AIBU to think school closures ignore parents' work commitments?

[OhNoItsThePinkyPonk]

AIBU to think that the school doesn’t take much account of parents’ need to work? Primary school have just announced they won’t be opening for the rest of the week, but it’s OK because they’ll be sending us online work for us to do with the children, and whilst they are sorry they have had to cancel sports day we shouldn’t be too upset because they’ve have rescheduled it for a couple of weeks time. Like, I totally get they have to put the safety of the children first and if it’s too hot it’s too hot, but what do they think I’m
doing when the kids are at school, preparing beautiful dinners, ensuring the craft box is topped up, pining wistfully for the moment they come home? FFS, my job obviously comes second to my children and of course I’ll cancel planned surgeries and clinics where I need to. It’s not the emergency that bothers me, it’s the blasé way in which it’s communicated as though it’s a
minor inconvenience, not a major major f’ing headache with serious second and third order effects.

phew, that’s better. Now to go and get the little darlings…

Why do they assume that the parents' homes are any safer in terms of heat?

Because there are not 30+ people in one room.

This. No wonder Brits are laughed at, with our panic over weather. 🤷‍♀️

Schools aren't babysitters. They have to do what's right for health and safety.
If anything happened a parent would moan that the child should not be in school.
Can't please everyone.

Agree unless there is air con they can't do a single thing !! And it's the getting there and back !

I can hear her saying this in that patronising voice.
I reckon she should lead the way and show how it's done !Lets see her in a glass classroom helping out !

I find it so very, very distasteful that 'teachers' are treated as if they are one homogeneous individual.

'i take it you are a teacher by your lack of comprehension'

'frothing at the mouth'

What an unpleasant way of talking to someone and about other people, most of whom you've never met. Utterly horrible.

Thats your opinion which you’re entitled to.

Same as I’m entitled to be sick to death of the encroachment of the education system on family life and the majority of teachers and DFE demonising parents a lot of the time for many reasons whilst dropping them in the crap with “we’re not childcare” when it suits them to a bit of time off on top of already excessive time off compared to modern working patterns. I know quite a few parents who have been harassed over attendance when it was legitimate (sickness, family emergency) so my point was, you can’t have it both ways that parents don’t get ticked off when you call a 1/2 day at a moments notice and dust your hands off with no empathy.

And they do froth at the mouth generally whenever you mention shortening the school holidays. You see it all the time on threads on here.

Edit: as for comprehension (which I stand by). I’ve said I agree many times with it being too hot and school should be closed in this rare instance. But I also empathise with OP as most schools communication styles and lack of consistency on messaging is irritating at the best of times. It’s the dusting off of hands and no sympathy for parents probably having an unpaid day off work whilst teachers retain their pay. It’s the communication styles.

when it suits them to a bit of time off on top of already excessive time off

You know that the school year is set for children, not teachers? Do you think children get 'excessive time off' from school?

Teachers aren’t the ones doing the fining, nor would they really care if your child goes on holiday one year. That’s the LA and DofE. The same people that cause underfunding in schools so that students and staff have to work in uncomfortable conditions.

And yes teachers will always maintain that school isn’t childcare. If it was, we’d get paid to look after 30 individual children for 6 hours the same way that childminders do. Which I’d love actually. School is meant for the education of children, not for babysitting.

It's pathetic. My kids school has air con in almost all classrooms yet still closed. Tax payers should get a refund on the air con and time the school was closed.

Yes I do. We’re not going to agree but I do see it as excessive especially the summer.

But that’s for another thread and is derailing my main point.

When your main aim swaps from educating children, to stopping them from dying, it's probably time to give up.

Yeah, exactly. We were walking round, bird watching in the countryside like along rivers, round paddy fields, in the rainforest or mangrove swamps (admittedly that was in a boat, as it looks too difficult to walk in a mangrove swamp) or along beaches, because the best places to find birds are usually by water, where I imagine it’s more humid? We are in our late 60s.

As I also said previously, we have walked 16 km in the blazing midday sun in 39 degrees in Greece. That was a heatwave and we went out birdwatching every day. DH doesn’t go to one of the best birdwatching destinations in Europe, to lie around, because it’s a heatwave!

We never have air con on in our hotel rooms, because we don’t like it.

Ok, so that tracks with not caring about children in hot classrooms.

Honestly I don’t know why they don’t just get aircon, I know our summer isn’t long but the aircon can be used every year so it’s an investment

Why don’t schools here adopt those hours in the summer?

You honestly don't know why schools can't 'just get aircon'?

A lot are currently making redundancies and cutting courses because they can't even afford teaching staff.

I’ve said 4 times that I agree with schools closing but I see OPs point about the communication of it 🙄 it’s like banging my head against a wall if people won’t read. You can hold an opinion with caveats, it is allowed.

At this point in the year we hardly have enough glue sticks to go around.

Do you not think if schools could afford to get air con they would? Or so you think school staff enjoy baking alongside a classroom of overheated disregulated children?

Yes, you did, but then you also said "when it suits them to a bit of time off on top of already excessive time off"

So either you think that schools closed because there was a need to, or because it 'suits teachers to a bit of time off on top of already excessive time off'

Which of these is it?

It can be both at the same time. I’m done now with this conversation as we can’t criticise the holy teaching system nor the NHS in the UK. Seems to be a theme with our public services.

You mean you can't accuse teachers of closing schools (we can't) because it 'suits us to more time off' without being picked up on it as being bollocks?

What you mean is you can't chuck insults around without people pulling you up on it. That's very different.

That’s crazy and such a shame