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.

@PanicPrevention

Exactly my point, solutions to problems, do what you can and what ever needs doing to keep things moving. Not lets throw our hands up and close schools again because the bus will make me 15 minutes late. Education is essential too. Again in rural areas I can understand the difficulties, one of my good friends lives very rural and her job is essential, I'm sure she will do everything she can to get to work even if it takes longer or costs more money. Just get the feeling some people would be happy with more school closures without coming up with less than perfect solutions for them.

year groups are closed because there are not enough staff on the school premises to supervise them

Funny how every single worker (warehouse, not highly paid) managed to get into work yesterday, despite the shortage and despite flooding affecting the already limited trains and buses. Yet schools are on the brink of collapse.. it's a mystery.

^at my workplace, I can't vouch for every warehouse

Ah, it's back to teachers are making excuses not to work being rolled out again. I don't know why anyone would be a teacher in this day and age.

Teachers dont usually live very locally for the school, for perfectly good reasons. Our tradesperson cancelled yesterday, and won't have got paid as a result. Not a teacher, unable to get to work. SM full of carers and other staff unable to work.

Anywone saying it's just teachers making excuses has an agenda.

@Kokeshi123

One thing that has really worried me re COVID, is that a sort of precedent has been set and schools are going to get into the habit of defaulting to "online learning" (which is mostly shit) every time "something" happens.

A spell of hot weather, some snow, some interruptions to transport, a slightly larger number of flu cases than last year, teachers deciding they don't want to risk germs this winter for whatever reason...

We need to establish some clear rules that if schools close due to snow days, petrol days or {insert reason here} then everyone takes an actual holiday on that day (kids AND teachers) and the time off will need to be made up for lengthening the school term by a day or a few days or whatever is required. In the country where I live, that is basically what happens. It keeps everyone focused on making sure schools stay open and closures are really and absolutely the last resort.

This shows a very poor understanding of how schools work. You cannot simply swap one day for another. That is what the government discovered when they tried to close schools a day early at Christmas, and "swap" it for a training day later on in the year- all training days had already been allocated with things that could not be done in December. Similarly, there is literally no day of the year that could be "swapped" for a school closure day, when something else isn't planned, either for some of the staff or for the premises. Any random day you choose in the summer will be someones photocopying day, display day, reorganising day, classroom removal day, meeting day, and the whole holiday is going to have areas of the school closed for maintenance

we cant get enough training days on the school site this school year, so are having to stay 3 hours later on every other Monday for several months instead

@BoomChicka

^at my workplace, I can't vouch for every warehouse

So you acknowledge you can't vouch for every warehouse, but in your post you say that schools are on the brink of collapse.

@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.

Try not to worry too much. A lot can happen in a week. I've got enough in my car to get me through to the weekend and I'm hoping the madness will have eased by then.

Apocalypse? Stressing? I genuinely think you need to calm down.

@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.

our supermarkets haven't had delivery. I am drinking black tea and feeding dog food to my cats.

Just been notified bins won't be emptied today either

Well done to the school for having a plan in place at least. My last school expected staff to come in no matter what. I once had to walk 4 miles through snow to get to a train station when the roads were impassable, leave the house at 5am to walk to a colleague's house for a lift when I couldn't drive, and pay over £50 for a taxi when other options were unavailable (all on different occasions, obviously!) so good on the Head here for thinking of what to do.

our supermarkets haven't had delivery. I am drinking black tea and feeding dog food to my cats.

Deliveries of fuel. Presumably people aren't powering their cars with milk and you aren't adding diesel to your tea.

@Whinge yes, this thread is about schools closing?

Mowing the lawn is actually a priority - because our garden waste service is managing one collection in two months and that is tomorrow. Our tip is gridlocked permanently (90 min queue). So yes I filled a can for my mower.

[quote BoomChicka]@Whinge yes, this thread is about schools closing?[/quote]
My point was you made a generalisation that schools, plural, are on the brink of collapse. Some schools are struggling, but even the OPs DH school isn't on the brink of collapse. They're just making plans should the situation still continue past the next few days.

Good grief, we do love a crisis in this country. Our bins were emptied today, the school bus came and no mention of any teachers not turning up. I got a delivery if heating oil yesterday as planned. I also went to do my food shop at Morrison’s, shelves were full and although there was a queue at the petrol station, there was fuel available. It’s hardly the apocalypse.

@Djifunrsn

Mowing the lawn is actually a priority - because our garden waste service is managing one collection in two months and that is tomorrow. Our tip is gridlocked permanently (90 min queue). So yes I filled a can for my mower.

More of a priority than people having to work?

I think you’re priorities are skewed. No one will die if you can now your lawn for another month.

*can’t mow

*your

Gah - trying to type a quick message before P1 isn’t advisable but that post has really wound me up!

@motherrunner I think that was the intention of the post, some people like to goad.

@ScatteredMama82

Good grief, we do love a crisis in this country. Our bins were emptied today, the school bus came and no mention of any teachers not turning up. I got a delivery if heating oil yesterday as planned. I also went to do my food shop at Morrison’s, shelves were full and although there was a queue at the petrol station, there was fuel available. It’s hardly the apocalypse.

Just because your area is fine, doesn't mean others are! Our bins haven't been emptied in the correct this week for the fourth week running - due to a lack of HGV drivers. Garages are running out of fuel within hours of a delivery. We are pretty close to a motorway service station and that ran out yesterday. People are queuing for 2-3 hours for petrol. It is bad in some areas ( being made worse by selfish individuals).

@Djifunrsn

Mowing the lawn is actually a priority - because our garden waste service is managing one collection in two months and that is tomorrow. Our tip is gridlocked permanently (90 min queue). So yes I filled a can for my mower.

This is laughable , so much so that it must be trolling. NHS staff/teachers/police officers can’t get to work, but as long as your lawn is mown you’re happy!

@ScatteredMama82

Good grief, we do love a crisis in this country. Our bins were emptied today, the school bus came and no mention of any teachers not turning up. I got a delivery if heating oil yesterday as planned. I also went to do my food shop at Morrison’s, shelves were full and although there was a queue at the petrol station, there was fuel available. It’s hardly the apocalypse.

Good grief? Do you think these anecdotes are exaggerated? I drove to the North from London on Saturday and every single services along the motorway had ‘No fuel’ signs.

Your little village or town may very well be ok, that doesn’t mean the rest of the country is.

I’m in the lucky position of just sending my (nearly empty) car off for repair and using a loan car with a full tank! If this hadn’t happened I would have a problem getting DD to school and DH to the railway station for his commute. Didn’t think a car bumping into ours while it was parked at the local retail park was a positive thing at the time!

Good grief? Do you think these anecdotes are exaggerated?

Yes, I do. I live in Shropshire, work in Cheshire, have family in Scotland Central Belt and in Surrey. All doing just fine, my cousin tried 2 or 3 garages for fuel last night (in Glasgow) but got some. Shops are stocked, people are at work, schools are open. Honestly, overly dramatic threads like this perpetuate the problem.