To think closing schools or making them "optional" during the heatwave is putting pressure on working parents and is just a bit silly?

[Suchevilforebodings]

This doesn't actually effect me directly as neither of my children's schools have closed.
But some of the schools iny area are either closing or are making school optional IE: it won't be marked as absence.
I mean.... Really? Do kids actually need tome off because it's hot?
And is it fair on working parents to send out an email the day before to say school is closed? This heatwave was forecast last week.
Even making it "optional" puts the pressure on as the kids will want to stay off and many of their friends will be.
I just think it's bullshit tbh

The point is schools don’t NEED to close it just requires thinking outside the box as another poster pointed out what her school is doing with outside classrooms etc. portable AC units are an actual thing! - my schools PTA raises the best part of £40k out of parents per year and I’m sure a chunk of that could be spent on AC

school isn’t childcare no - if it was I wouldn’t get fined for taking my children on holiday would I?
but what I do expect is that if it’s a statutorily designated SCHOOL DAY then the school remains open to fulfil their statutory obligations. Or at least the school offers the option to parents - collect early if you want/stay stay home but for those children whose parents simply can’t do that that they stay open

@Butt3rButt3r
my kids school raises £40k per year through PTA events …. I’ve yet to see what they actually spend that on

My son's school made it optional for a 1pm pick up today. My daughter's specialist school is closed and has been since yesterday.

I will collect my son as the building is unbearable. If lowering body count in the building helps everyone else then it's a win win

I’m back to update. I’ve been teaching online since I met with colleagues at 8 am to share some online teaching resources that I have prepared (it makes sense to share them).

So my day so far has been
8-8.30 am online meeting with share and sharing of online resources for teaching lessons today - I prepared these overnight and it took me about 2 hours yesterday evening
8.40- 9.00am tutor group check in
9-10 am lesson 1 Year 8 register and online teaching for me this is about 15 minutes of me setting out tasks etc and relevant clips all delivered online. They complete the task and post it on onenote I stay online giving help and support where needed on video
10-11 repeat but Year 10 lesson
11.00-11.15 am I have ‘breaktime’ the reality is this one meeting with one parent / child online on teams who is struggling with some problems
11.15-12.15 another year 8 lesson repeat lesson 1 to a different class but this is all online and recorded.

Ive grabbed a salad out of the fridge and gone to the toilet and I restart in less than 30 minutes. I also have have to phone two parents about some issues and then I have to mark everything. Our school day finishes at 4.30 pm and then I will plan tomorrow as I obviously can’t do all the practicals I planned and then also mark today’s work.

For those of you thinking teaching is parenting or childcare - it isn’t I’m clear on that. For those of you saying we are having a paid day off - no I’m working all day. Same as normal and I’d rather be in school but it isn’t safe for them or for us. Until the government invests in schools and has proper ventilation, heating systems and air conditioning 32 students and me in a lab during a heat wave or a freezing October - February (they turn the heating off over the weekend isn’t normal and school don’t have it on until November to save costs) this is the best option.

Several families today - I had 4 of my students who were all together in one house on the call and several others in groups. They don’t need to be alone and most secondary students (not necessarily primary) can work with their friends without constant supervision - me I’m available constantly online today apart from right now. Salad, ten minutes on here and catching up with my own child!

For any of those thinking teachers don’t work and basically get paid for nothing / please feel free to join the government recruitment drive to find another 6 000 teachers! There is a reason for so many vacancies.

Just ask. They’re obliged to provide a breakdown

If school is optional parents just send kids off to school. It's going to be 40 degrees today and tomorrow. Sports days have to be cancelled or postponed. It's really just too hot for kids to learn after about 11am.

It's often spent on minibuses or additional classroom assistants which benefits all DC. Some schools also keep some to subsidise poor kids to go on local trips.

Just a FYI, they might be closing schools on Friday too!

Not here !

Have you asked? One of the schools I was at Governor at used some of the funds to ensure that all children could attend extracurricular activities and that they weren’t just limited to those who could afford to pay

ohh where are you? We are in Hants. It’s not been communicated to parents yet as still waiting for the head to make final decision

This is relatively new though. When I was at school you just went to the sick bay until pick up tine

Standing room only these days. Sick bay is more of an A&E unit.

That sounds horrendous.

Why not retrain as a teacher? As you say, you’ll be working shorter hours, have better pay and conditions.

You’d also have the same holidays as your kids so no need to find childcare.

You can get a scholarship or bursary to train as well as a loan for tuition fees, so it won’t cost you anything upfront and you’d still have an income to cover the essentials.

Sounds much better than your present job, so why not go for it?

https://getintoteaching.education.gov.uk/

In the 1990s parents absolutely would get asked to pick up sick children… vivid memories of being sat in reception for hours while lots of other Ill children were picked up (dad often worked abroad, mum a teacher Two hours from my school).

It was great for me when I didn't have to travel to work, sit in an office hotter than a greenhouse, do anything more strenuous than load the washing machine and twat about on Mumsnet maybe evict an occasional bumblebee that wandered in through the balcony door as the breeze coming straight off the estuary made my flat a peaceful, cool haven, too.

It's a bit different when crossing from one classroom to another feels like you've just opened the oven door when it's on gas mark 8 and there's standing around in full sun waiting for buses that have just as likely overheated or some of the woodland has caught fire near the train track.

It's not new. In the 70s in infants someone in the school would go round to my grandparents house as they lived closer if I was ill then they would pick me up. In the 80s during secondary my father was called several times to pick me up during the day due to illness or accident. So no it's not a new thing

School isn’t childcare.

So OP is saying children shouldn't be given the option to stay at home during a heatwave because working parents get hurt feelings. Ok then, so we should all put out children in a dangerous situation just to spare your feelings 🙄 I don't think so.

It doesn’t matter what your personal circumstances are - it’s still not childcare. Sorry, but it’s not.

I was at school in the 70s and 80s myself. I remember being in the" sick bay" on the day of the school fete. Got told to lie down and rest and they'd ask my mums friend to collect me when she picked her own kids up . I was 6 at the time.

My mum would've been at work and dad wherever ( he was a postman so not a clue what shift he was on) And we didn't have a phone at home until 1984 when I was nearly 13, or of course if dad was working doing his round no one could've got hold of him till he got back in the sorting office anyway

The fact is there ,WERE these sick bays I assume your dad was either at home or worked where there was a phone instantly available as there weren't any mobiles then

I think you where just unlucky that parents weren't at home. I was definitely picked up during the day when I was ill and like I said someone from the school even went to my grandparents house to ask them to pick me up because they didn't have a phone. Yes there was a sick bay but children where also sent home. Sending children home is definitely NOT a new thing

I think optional is worse, think about the few kids left behind whose parents can't work from home or have someone around in the day , ds was in that position today I actually managed to WFH this afternoon and could get him at 3:15 because my boss is understanding and gets it's an unusual situation, by the time I picked him up 2 thirds of the class had left at lunchtime. I'm in court tomorrow so can't get him early at all luckily DH can get him at 3:15 but again it's going to be optional to collect at lunchtime

And no school isn't childcare but what do you want the keyworkers you all clapped for, to do? Just not go in? No police, fire service, nurses, doctors, prison officers etc? Then what?

Also in the 70s and 80s kids where sent home for heat, snow, boiler not working. The difference is in those days there was no mobile phones. Kids would arrive at school and instantly sent home. Kids as young as 7 because we went by ourselves where sent home with no confirmation from parents saying it was ok. This often happened mid day when we where sent home early for snow, again no notification for parents we just turned up on the doorstep. At least now a days parents do get pre warned.