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!

You can say this until blue in the face but you’ll still get posters saying children should be whizzing down slopes in their knitted scarves before heading inside to snuggle in front of the fire with some hot chocolate and a round of charades.

I do wonder at many posters’ inability to even consider how other people might live.

If we don’t work, we don’t get paid.

As an NHS worker, I HAVE to go in, we have zero choice !!

I’m not sure where you live but many places get completely cut off in the snow or ice.

Many people choose to walk but most school staff I know live about an hours drive away 30 miles+ and so would take hours to get there anyway.

Fortunately, most NHS staff I know live locally to where they work so it only takes them an hour tops to walk in.

Liveforsummer, that policy was still active in My county at the turn of the century. I’m not sure it was ever put into practice though. I’d have been ok as I lived next door to the school I was teaching in, but colleagues teaching secondary might not have been comfortable teaching reception and vice-versa

Plenty of places. Are you in the UK? We are and over the last ten years we’ve had at least 4 weeks in total where we have been totally snowed in and for a fortnight we couldn’t even get to our village in the tractor (we live on a farm). Most of our friends were in the same situation.

BetterDrownedThanDuffer · Today 1
yes very true. All through this thread I have read how folk are so wrapped up in themselves. Only thinking about themselves and their little cherubs going out sledging then home for a hot chocolate. While able to wfh in their nice comfy home. Not a single thought for the real world were if you don’t go you don’t get paid.

Yes. I went to school seven miles away by bus. Never missed a day.

My DC gets a public bus to school. They weren't running today.

@Forever42 DC’s school bus wasn’t running. But according to some posters on here that must be the teachers’ fault because no other workers stop working in bad weather

Of course it’s unreasonable….kids in Scotland and the islands would never be in school! What do parents do about their work if there is snow for a couple of months in the winter? Because most employers won’t say fine…stay home. If you are a nurse, medic, fireman, train driver…you have to get to work. My husband is Canadian and they would sometimes skate sometimes ski to school, it’s very defeatist to just roll over and not even try.

Our school opened. We had thick
Snowfall but walked the 1.2
Mile's there

A few people who live closer didn't make it

We don’t have much snow yet but the icy roads are treacherous especially in the early mornings and evenings. This year, our local council are only gritting the main roads due to drastic funding cuts. With vast swathes of the county’s roads (in rural west Wales) having turned into ice rinks I really worry for those in front line jobs who will be forced to travel in such conditions, especially when we get a proper snowfall, and sadly I suspect this short-sightedness will lead to a greater demand on emergency services that are already at breaking point.
School-wise, Covid has at least left a legacy of procedure for on-line learning if it comes to at, as undesirable as that may or not be deemed.

Back when I was at secondary school in the early 90’s, us kids still walked to school in the snow. School would close if the snow was really deep or if there was a heating problem.

But that was back in the days when kids actually walked to school and didn’t get chauffeured everywhere.

The reality is that schools aren't allowed to just close because of a bit of snow. The decision is far more involved than that.
If it's felt that a school is closing unnecessarily than it can trigger other investigations.

I am assume you do know that teachers don't make the decision to close or stay open?

Jealous of the holidays - become a teacher.

Teachers seem to have many more powers than they actually do by some posters n MN. No teacher decides whether school opens or closes. Some teachers didn't manage to get into DS’s school today. They taught their lessons remotely from home. Most pupils didn’t manage to get in as only 2 buses out of about 20 were running. Not the teachers fault.

where is all the hate and criticism of the bus drivers?

@Muddywaters1 They cancelled all the school buses this morning because they have to get up steep hills which are treacherous even when gritted. Rural areas don't even get gritted so your car gets buried by the snow, as does the road. The schools themselves often end up covered in ice so the sites just aren't safe either.

Don't be ridiculous! Since when did teachers decide education isn't important 🤔

Teachers - who is I assume are the people you mean by 'those who impart knowledge' - don't have any say whatsoever in deciding if the schools close! None.it is the headteacher, along with academy chain leaders and/or LEAs who make those decisions, having followed their own policies.

They also didn't get to chose whether schools were closed during the pandemic. The government did that - and no, the unions didn't ask for them to be closed unless you believe the red top media nonsense. The government decided to close schools to all se who were most vulnerable to key worker parents. The government also set out the guidelines as to what online learning should happen. Many schools actually went over and above those guidelines but were still criticised by some parents.

Somehow I don't think your criticism is being aimed at those actually in charge of the decisions made now, or during the lockdowns.

How?
Unless every town is going to have some special location set up purely to use for driving tests and lessons?
We couldn't wait until snow fall for everyone to take their driving tests!

SpicyFoodRocks that's ridiculous and I work in health care so don't get to chose not to go in, however school buses are cancelled, playgrounds are treacherous and footpaths. Kids love a snow day and I'd rather there were less cars on the road so I can do my journey slowly and safely

I can’t speak about those who don’t care about vulnerable kids at other times. I work with vulnerable families and that’s why I know schools should have re-opened after the initial few weeks.

Vulnerable children were allowed to go into school after the first couple of weeks, if not sooner. Iirr it was Easter holidays very soon after it started hence the delay in some areas.

We invited every single one of our known and suspected vulnerable children into school from that point, those who declined - we couldn't force the matter - were monitored by our learning mentor and safeguarding team throughout including doorstep visits.

Exactly. They were obsessed with their own protection when shop workers, NHS staff, transport staff had been working throughout. And got on with it.

Lots of teachers and TAs worked throughout. All but 4 of our staff worked throughout. The 4 who didn't were classed as vulnerable and shielding. They worked from home throughout.

There was the red top papers and social media telling people that schools didn't want to open. But the reality in every school I know of was that they were already open and had been since day 1. Nothing wrong with wanting to know how to make the government guidelines work, whilst we're totally inefficient, delayed and unworkable in many reasons.

My mum always said they were meant to do this years ago - I had assumed this was a 1960s/70s thing which wouldn't happen today .

I actually think it's something that's always been the case but had fallen by the wayside due to few closures of more than the odd day therefore wasn't able to be used during 'the beast'. The length of that closure here (we were in the red warning area) prompted the council to get it back in order.

Going to the nearest school would no longer work.

Most schools are no longer run by the LEA.

Teachers often live in a different LEA to the school they teach at. They aren't employed by the most local LEA, so that LEA doesn't know them, doesn't have their personal details, doesn't pay them, etc.

I think a lot of people don't realise that teaching and school staff aren't just employed by one 'education' body so it doesn't work to just go to another school.

In the same way that dh, as a lawyer, couldn't just rock up to a different law firm and work there for the day either.

In N W London many schools were closed today. The Northern line which is above ground wasnt running. We had four inches of snow. I would assume that staff who lived further north couldn’t get in - DS who lives just north of London is snowed in and his children couldn’t go to school.

My daughter's school (in North London) was closed 😃 (as were most schools here). She loved it! Spent the day sledging with her friends and building snowmen. I still had to go to work, but she met up with friends without me

I’d love a snowy day at home, but we barely get snow here.
However as much as a lay in or learning from home would suit me, some parents have to work. Surgeons for example.. doctors, nurses and other keyworkers.
I do think though that during severe weather warnings parents should be ‘allowed to keep a child home if the journey is deemed dangerous