't need to sort out childcare when their children are at school because the children are cared for at school. Childcare is part of what schools do. Why do teachers refuse to acknowledge they provide childcare?

LolaSmiles · 29/11/2019 15:23

Teachers keep repeating this like a mantra but that doesn't make it true. Teachers act in loco parentis, parents don't need to sort out childcare when their children are at school because the children are cared for at school. Childcare is part of what schools do. Why do teachers refuse to acknowledge they provide childcare?
Because for 190 days a year within the hours of the school day (give or take after school enrichment), teachers and schools provide education.
It's not a childcare service, so people whining about the fact there's training days that are inconvenient (or worse acting like training days that are our +5 days are somehow depriving them of their childcare) are being ridiculous.

If someone sends their child to a football academy every Saturday morning 9-12, the football academy isn't childcare. It's sporting training. The coaches will be supervising, but they are not providing childcare. Anyone who complained that due to coaches having to do a day first aid training one Saturday is so inconvenient because they normally work Saturday morning would be unreasonable because it isn't childcare.

fedup21 · 29/11/2019 15:42

Why do teachers refuse to acknowledge they provide childcare?

Because they don’t! It’s education.

A 7.30-6.30 nursery is childcare.

drspouse · 29/11/2019 15:52

In the sense that it provides a place for working parents' children to go during working hours (give or take), yes, it is childcare.
If school was not available for this purpose, the government would have to find something else to fill this place or lose about 1/3 of the workforce.