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…

That walking in the sun because they're not on holiday to relax didn't work out too well for a few people though recently, did it?

It really is. Languages and arts subjects are being lost all over the place and kids are being put into jumbo classes in other subjects.

You can criticise the system without criticising the working people that are just doing their jobs. What you can’t do is act like certain decisions are made by general employees.

It’s akin to saying that a general tesco cashier worker decides the prices of the groceries.

Would you like a medal so you finally stop chomping at the bit or are you going to continually drone on?

The thread has many people who are criticising the school system and lack of empathy for parents so maybe go and address some of them.

My key point (yet again for hard of reading) was the style of communication not the closure.

Fair enough.

Why on earth are you so rude?

OP, my child’s headteacher was being harangued last night by parents on DOJO to close at lunchtime today, and she held firm saying that individual children could go home, but the school will be staying open as she knows many parents work and can’t get time off work at such short notice.

Yeah that's about right. Harangued by parents if you close, harangued by parents if you don't close.

I work in the NHS. I encourage complaints if patients get a poor service. I am not remotely defensive about it. We need to criticise public services appropriately and aim for better. Not get ridiculously defensive.

Is it not possible that one person in the country is living in a hellish hot small flat that might be hotter than the school? Or is it that just because a classroom has 30 kids in it, it’s scientifically proven to be hotter than anyone else’s home or workplace in the country? Why do some teachers always think they have it the worst?

Sounds like a considerate headteacher.

The word 'appropriately' there is doing a lot of heavy lifting. There are many, many inappropriate complaints being made to schools by irate parents which are now taking up so much time, money and resources to deal with that the government has had to tell parents to pack it in.
https://www.parentkind.org.uk/assets/parents-resources/Parent-Guide-to-School-Complaints.pdf

But there are appropriate complaints too. I have seen posts on here that do show poor behaviour from schools, and the defensive teachers immediately swoop in en masse to defend the school. I don’t see that as much in other professions.

I'm not sure many other professions get as many threads about them as schools do on Mumsnet. Not sure why teachers aren't allowed to offer their viewpoint from the perspective of working in a school either. I've seen plenty of valid complaints about schools get helpful responses from teachers explaining who to complain to and how to phrase it.

We clearly see things differently here, and I would not expect you to agree with me. Anyway, the teachers I know irl, including one from my children’s school who has become a good friend, seem more balanced when discussing issues.

People are certainly able to be more honest on MN than in real life. I know many teachers who have to hold their tongue when talking to friends with children at their school.

I don’t know any Primary Schools in the UK that are air conditioned! It’s not a case of ‘get on with it & stop complaining’. Of course it doesn’t help working parents but it’s a reluctant decision made for the health & safety of your children.

Our school, like many, many others, is like a bloody greenhouse with tiny windows that open a couple of inches & no through draft whatsoever. No fans. No shade outside. Playground tarmac so hot you could fry an egg on it. Classroom temperature well over 30 all day with 30 sweaty, unhappy, listless children crammed together, not able to learn a thing.

As a teacher, I cannot tell you how awful it is to be stood in one of these hotboxes, with a raging headache, desperately trying to ignore the rivers of sweat pouring out of you, conscious of how much your children are struggling, worrying about which one of them is going to throw up next, whilst simultaneously trying (& obviously failing) to teach them how to multiply fractions!! It’s just not worth it.

And this post says it all.

It suggests that if you want to hear what it's really like in schools, don't talk to your friend who works in your kid's school.

If teachers told parents what it was actually like in their school, parents would probably be horrified.

Schools put on an extremely positive face to parents - of course they do. So parents who believe the school email that says 'teachers are keeping classrooms cool and well ventilated' are not seeing the teachers crying at their desks because the conditions are so awful.

And this heat isn't even half of it.

That’s not what I said. Yes, some people’s homes will be very hot. They can still strip off, have cool showers, drink cool water etc and not have to try to think too hard. None of that can happen in school.

You clearly don't realise how hot some offices are. And it is also somewhat astonishing that you think people in office jobs "don't have to think too hard".

And I think my colleagues would be somewhat astonished if I stripped down to my underwear

The post said homes, not offices.

Indeed. But the thread of quotes it was responding to referred to offices as well

Optional is such an easy solution idk why it has to be shut or everyone stay at this point.

Primary here can go home at lunchtime here and many have, it’s fine. In secondary maybe none would go in if it was the option not to.

However I don't think that the poster was suggesting that you strip off to your underwear in the office yet you responded like she had.