If you keep panic buying fuel you'll be homeschooling again!😆

[FishesWithWishes]

Teachers need to teach in schools don't they?

Stanlow oil refinery on the brink of collapse - it provides 16% of UK petrol

www.theguardian.com/business/2021/sep/26/uk-essar-energy-second-biggest-oil-refinery-on-brink-of-collapse-reports

This is not related to lorry drivers

I'm a secondary school teacher who lives 16 miles from work in a rural area. By car it takes 28 minutes. Not using my car it would be a 30 minute walk along unlit roads with the national speed limit and no pavements to get to the school bus. That would take around 35 minutes then a 5 minute walk to school. I'm not sure I could carry my laptop, schoolbag and equipment for a full day.

My car is a diesel and is showing enough fuel for 240 miles. That should be fine for the week (I work p/t) but I will need to fill up. I generally get 600+ miles from a tank of diesel.

I know of 4 teaching colleagues who live within walking distance of school. Here's hoping they are happy to look after large classes when the rest of us can't make it. I hope all the selfish people are prepared to give us a lift to work....

It was better out here (Oxfordshire) this morning and I got a full tank. Was busy but not overwhelmingly so.

@Gimlisaxe

What I concluded is that it is going to be far easier to do, is when schools are finished for the day, someone comes along and locks all the teachers into their brand new cage home, then lets them out again in the morning ;)

How dare you even suggest Xx

I find the number of posts saying ‘most teachers can walk to school or get public transport’ really strange.

That might be true where you live but very obviously it won’t be the case everywhere.

And even if ‘most’ teachers can get to work I expect it still leaves schools with a problem if a significant minority can’t.

Just keep going people. The longer you're at each others' throats the longer the government can carry on as they are ie fucking everything up.

Just checking: you do know that this is the government's fault don't you? That it's not on people wanting to get to work/school/family? Right-oh.

@DdraigGoch

It's obvious, isn't it? Teachers should be spending more time teaching kids useful skills like how to drive HGVs instead of inconsequential stuff like the alphabet and how to count to ten and the rest is very funny!

@siestalady

Slightly off the topic but is it just me who is a bit at the slightly goady "you'll be homeschooling again, idiots!" Rhetoric that's all over social media?

We've not had any "you'll be sewing your own leg back on!" Or "you'll be saving yourself from your own burning house!" From other essential workers? (Maybe there is and I've not seen it).

Obviously goes without saying that the idiots panic buying fuel are, well, idiots.

The only example I have actually seen was outside a pub (the OP aside!!). It's just gallows humour...

I live rurally and there's loads of horses round here. Might pop out and rustle a few later

@YouMeandtheSpew

I find the number of posts saying ‘most teachers can walk to school or get public transport’ really strange.

That might be true where you live but very obviously it won’t be the case everywhere.

And even if ‘most’ teachers can get to work I expect it still leaves schools with a problem if a significant minority can’t.

Those assuming teaching staff live close to home also aren't taking into account all the other staff who are required each day to open a school who may live some distance away from school. Welfare and support staff, site staff, administrative staff, SLT etc.

yes, with our school its caterers. We are not going to be able to provide lunch tomorrow

Yea I could walk to school to teach but I’m relying on my kids nursery workers and primary teachers being able to get in…

@PeskyRooks

I live rurally and there's loads of horses round here. Might pop out and rustle a few later

Excellent idea - I'm sure our local riding school won't mind if I borrow one of their horses for a few days!

@Shapesorted

How do teachers manage to turn every situation around to make out they are the worst affected?

Did you miss the bit about it being light hearted?

Of course there are no memes for ambulances, fire engines and the police because that would be a bit sick!

We might not be able to get dinners tomorrow as we don't have a kitchen and our lunches are delivered ready made. If there are no deliveries we have no food to serve the kids.

I'm not rural. But I go through 3 counties to get to work. I think I could cycle it in 2.30 hours, but I'd have to get the kids to cm first and she doesn't open until 730.

Or I could get a bus to the train station if they run that early. Then wait for a train. Then change trains. I might get to work for about 10, if I left the house at 6.

I live a 20 minute drive from my school but I live in the sticks and so there are no buses I can get. Or trains. Of my large team, a handful live in the city so could use bus/train. Couple like me don't have public transport that brings them to school. One lady lives 25 miles away. Some have kids to get to breakfast clubs/childminders before they come to school. Our head lives 25/30 miles away.

We are stuffed if loads of staff can't get fuel. I am lucky that I managed to fill up today - paid over the odds at the only fuel station in town with any fuel. I filled up and as I was paying, the man said diesel had now run out literally, a minute later, I would have had no fuel!

Not just teachers either. My Dad drives HGVs delivering food to supermarkets. He can't get to/from work without his car so if he doesn't have fuel, no food delivery happening.

Police/fire service/doctors/nurses/carers - all shift workers who work at awkward times and often rely on their cars.

Someone at the fuel station I went to today was ranting because they needed fuel to make a one hour 30 min journey to have sunday lunch disappointing if you can't go but not exactly essential!

@siestalady

Slightly off the topic but is it just me who is a bit at the slightly goady "you'll be homeschooling again, idiots!" Rhetoric that's all over social media?

We've not had any "you'll be sewing your own leg back on!" Or "you'll be saving yourself from your own burning house!" From other essential workers? (Maybe there is and I've not seen it).

Obviously goes without saying that the idiots panic buying fuel are, well, idiots.

Agree. But then you’re expected in work whatever most places, even if that means spending extra time on public transport or getting up at 5am at the weekend to get fuel.

@Orangejuicemarathoner

Last time this happened, 20 years ago, and half the population all tried to get on a bus at the same time......Many thousands of people couldn't get to work for several days

Seriously?!

bungle there were queues and empty stations at 5am...

@Orangejuicemarathoner

If you read the article you will see that headline is just pure click bait
They are talking to hmrc because they were paying back a postponed payment (due to covid) at an accelerated rate and now want to.pay it back slower.
They have paid back most of it already and have secured new funding

Honestly the media in this country are a nightmare

How is it possible to use public transport that doesn't exist? Or go to a petrol station that ran out of fuel before you'd even heard of the issue because you were, you know, at work all day?

@Patapouf

lots of teachers also live within walking distance of school and have access to public transport.

I'm not sure another kind of panic mongering is helpful? I think the worst of the petrol queuing non-sense is probably over by now.

Not In socially deprived areas which typically also have poorer transport systems (gvt deprivation data !)

But ok if the well off children are ok like the past 18 months

Someone at the fuel station I went to today was ranting because they needed fuel to make a one hour 30 min journey to have sunday lunch

Exactly the type of person causing this 'crisis'.

I'm not sure this is a poor/not poor divide. More rural/not rural, surely?