That schools should close tomorrow where it is snowyy...

[SunshineAndSummer]

I feel like we should be prepared for days where it'll be difficult for teachers and some children to get into school due to bad weather, so online learning can take place instead!

If you worked for the first few months without PPE in a healthcare setting you were absolutely in the minority. You didn't even have face masks? Right.

@MrsHamlet ok so it may not work for your individual circumstance. Doesn't mean it's not possible as a strategy to keep schools open (which is clearly is because it's what happens here and in neighbouring LA's) for those staff and pupils who can and or want/need to come in. Remember there is a whole world outside your individual experience and of course not all staff will get to their allocated schools. I'm assuming you work for a high school. I've no idea if this is also in place for high school as I don't work in one and during any heavy snow I haven't had a dc at one. I imagine it is though.

So true 😂

I live up north in a hilly rural area where snow is pretty normal. I have winter tyres, as do lots of my neighbours, and things here don't tend to stop for snow. Don't assume the whole country can't cope just because your area can't.

No. We didn’t at the start. The guidance was that they were not needed. Which was a lie really. It was because there were none available. It took weeks to get face masks. And then when we needed FFP2/3 ones, they didn’t fit people like me with small faces. Yet the Trust refused to pay extra for the smaller ones, even though I ‘failed’ the ‘fit test’. Never once did I consider not working though. My work was the priority.

It wasn't that unusual actually. The face masks in stores were quickly used as they're only usually used in select areas and units- not to mention that healthcare staff should have had N95s in the environment they were in (close aerosol procedures, little to no ventilation etc). It took a while for the supply chain to ramp up and even then it was patchy; many people were using single use face masks for an entire block of shifts which is probably worse than nothing at all.

Public services are crap these days, when I was at school snow days were the best. Theyd either send a 4x4 for staff and children tended to live locally or when there weren't separate academies staff would just work from the closest school in their network. Much more reasonable than closing, no wonder people enter the workplace now and expect to be off for any small inconvenience or refuse to do x because of a ridiculous reason.

@SpicyFoodRocks why are you ignoring the fact that other places of work had health and safety restrictions in place.

DC’s school is open today but half the buses aren’t running and the other half have restricted routes so missing out a number of villages. It is in a very rural area so not many children will be walking in if the bus isn’t running. The issue is ice not snow.

All senior school students have been told to be prepared for remote learning, including those in school, I assume to make it easier to provide lessons for all students. I also assume a number of teachers won’t be able to get in so will be teaching from home. I guess this is a good example of how a school can operate in these conditions.

But the reason many pupils won’t be in school today is nothing to do with teachers but transport industry. One of those organisations @SpicyFoodRocks you said just get on with it.

The clue is "where snow is pretty normal".

It's not here. The roads are ungritted and my kid has an hour on backroads in special needs transport.

@liveforsummer I teach y9-13. In Cumbria. I'm on my way to school now. If we close - which is possible - we'll move to online learning. Cumbria doesn't do well in snow and ice.

But it's not Joe Publics' fault the roads aren't gritted and safe to drive on 🤷🏻‍♀️

If the council won't come and grit or
plough the roads, I'm not sure what you expect people to do?

Some roads are impassable when it snows. I once had to call off work for snow - there was no snow at home or at my workplace, but between the two, there were 25 miles of un-gritted country lanes that were totally blocked because a lorry had Jack-knifed on a hill.

There was no public transport or alternative road as the only other route is a fell road that was shut completely due to to snow and ice 🤷🏻‍♀️

Luckily my old boss was a lot more understanding than some posters on here and didn't expect me to "just get on with it".

I'm 28 and never in my life have we had enough snow to warrant the sheer panic the country always flys into with the tiniest amount!

Have you tried using microspikes? Why so passive, crying out for other people to clear it, when there are tools you could buy to make yourself safe?

@MrsHamlet fellow Cumbrian here ☺️

It's bloody freezing out there but no snow where we are thankfully - dreading having to de-ice my car though!

@Oblomov22 our road hasn’t been gritted and on a steep hill. What am I meant to do, buy my own gritting lorry?

I think the difference nowadays is that teachers don't live near the schools. It used to be they lived locally and could walk to school, now they can travel miles (further than the pupils) to the school so it's harder for them to get in as well.

Ours are all open as normal

It's not just snow but dangerous icy roads at the moment.

I appreciate that, but the OP seems to have assumed that nowhere in the UK can cope with snow and should be closing schools, which isn't true. The south can't cope with snow.

Surely most of the children can get there easily with their parents having an SUV?

CrownTheTurkey · Today 04:57
Pathetic! Imagine if everyone rang their work to say they couldn't come in because of a light dusting of snow!“

different folks/strokes. NW coast, no ice yet but ice/black ice on pavements and roads. Drove youngest to work at 545 am and it was -5.
I can’t risk going out again. My husband is CEV and if I slipped and broke something or skidded and was injured, we’d be stuffed.

@AreOttersJustWetCats we're in the North and come to a standstill in the snow too.

Lots of rural, windy lanes up in the fells and not enough money for the council to pay for gritting lorries - they get sent to the touristy areas!

Because teachers and their pupils weren't able/allowed to wear masks.
So going back held more risk of transmission in schools than any of the other jobs where people had to work, but could mask up themselves, and their customers/clients had to wear masks.

This. Received a text at 7am explaining DC’s school is closed due to staffing access issues “as the side roads around the school are dangerous”. Even the DC laughed. The school is on a quiet residential road, surrounded by other 20mph residential roads. We are in East London. No treacherous rural roads here with limited public transport. A large number of staff members live nearby in areas with buses, tubes etc. DD’s teacher lives on our road (we are a 5 min walk from the school)!

It’s absolutely ridiculous that over hundreds of children in their school will have their education disrupted because teachers could not navigate a straightforward journey to school due to a few inches of snow.

DH has just rung in to say he isn’t going into work (not a teacher!) but will be remote working, just rearranged meetings to be on Teams.

@Eastie77Returns could that be because certain staff, like safeguarding leads, trained first aiders can’t be in. Schools have to ensure they have the right staff in.

Obviously everywhere is different, but my experience of these sorts of areas is that most locals have winter tyres and/or 4x4, so unless it's very deep people still tend to get through. Obviously if it's very high it can be very deep though.