to wonder why if it's snowing but the schools ARE open, parents are not sending their children in?

[redskyatnight]

I suspect it is the same parents that moaned about lazy teachers not making the effort to get to school.

last Friday and again today it is snowing but school was/is open. About 10 children have come in out of a class of 30. Friend's son (at different school) reported that there were only 4 in his class on Friday!

Most (over 90%) of the children at DS's school live within a 10-15 minute walk and the paths are all absolutely fine to walk along (have just walked the mile and half to work via school and witnessed no icy patches) so I don't believe that not being able to get there is a genuine excuse.

The doubly annoying thing is that because so few children are in the teachers will decree it is a day of drawing snow pictures and watching DVDs rather that whatever it was they had planned.

My DD is in school today even though i am 25 weeks pg and had to walk as it is to dangerous to drive the car down the icy hill where we live.
TBH though i wish i hadnbt bothered it took me 40 mins both ways and i need to go and get her again in a min, if its like this tomorrow she will not be going in.

My DS aged 5 walked to school today, (about a mile up a hill), accompanied by AP and DS2 (3). The school was open, but because they had very limited staff they sent him home.

DS2's nursery is fully open, but given it is 6 miles away and the roads here (Mddx/Herts) are rubbish, the AP is staying at home with both boys.

My trip into London was slow but I got there.

Disabled transport isn't running today- and the school didn't open until nearly 2 hours after the disabled driver would have been. All a bit theoretical anyway, as dd is also sick, but I could hardly have told him to dump her and wheelchair in an empty playground for 2 hours. IF you depend on transport, any changes to school opening hours is a complete bugger.

DD's school has closed. It never closes, never known it too ever! They have closed because of the dangerous road conditions surrounding the school and deteriorating weather.

Nightmare really as I can't go outside (pneumonia) and DH at work. Fortunately have had friends offering help, and DD has gone home with a friend of ours, who's DD is in her class. DH can collect her later.

For us it was because DD's teacher was not in, the roads were grim this morning, at least one parent had had a car accident and reports of getting out of the village were not encouraging. Neither the nursery or reception teachers were in and ds wouldn't have been happy being with people he didn't know well straight after the long Christmas break when simply going to the school again is an adjustment.

Cory- I have been wondering waht happensfor early closing with transport,id DH takes the Mean Machine (ie bigger car) to Uni which is safer,I then don't have any means of getting to ds3 unless ds4is at CM (only a few hours a week). Dh would take 90 minutes to get there from Uni..... but DH going in the Smart yesterday caused him to nearly crash and have to abandon car near a hotel,had he been any later he would have been in that awfuljam feature3d on the front of the BBC Wales website, eek. Even a lorry with snowchains from Austria ended up abandoned.

So- are the drivers / escorts supposed to be on call in this forearly closures or what? I have no idea.

dcs school is open but we did not go. There was a multi vehicle accident and the end of our road which is a hill leading onto a roundabout. One of the other parents had managed to turn around and warned me how bad it was. She was in tears. There was no way out. No point in walking as its a 5 mile round trip which would take hours in this snow with a pram and I would have to do it again at 11.30 and 3.15.

I didn't moan about lazy teachers last week though.

DS and DD's school is open - in a village which is flat and a county which is also flat so a bit of snow hasn't affected things too much.

On the knowing where people live front, their school is a one form entry and although I don't know where every child lives, I know roughly where most children in DS's class live, and quite a few in DD's class (she has only just started). The majority of children live in the village and would have at most a 15 min walk I think.

I didnt moan about lazy teachers either, I suspect the fact that many were complaining to the Head yesterday however is why Head didn't make decision to close until so late this
morning, meaning many kids on their way already and parents finding getting a back up extra hard.

Our old Head used to do an optional attendance thing- which generally worked out as the kids in deedof childcare for whatever reason jhad the oprion,those not could take the decision to back out. I did both on different occasion,if roads were bad but I had togo somewhere dropping kids,if at home keeping them there. Worked brilliantly.

Our school is open as a few teachers can walk in which is great if you need your children looked after as they play, do art games etc but they don't go outside!

I would rather have my children with me most of the time as it means that we can go outside, walk the dog and go sledging!