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

I don't see how the government can fine any parent taking their child out of school when the government have the right to close the school

It’s an absolute pain in the neck for the teacher who has their classroom used for this - imagine having to totally clear out your room after school then get it all put back in before school starts the next morning.

Yes schools have always been used but now parents are guilttripped over every minute of school counts, fined for taking kids out of school etc etc. Either it counts or it doesn’t. If it is a planned inset day fine but has that been the case here?

My school's 'annex' was used but the rest of the school was still open, we were fairly pissed off that we didn't get a day off.

Why did you quote me? I have also said schools can be used if they can arrange separate access.

Schools can't just declare an extra day's holiday for children and staff. In the past they used Occasional Days which were holidays, these were replaced by INSET Days which are working days for staff. Schools set their own INSET days but if they don't use the actual day can do the hours over 2 or 3 late evenings.

Hypocritical of "the council". Now I know it's the CC in charge of education and fining and BC who decide polling stations, but there is obviously a clear link if the BC can commandeer a CC school to be a polling station. And everyone^^ is aware of the push to up school attendance.

I am well aware it's not the school, I have no issue with them.

And for those who keep saying cancel the cheque it will be an inset day. For the THIRD time it isn't. Perhaps some are, mine isn't. My school's calendar is aligned with two others which aren't used as polling stations and they have exactly the same calendars in every other respect.

As per my first post, I just think the school is an easy target and I think that's wrong.

Schools are allowed to take it as an extra day, losing one of their 190 teaching days -see link I posted earlier.

YANBU - in other countries they often use schools too but they also vote on sundays do the disruption is minimal

I think its ridiculous. They have a right go if your child misses school but when they say so then it's ok

Here in Italy, they vote on Sunday and where I am (and teach) the schools are closed from the Friday to the following Tuesday. (Saturday is also a teaching day).

If schools are closed for elections and its not one of the inset days, how to the kids not miss a days schooling?

Saturday is voting day in Australia. And polling stations have to run a sausage sizzle - it's the law.

Weirdly, political parties can canvass right outside the station. Much prefer the UK system in this respect.

Our school is used as a polling station and it is absolutely an inset day - teachers are in, just not pupils. It would just be used elsewhere otherwise.

Everywhere I’ve encountered this they rearrange an inset day.

When my children were at primary school, the school fought back against this and the switch was made to the local church hall.

if it's a polling station, it would be an inset day which the kids would have anyway. It's not an additional day off. Your friend is talking nonsense

Elections should be held on a Saturday. Madness having it mid week and disrupting schools, work and traffic.

That's fine for the planned local elections and often they tie national elections to that which are normally now, first Thursday in May

But If they decide to call a general election at some other random point in the year how do they tie it to an inset without disrupting schools

Elections should be held on a Saturday. Madness having it mid week and disrupting schools, work and traffic.

How is traffic disrupted? There's probably less disruption around schools that are closed for polling, because there's no school run.

They just change one later in the year and make it a school day instead. Most 8n set days are in house training so can happen any day.

Do postal votes. As several years ago I had surgery earlier that week.

My friend in OP lives in a village of about 3k people

Where I live there are two towns next to each other. Four primary schools are used as PS. None are closed. I know one of them the room used is a classroom on its own and has a separate entrance on the road. 90% of the time the class - year 6 go on their week long residential. As have colleagues who had DC and DGC attend the school. For the snap general election- the polling station was the liberal club.

Other venues used for PS are Bethel church, a rugby club, a community centre and library/charity hub (used to be a school until it was replaced by a larger one 200m away in the mid 80s)

Where I am they are published at least 20mths in advance
2 at start of the school year
1 in November
1 along with half term in Feb
1 in May.
You can guarantee parents will have booked things to go with those same days.

Other venues used for PS are Bethel church, a rugby club, a community centre and library/charity hub (used to be a school until it was replaced by a larger one 200m away in the mid 80s)

That's all very well if those buildings exist and are suitable and available. Where I live, the school is the only building that could be used. It's an entirely residential area with a couple of very small convenience stores and a small pub.

Every school I ever attended was used as a polling station. The difference was that back in the 60s and 70s all that happened was the school hall and part of the playground were declared out-of-bounds. Apart from that it was a normal school day.

Why that was changed to a full day's closure I have never been able to discover.

Ours was closed three times in a year for elections - 400 kids missed out days education. It has now moved to a split between the local scout hut and church but it took a lot of campaigning and letter-writing for it to happen so something for them to consider especially if the school can get on board.