Head talking about moving to homeschooling as staff are running out of fuel

[Lemons1571]

This is one of our local secondary schools. South England. No fuel in our town, within 30 miles, or maybe more. DH is a teacher and he has about 2-3 days worth of petrol left. The Head of his school is putting in plans to close year groups and move to homeschooling again. Is anyone else in these dire straits? AIBU to be a bit scared? We didn’t panic buy because the government said not to, and now we’re completely stuck.

Get walking, train. Bike and bus.

Always suggested by people who have no idea what it's like not to live in an area with accessible public transport or live close to work.

I don't even own a bike!

DH is a teacher, he has fuel for today.. if he can't find any this evening I'm not sure what he'll do tomorrow.. 2 buses and a 2 hour trip each way I guess. I'm a police officer, I've enough to get me to work for 2 more days.. don't know what I'll do after that. I do t live in the county I work in and getting public transport around my shifts will be a nightmare. Again during day time 2 buses and 2 hours each way.

A lot of posters seem to be focusing on teachers being the sole reason for school closures. There are a lot of other staff who are required to ensure the school is safe to open. Welfare and support staff, site staff, administrative staff, SLT etc.

I think it gos to show that public transport needs to become more accessible/ usable doesn’t it.

A lot of people cannot function without their car, because public transport is so dysfunctional.

At the hospital where I work they've set up a Facebook page for car sharing/ lifts so that's a solution in the short term for some people but difficult if people have to drop children at nurseries/ childminders/ school

Hopefully by the weekend things will improve

@RussianSpy101

People aren’t stockpiling it though. Many people will use a full tank in a week going to work, schools, clubs, appointments etc So everyone saying it will be back to normal by the weekend as people can’t stockpile are clearly people who don’t need to use much fuel. My DH uses £100 during the week on fuel so he will be hopefully filling up again on Friday after filling up on Sunday. It’s not selfish muppets, it’s people who have lives.

But those people (and I’m included as I have a long drive to work) would need to refuel anyway so that’s just normal buying patterns that are manageable for the industry. It’s the panic buyers - people who have filled up unnecessarily “just in case” - who won’t be refuelling again because they won’t have actually used the fuel.

I don’t blame people whatsoever for panic buying. Most of us rely on cars to get to work, to get our kids to school, to carry out caring responsibilities, to get to medical appointments etc. If people feel that their ability to do those necessary things is going to be hampered by limited access to fuel, of course they’re going to try and make sure that their own tank is full, even if they wouldn’t ordinarily fill it up yet. People are just taking care of their families.

I still think it will be over very quickly. The actual issue is/was a driver shortage affecting BP diesel. The reason that other supplies are affected is purely down to the massive demand created by panic buying.

As a parent I would be asking why staff couldn't use public transport, walk or cycle to school

You’d get short shrift from for the implication that staff are looking for an excuse not to work. I think we have a couple of TAs, some lunchtime staff and one teacher who are within walking/cycling distance of school (and they already walk/cycle). The rest of the staff commute anything up to an hour to get there. A few of the more local ones would be able to get a bus. There’s no train station though. Nobody is realistically going to spend more than they earn getting taxis, or spend 2+ hours getting several different buses each way.

@Biscuitsneeded

It's not all muppets panic buying. It's ordinary people who need fuel to get to work. I teach 38 miles from where I live. I filled up last Thursday evening as I saw this all coming, but due to work and having my MIL's funeral 75 minutes away on Saturday I am down to about a third of a tank. I have enough to get to work and back tomorrow, but I can't risk going there on Wednesday and having to abandon my car there. There is no fuel where I live and apparently none where I teach. I can get there by train but it will take 2 hours door to door (including a 30 minute bike ride, a train journey and a walk), meaning a very early start, and each day I do that will cost me £21. I have had enough of people sneering at 'panic-buyers' and 'muppets'. Most of us are just normal people who don't have the luxury of working from home and getting to feel smug.

Absolutely. I expect the surgeon for you hip replacement and the midwife for your labour have all been ‘panic-buying’. People are not silly to make sure they have enough!

we have just made the decision to move to home learning for some of the school today. Now.

Last night we threw out the covid risk assessment, so allowing teachers to car share, and classes in different year groups to merge, but it turned out not to be enough

2 year groups told to stay home.

@Orangejuicemarathoner

we have just made the decision to move to home learning for some of the school today. Now.

Last night we threw out the covid risk assessment, so allowing teachers to car share, and classes in different year groups to merge, but it turned out not to be enough

2 year groups told to stay home.

I wonder how it will affect cases with more car sharing, use of public transport etc.

@RedToothBrush

So the first option is to close the school, rather than try and organise car sharing...

firstly, the covid risk assessment bans care sharing, and secondly, even without that, it just isn't workable. Staff live miles apart, it doesn't save petrol to go 10 miles out of your way to pick up someone else

It's not surprising.

Most garages here had no diesel today - the one that did was limiting it to £10 unless you were emergency services.

