Schools as polling stations

[notedbiscuits]

For some parts of the UK, there are elections tomorrow (2nd). The school that my friend's DS goes to is closed tomorrow as its polling day. She is fuming to waste a day's annual leave as her DH is away for a week on a course and has no one to look after DS.

She said in the past, both the village hall and the church hall have been used. So why use the school which is then open for one day, Friday 3rd and not open again til Tuesday 7th as Monday is a BH.

Both the village and church halls are disabled friendly and have plenty of car parking.

When I lived 100 miles away, my polling station was a small mobile on a green area between two streets.

Do you think schools should be used as a polling station? Friend says they shouldn't unless the polling day moves and stays on Sundays which is the case for many countries around the world

Works well here.

It is usually just used as one of the in-service days. It is not an extra days holiday so she would have had to plan childcare / AL anyway for whenever it was. Elections are just a read herring.

Our village is the same. I have never understood the need to close the primary school as well it has always seemed ridiculous to me.

I don't have an issue of a school being used, but I can't see why it can't also be used as a school at the same time. They only need a hall or classroom for the polling, not the entire building.

My understanding is that's it's due to the potential security risk when it's operating as a polling station.

I think the polling stations need to be local and accessible and available. We vote in the village hall, because the school is so small it doesn't have a hall. Literally, for assemblies, they all squish into one classroom as there is no central space, so there wouldn't be enough space for a polling station either. In our old village, it was the school because the hall was let out for use by the preschool. I imagine they couldn't just kick them out for the day as they were paying tenants. I expect this might be the issue with using village halls in many areas.

Publicly-funded schools don't get to choose. They are required to make their building available free of charge as a polling station if the local authority asks.

DDs school is a polling station tomorrow, but its open. The public will use a separate external entrance and the internal doors are locked to that area.

The work involved in booking local halls etc would be phenomenal & would rely on these halls cancelling standing bookings etc. Much easier to arrange to use local schools as can be organised via local authority.

The local schools that are closing are just using it as an inset day. They have to have a set number anyway, so it’s not an extra day off. It’s just moved from what might have been a slightly more convenient time.

Our village school stayed open as there was a separate room with a disabled entrance that was used for voting.

They also used the church.

I do postal voting but I am not against any building being used as long as people vote.

I can't remember schools ever not being used. As a child in Nottinghamshire we loved elections for that reason.

Elections here in Italy are on a Sunday and schools are used. Usually closing at least one day before for preparation, and one day after for clearing up. So 2 school days gone. More if it's a 2 day vote as sometimes happens.

Our school do this for local elections.

There is a separate entrance / exit for the part of the school used as the polling station though.

School is usually closed for general elections, I guess down to a larger turn out?

The school is being used here because we couldn't accommodate the polling station due to preexisting bookings. Village and church halls aren't empty

Everyone is always fuming about everything.

I do understand the childcare issues, it happened to us too a couple of times, but sometimes society has to happen. Is this really 'fuming' territory?

If she is bothered she should approach her local councillors and try to get arrangements changed for next time.

Hopefully not too long to wait for the next time as we need a general election!! Would be happy for pretty much everything bar the NHS to shut tomorrow for a general election!!

YANBU. It's an absolute piss take when we get so much shit if kids miss school, but it's ok to close for a day to be a polling station.

It's not an inset day, nor is an additional day tacked on somewhere else. They miss a day's schooling.

There are two village hall type venues within short walking distance and elsewhere in the borough they bring in portakabins as necessary.

It seems like the school is just the simplest target for the council. It feels completely hypocritical.

My school is closed but it’s an inset day for us. The children don’t lose any schooling, if they weren’t off tomorrow they’d have been off a different day instead.

Well, we live in a democracy and that involves making facilities available to vote in.

Schools were always used as polling stations where I lived and it worked well. Where I live now it's another public building that's used, and that also works well.
I do think it's a bit of an overreaction to be 'fuming' though, mildly irritated perhaps. If she really is that bothered then perhaps she needs to be proactive and register her annoyance/write an e-mail to the council/start a petition.

It’s always schools where I live, and the school is closed for all pupils. It is a bit annoying, though.

When I was a child, they used the schools as polling stations, but we stayed open. It was a great learning experience.

i understand why it is a security risk. They don’t use schools in my area at all anymore. There are plenty of other buildings available. My polling place is the local library.

I'm 52 and schools have been used as polling stations since I was a child!

School has been our polling station for 20 years. This year, the bowls club!

Polling Stations need to be wheelchair accessible and they need to have toilets (including accessible ones).
Unfortunately it's amazing how many church halls and community centres don't have this.
Modern school buildings usually do.
As for the child care thing - this is where informal arrangements between parents for babysitting come in great. I usually ended up with one or two of my daughters classmates at my home. All informal so I didn't get paid (didn't expect to - although once I got given a fiver because I said I would take the girls to a local shopping centre and have a Maccyds).
This is why parents at the school gate need to actually talk to each other 🙂

My school was often used as a polling station but it didn't close. Totally unnecessary for that to happen.

Oh good grief why is everybody fuming these days?

I'm 61. I remember schools closing when I was a kid.

Fuming because we have the right to vote in a Democracy, and she is mildly inconvenienced.

What a world we live in.