Closing a school of 700+ for polling day

[Mosschopz]

Who decides this? My DC’s school will close to all pupils on the 12th. That’s a three form entry school, closed, as they have been every single polling day for the last umpteen years, so they can stick a few plywood booths in a room for the day. The head has complained to the council who have declined to change the location as the school is the most central to the ward. AIBU to think that’s incredibly poor decision making?

SheChoseDown

Right! But the answer with the rest of your suggestions is that sometimes they can be used. But sometimes they can’t, because they aren’t compliant with the relevant legislation. 🤷🏻‍♀️

I can see why schools choose to host in these days of ever decreasing budgets.

LA controlled schools don’t have a choice

The criteria for a polling station is so strict. It’s got to be central to the polling district, it’s got to have certain levels of disability access, it’s got to be easily accessible by public transport and it’s got to be secure inside the building (plus have toilets and spaces for polling staff).

It’s also got to be a building that won’t put anyone off voting. In our town the most convenient would be a church who offer to host for free, but they are vile bigots who openly spread hatred against gay people, Muslims, single parents and drug users. Obviously the polling station can’t be in their building

It's a pain in the arse I agree.

But at this time of year, with such short notice, there's probably no alternatives. Guide halls and village halls and the like will have been booked up for months now for Christmas.

No schools here shut, it’s pretty do-able

And of course it’s easy to forget that, with a snap GE, it’s even harder to organise everything that needs to be organised. A venue that has already been assessed, used before, where all the paperwork has been filled out, has clear advantages over spending your limited resources scouting every local B&B two weeks before the big day, to see if an alternative can be found. This whole discussion is ridiculous.

itsgettingweird the whole school being closed is different to kids being off individually.

If the whole school is just no one has actually missed anything because no teaching has been done.
As opposed to your child missing a vital lesson that was planned for whichever day you’ve taken them out for.

Only one school closes locally.. think of how peeved the other kids get (catchment areas over lap a fair bit so you could live next to kids at the other school). But they dare not interrupt the seniors Thai Chi class at the much large town hall , that’s all that on on the day, it’s a fully accessible building, with a massive hall that’s used for feckin concerts never mind school nativities, toilets and doors to keep it “secure” ie the main doors n two more sets of double doors to get into the hall where for other events they stick a barrier down the middle for in n out.

Schools are shut as a security issue here.. for the kids too as obviously who’s walking the halls.

YANBU OP.

We have the Scottish elections here too. As PP mentioned, the school is constantly warning of the harm to kid's education for any missed attendance.

So many European countries seem to manage to hold their elections on a Saturday or Sunday.

@churchandstate I'm not knocking the frequency of elections (I bloody love an election, I'm a politics geek), more the inefficacy of the FTPA.

When I was a kid, my DF was secretary of the local Labour party. We lived in a big flat with massive rooms, so our home was used as the local committee rooms. There'd be people in & out all day, trestle tables put up for all the paperwork, a barrel of beer in the cellar for the workers and someone brought a tv to the house before we had one of our own.

I was allowed to stay up late and watch the results come in, something I've done ever since 1964 (although now I watch the tv in bed on election night, it's comfier).

Even in years when the outcome is a dead cert, I still find them incredibly exciting.

So many European countries seem to manage to hold their elections on a Saturday or Sunday.

Let me guess... Bulgaria, Ukraine, Greece, Italy, Hungary?

Surely we just need a voting app?

AJPTaylor

Because that would increase trust in the legitimacy of the result...

Let me guess... Bulgaria, Ukraine, Greece, Italy, Hungary?

France, Germany, Sweden, Finland, Portugal....

Sorry OP, this is more important. Take a day off and let your DC have some fun before Xmas. Use it to teach them about the Democratic system.

All of you saying it’s just one day or it’s only once in 5 years we have an election, this is the THIRD election we have had this year in our area. It is ridiculous that the school have had to shut three times so the school can be used as a polling station. Maybe parents wouldn’t be so annoyed if they weren’t fined for taking their dc out of school for a holiday.

We all know that school isn’t free childcare, but what do you expect working parents to do for the day? It’s not as easy to say just take the day off. Not everyone can do that. And the holiday clubs aren’t open because they work from the schools, who are either shut for voting or actually educating children.

It’s ridiculous that councils can’t be more inventive and move temporary buildings on to car parks that could be used. They take the easy option every time.

Take a day off and let your DC have some fun before Xmas

It's not always possible to just take a day off work, especially in December.

Our school has closed for being a polling station 3 times already earlier this year, they have asked not to be the polling station (as well as school the hall is hired out after school and evening) but the LA says it's the most suitable place despite lots of local people being able to think of at least 2 alternatives that have toilets, parking and disabled access
Some schools remain open but for others it's not possible due to safeguarding.
It is hard for working parents when this year there have been 4 polling days as well as inset days, occasional days etc. I use childcare like breakfast clubs, afterschool clubs and holiday clubs but there isn't any one off childcare for polling days. I did some childcare swaps earlier in the year. I took a day off and had 4 of DS friends here, one of the parents is a teacher and her school was open. Then one of the other parents had my DS on one of the other days.
I'm not blaming schools or teachers but saying it's difficult to arrange sometimes.

Our church hall is used as a polling station. We don’t stop the other activities going on in there though. During the snap election by Mrs May our hall was being rebuilt so I suggested the council use the church this time instead and they did. We can always say no. Other than wanting to be a useful host for the community we, the church, also get paid. More than £200 I think. I expect LA schools can’t say no. I wonder if the school gets paid. If it doesn’t it might be a further incentive for the council to use a school.

I don't understand why they need to shut a school. It would surely have been possible to allocate a room nearest the entrance where voters go in - and leave asap - without disrupting children and classes.

I remember people coming in to the school I attended to vote; the only fillip to the day was the teachers has to park in the second playground which made football at break be banned for the duration.

It really isn't fair to anybody and it's unnecessary.

WaterSheep - I must have missed the part where OP says their work is so inflexible it’s impossible for them or their DP to get a day off at short notice even with a rock solid reason that’s not their fault, or that they have no childcare options whatsoever or this will
Cost them money.

Mothers the point is though that they say they have a curriculum and if children miss a day they miss that topic being educated. So if all pupils miss that day then actually more pupils are missing input and missing learning a skill. This basing my argument on what parents are told with regards the importance of missing a day. I don't see how one child missing a days education here and there can affect gcse results by a grade. Yet a whole cohort of students missing that same impact has no effect?

It's a whole case of do as we say and not what we do.

Cultoffortnite Even if the OP is able to take a day off, many of the families of the other 700 students won't be able to do so. It doesn't matter if the reason is rock solid as you put it, it's just not possible for many jobs to give their employees the day of.

Where I live, we use a bowling club, community hall and a local club, it used to be a school but that was changed.

The school is owned by the local authority, so the Headteacher's view doesn't seem to count (she/he is also employed by said local authority, as are all of the staff).

Staff should be going in to work as usual on polling day though, I always did when I worked in a school that was a polling station. This was in west London too, so it wasn't like there weren't any other public spaces.

I agree with the OP- there are plenty of other places that could be used in the majority of places. My local polling station is a room that is part of the library, for example.

Having powers to use empty shops would be one alternative, given the sad number of them in many high streets. As long as the place can be made safe and electricity supplied, this would probably end the need for schools in many places.