Luckily my car is petrol but I have no idea how DH will get to work tomorrow as the garage in our town has none whatsoever and neither do any of the ones in the town where he works

The garage where he can put £10 in is only open on limited hours so he can't go there either.

It's bonkers.

@BustopherPonsonbyJones

This isn’t my problem to solve. I will drive until I am close to running out of petrol and I will then stay at home and teach online. It’s the government’s mess so they can sort it out and explain to parents why they have to supervise their children at home again.

I definitely won’t be spending more money than I earn on taxi fares.

well, the local taxis have no fuel, so no, you wont be using taxis...

Supermarkets are still getting deliveries daily, perhaps they could go early like everyone else is? Thousands upon thousands of people (maybe even bloody millions at this point) have managed to get fuel since Friday, who also work so have had to go at odd hours, including 6am etc- have they tried this? Not ideal, but those who need to go to work to get paid have mostly managed to find some.

Petrol was being delivered to (local) pumps around here on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon.

Like you, I’ve only seen teachers claiming they cannot work.

In our area we have taxis unable to run, carers unable to visit vulnerable clients and nurses unable to get to the hospital to do their shifts. Lots of tradesmen have had to cancel work as well as we have no diesel available anywhere within 20 miles and they don't have enough in their tanks to do a full days' work and get home again.

It's really not "just teachers".

@Rhubarbsoup

Supermarkets are still getting deliveries daily, perhaps they could go early like everyone else is? Thousands upon thousands of people (maybe even bloody millions at this point) have managed to get fuel since Friday, who also work so have had to go at odd hours, including 6am etc- have they tried this? Not ideal, but those who need to go to work to get paid have mostly managed to find some.

Not everyone lives near a supermarket with a petrol station

Some people live in areas where you can't get petrol when the shop is shut - our local garage is closed at 8pm and doesn't open until 8am - too late for many.

There's no pay at the pump service here

[quote Muchtoomuchtodo]@CallmeHendricks - car sharing isn’t advised in many schools’ risk assessments at the moment.[/quote]
car sharing was banned by our covid risk assessment.

The risk assessment was thrown out last night in the hope it would alleviate the staffing problem, but it hasn't- well, maybe two extra bodies in school, but we are still closing to many students

I'm in rural Kent (25 mins from Ashford). It's really not good around here.

@jesusmaryjosephandtheweedonkey

So people can't car share, cycle, get public transport ??? Seriously just sort out how you are getting to work... it's what everyone else is doing!

car sharing is banned by many school covid risk assessments- yes we chucked that out last night, but of course that is going to lead to more staff off with covid.

I tried to cycle yesterday - not possible with the chaos on the roads - gridlock, roads blocked, cars going the wrong way up the road in many places - I ended up pushing my bike most of the 10 miles

Teachers on public transport were the first ones hit yesterday - several could not get it. Some of the bus stops I passed had 30 people standing waiting, for a single decker bus, which was already full when it reached out area.

And several of the school buses did not run because they did not have petrol

@BluebellsGreenbells

Jerry cans - could be for a gardener for his mower or a farmer for his machines

Not all jerry cans are for cars! Although a few people need them to rescue cars which have run out.

jerry cans are also used for taking petrol to cars that are stranded

As a parent I would be asking why staff couldn't use public transport, walk or cycle to school

its the staff on public transport that couldn't get in yesterday.

Staff were walking 10 miles in, but the school management took the decision that everyone healthy who is less than 6 miles away could reasonably be expected to walk, but not anyone further away

I live 10 miles away, I often cycle - but it wasn't possible yesterday due to the chaotic and dangerous conditions on the road. I had to get off and push the bike much of the way. There was grid lock around petrol stations, with many cars driving on the wrong side of the road in the roads around

South London here and whilst deliveries are being made garages are running out very quickly again. We're very close to a service station in M25 which I thought as a last resort might be useful, but that had no petrol yesterday!

Being London, public transport ought to be possible - except trains are still running on a pandemic timetable. Where we used to have 2 trains and hour (sometimes 4 in the rush hour) we currently have 1. Helpful...

They've said it'll be back to normal within a few days.

We need diesel, we live rurally and we don't have enough to waste sitting in a queue. If we can't get any today, my daughter will miss a vital hospital appointment tomorrow and school for the rest of the week for sure, which is an hours' round trip, twice a day.

@PanicPrevention

"If the teacher is teaching remotely, they are doing the job they're paid to do." Does 3 power points and 3 worksheets a day count as teaching?? With minimal feedback? Really thats all teachers are paid to do? That's all my son got last year in year 6 and that was a massive improvement on what he was getting during first lock down. He would have 4 live lessons a day now in year 7, I wouldn't expect an 11 year old boy to be able to do that alone at home without parent supervision. If the whole country grinds to a halt fair enough but at the moment the only people I'm seeing threatening that they wont be able to work are teachers and other school staff.

really?

bus drivers are not working

taxi drivers are not working

a nurse in my block is staying home today

My music director friend has called off all rehearsals today

The local sports centre /gym closed many facilities yesterday

But its only teachers you are getting the hump with?