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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To feel a school could communicate its closure in this day and age ...

57 replies

catsmother · 02/02/2009 11:00

I spent over an hour traipsing to and from school, up a couple of very steep hills, got frozen and soaked, only to find it was shut.

Okay ..... maybe not that surprising ...... BUT ..... the school's own newsletter last week advised that in the event of bad weather its closure would be advertised on its website (it wasn't), or on local radio (it wasn't, and I was listening carefully to the lists given out every 10 mins since 7), or on the BBC Cambridgeshire website (it wasn't, and still isn't, though lots of other schools in the town are). This letter also said to call the school - which I did repeatedly, & got no reply.

Surely the person who stuck the ever-so-helpful laminated (so a bit of effort made) notice on the gates stating "closed due to bad weather) could have made one phonecall to local radio, OR, even more sensibly, left a message on the school's bloody answerphone ?

The school get funny if you're late, never mind take a day off when you shouldn't which is why I made the effort, and I'd done everything I could to check according to their bloody advice.

If there's still snow on the ground tomorrow I won't bother, and if they are open, but dare complain, I shall turn into a screaming banshee at them about today.

OP posts:
paolosgirl · 02/02/2009 11:54

We have Groupcall - an automated text and email messaging system that both DD's and DS's schools use for all sorts of things.

Link here - perhaps you could ask your school to sign up for it?

www.groupcall.co.uk/

smartiejake · 02/02/2009 11:55

I was phoned at 6.45 by my head teacher this morning to say the school was closed but it didn't appear on the BBC website until 8.30. I think there has been such a volume of calls they can't keep up with it.

RTKangaMummy · 02/02/2009 11:57

DS's school sent a text to everyone all the parents and the boys mobiles

Over 850 people and also on the website

I have one happy teenager here

The TEXT came from a computer so it comes free from the school

I deffo agree they should update the website or send texts

MrsSeanBean · 02/02/2009 11:59

You are being reasonable. They expect others to behave responsibly, so they should too.
To state that closure would be advertised on the website and not doing so does sound unreasonable.

(YWBU to be a screaming banshee, but a carefully worded letter would not go amiss.)

MrsFreud · 02/02/2009 12:07

YABU you should know by now that the country grounds to a halt when it snows a few flakes, (let alone the 35 cm we have here in Surrey).

bran · 02/02/2009 12:10

DS's school phoned us to say it was shut at about 8 am, but we had already decided not to go anyway as it's a drive and the snow is pretty thick in this part of London.

I must suggest groupcall to them, thanks for that Paolo's girl. At the moment there are only 15 kids in the school and only 12 families as some are siblings so it's not a big deal for them to phone individually but as the school grows that would be useful.

igivein · 02/02/2009 12:24

Why do the schools have to close when it snows? When I was a child (and all this was fields...)the schools stayed open, if your teacher hadn't made it in your class (and others similarly affected)sat in the main hall and did singing practice or something equally useful. I used to quite liked snowy days, especially if it meant we missed maths.

RustyBear · 02/02/2009 12:25

We use a service called Parentmail, which is very similar - sends text and/or email. About 80% of the parents are now on it, so after half term we're going to stop sending paper letters to those who are on Parentmail, which should save a lot of paper. And the secretary can send a message from home if we need to, which was useful for the PGL trip which left on a Sunday.

RustyBear · 02/02/2009 12:29

igivein - in those days there weren't any rules about how many adults per child you have to have.

Reallytired · 02/02/2009 12:30

The school where I work put a message on its website at 7am. Our network manager is able to access the website remotely from his house.

All the radio station websites crashed in our area too and it was quite hard to find out if my son's school was shut.

I think the idea of an email to parents would be good. It would be quite easy to set up from a technical point of view.

BalloonSlayer · 02/02/2009 12:52

catsmother, I thought the reason schools give for closing in extreme snow is so that staff and pupils are not exposed to a dangerous journey in the conditions.

So in your case, not letting you know until you had made your dangerous journey is pretty crap and you are very much NBU.

I suspect there will be chuntering at our school too - a friend whose kids are at another school texted me before I was out of bed to tell me ours was shut. She heard it on the local radio, and I was also phoned by another mum to tell me BUT I have not been able to find the information for myself. Even the local authority website, which - after scratching its electronic arse for most of the morning - has finally deigned to put up a desultory list of closed schools, doesn't mention it.

Oh well

.

OhYouBadBadKitten · 02/02/2009 12:56

we have parentmail -but the school didn't use it! silly sausages.
Still it was blatantly obvious it would be closed.

islandofsodor · 02/02/2009 13:06

Only half a DOZEN SCHOOLS CLOSED ROUND HERE INCLUDING 2 SPECIAL AS i GUESS THEIR CHILDREN COME FROM FURHTER AND HAVE HIGHER RATIOS.

hOWEver the local radio kept asking people NOT to phone in this morning so that schools could get through.

they have a password system.

throckenholt · 02/02/2009 13:07

I just clicked through on the parentmail link - thinking I'd see how much is costs - so followed all the links through to pricing and all I could find was something offering a 15% discount if I bought by the end of Jan 2009.

NOWHERE could I find the actual price - or even an indication of it.

I hope the rest of their service is better than that

throckenholt · 02/02/2009 13:09

aha - having said that - I have now found it by going another way through their website.

So a school for up 10 100 kids is £249 + VAT for a year. I wonder how much we spend on photocopying newsletters etc ?

hifi · 02/02/2009 13:13

ours sent a text at 10.50!
i found out then text my school group.

RustyBear · 02/02/2009 14:18

Our borough (Wokingham) has just announced that ALL the schools in the borough will be closed tomorrow.

So I'll get a day off - apart from keeping the school website up to date of course!

dilemma456 · 02/02/2009 14:25

Message withdrawn

HSMM · 02/02/2009 14:25

Our local radio website eventually included our school at 0930! Ages after the other schools and no use at all!

dilemma456 · 02/02/2009 14:28

Message withdrawn

clam · 02/02/2009 14:30

I got a text from my 2 DC's schools by 7am (and my nephew heard by 6.30am. My own school, however, didn't tell staff even, until 8.15 (after a fair few had struggled in) and finally sent out an email at 11.30! Useful! No website message, no local radio message, and the local authority passed the buck to the schools saying sort it out with them!
It was quite traumatic , having to wrestle with conscience as to whether to get out of bed or not!

Poppycake · 02/02/2009 14:53

I was told by the lollipop man just before we got to the school. I thought such information giving would be a good use of the school website (rather more so than all that "we're a wonderful school guff ), tho obviously a text/email would have been even better. I'll be suggesting this to dd1's school - thanks for the links.

smudgethepuppydog · 02/02/2009 14:59

We've phoned Suffolk radio before as our school is on the Cambs/Suffolk borders and Suffolk refused to announce our closure. Also the person placing the call needs to give the correct PIN or else the closure won't be announced (and I heard Heart announce that they couldn't confirm one closure because the PIN given was wrong). We ha dthe same problem with DS's college today I couldn't get an answer from their phone lines I did finally get through to report his absence then we had a message to say that college was closed.

Our local village college transport turned up, picked up the kids then 30 minutes later came back and dropped them all back again! I really hope no-one had left for work thinking their kids were safe at school only to find out they've been dumped back in the village.

goingtohaveagoodnightssleep · 02/02/2009 15:00

We foud out through parentmail, an email at 10.50 and a text t 12.30 - very useful!!! There ws an answerphoe message at school though!

compo · 02/02/2009 15:03

blimey Rustybear - how do they know so far in advacne?!! the roads are being gritted etc, what is wrong with this country?!!