Nursery closed due to 'bad' weather

[Snowday22]

The snow started falling here in london no more than two hours ago and I've just received a message from DD's nursery saying they will be closed tomorrow due to bad weather.

Since when was a bit of snow deemed bad weather?!

AIBU and missing something or is this the norm?

Wait and see tomorrow

Maybe it is a consideration about the distances staff needed to travel in, how they travel and an informed decision about staffing levels in the morning. Preferring to give you more than a couple of hours notice.

In previous teaching jobs and banking jobs my employer knew this info as part of a poor weather plan.

Transport issues, I'd guess.

That’s crazy. I’m in London and it’s only a couple of inches. It’ll likely be gone in the morning!

I'm in London. It's not bad weather at the moment so perhaps they have a Crystal all?

It’s probably to do with staff being able to get to work.

My ds school is closed tomorrow, all lessons on teams. Mind you it’s been snowing all day here, quite deep now.

If they waited till tomorrow and told you at 7 o clock or whenever they open then people would complain it wasn't enough notice

Is it heavy snow ? Is more snow predicted? I have seen pic of snow on beach in Cornwall. But no snow up north .

Lots of snow in my bit of the north!

It's not the amount of notice it's the fact they've decided to close at the first sign of snow.

How do they think other countries cope with snow, the ones who get it often and lots of it.

It's bonkers and an overreaction. We're in London not the middle of nowhere.

Maybe they are expecting shit loads

The places that get snow often are prepared with salt trucks and snow plows and have trains that can cope. But agree it's a minuscule amount currently and premature to cancel.

But are the staff in London or do they travel in? I remember having to walk from Brixton to London Bridge a few years ago to get to work because the snow shut down transport; fine to do for a desk job but you can’t expect people to do that to start at 7.30 and run around kids all day.

The only snowflakes are the staff. It’s ridiculous. They’d rather have a day off so it’s a great excuse. No-one seems to have the confidence or ability to travel in snow. It’s embarrassing being British sometimes.

We're in north London and we've already got about three-four inches and it's forecast to snow all night – it's pelting down really hard. Snow days are rare for London schools because most kids walk in but I think many won't open tmw, so your nursery is being sensible thinking ahead rather than leaving it until the morning when it could be chaos.

Whereabouts in London are you, OP? I’m in south London and it snowed for a couple of hours, has no stopped and it’s no more than a couple of inches. I would be really annoyed if our school did that.

Staff have to travel to work and most people don't live within walking distance.

I'm in South East.

I'm really hoping DS' school doesn't follow suit. Surely not. It's bonkers.

I don't remember all of this faffing about a bit of snow when I was a kid 😐

My particular bit of SE has a forecast of drizzle for an hour and then cloudy overnight. We have at most a couple of inches.

If they already know that staff will be unable to get in, then its sensible to let parents know asap

Even fairly small amounts of snow cause disruption in places that are not geared up for it. So if you don't live within walking distance, then your journey might be disrupted (if not impossible). And staff lateness can also mean the nursery cannot open because of insufficient ratios.

I suppose they're working on the idea that parents would prefer to know early (to maximise time parents have to make contingency plans) rather than having it all go wrong in the morning.

Health & safety wasn't given the time of day when we were kids though. We used biscuit tin lids for sledges!

It’ll be staff getting in. We’re S London and while our nursery is round the corner for us, many staff drive in from Croydon and beyond. More snow there and a long and possibly dangerous journey early in the morning before roads are clear.

That said I do think they could have offered a later start rather than not opening at all.

"I don't remember all of this faffing about a bit of snow when I was a kid 😐"

I'm in my 50's and I remember my city secondary school shutting because of snow in the early 80s and this was in days when no one cared about staff ratios.