closing school for funeral

[henry84]

Sadly a TA from dc's school passed away. School is closing on Monday for the funeral.
I have found that lots of the mums are cross about this. (Provision has been made for those with no childcare available)
I believe school is right to close. Opinions please.

Some mums are thoughtless & insensitive. A school community is more than free childcare.

That's really sad and how insensitive of those mums. I think that the school is right to close too.

Sad as it is, I wonder if the whole teaching staff is actually going to the funeral?
I can't see why anyone would be cross, though, if alternative care provision has been made.

Since they have made provision for those who need "childcare" for the day, I don;t see anything wrong in allowing the staff and pupils to have the opportunity to go to the funeral. Presumably none would have been able to attend otherwise, which would have been unfair.

I imagine that most of staff would be hoping to go to funeral, usual lack of compassion from some people!

Since they believe their DC/s aren't learning more from this than they would from class lessons, they really should withdraw them and go somewhere more suitable to their ethos. Don't get why they're there, are there no other schools near you? They really shouldn't keep their DCs in your school OP, there's bound to be better ones for them.

Our local BBC radio station closed down for the day for my auntie's funeral or rather they brought in broadcasters from elsewhere.

School absolutely right to close. Some people are heartless.

I think the school is right to close.

But it needs to make a very early announcement of a countervailing day when it will be open - as the 190 day school year is a statutory requirement.

Surey it depends on the size of the school? If it's a 2000 pupil school, with 300 teachers, alot of whom would barely know the deceased, that's different to a 50 pupil school with 5 teachers.

How sad that people feel it is ok to be cross at being inconvenienced when such a tragedy has happened.
It is only right that the staff should be allowed to attend the funeral if they choose to
' A school community is more than free childcare.' Agree with munster.

Some people are so self absorbed.

Medetrina, when something similar happened at our school, one of the INSET days was altered to happen on the day of the funeral and we elected to do the training as twilight sessions instead, so the school was only closed for the same number of days as it would normally have been. Maybe something similar is happening at OPs school.
And if not, well, given that we are so close to the start of the academic year, I am sure they will have plenty of time to make whatever adjustments are required and to notify the parents.

Our head teacher died and they asked the parents to keep our children at home if we could. Then they brought in supply teachers for those children who did come in.

We had a child who sadly passed at my dd's school a few months back. The school closed and they organised a party on the playing field after the funeral. It was a sad but lovely day to celebrate her life...but the amount of parents who complained astonished me. People are odd sometimes and just plain thoughtless...

A school stayed open on the day a 5 year old died on a climbing frame. That was the saddest of tragedies. There will always be controversy on such desperate decisions.

My DCs senior school shortened breaks and finished early when a memeber of office staff died. To let staff go to the funeral.
They have also marked the funerals of various pupils and staff who have died; usually with fundraising for a related charity.
I think some parents are obviously heartless/ or don't think before they speak.

Our dept head died suddenly. The school was closed for the funeral. Every member of staff attended as well as many of the children with their families. It would not have been good to keep the school open and prevent anyone from paying their respects and saying goodbye. Staffing a school with an entire staff of supply teachers would not only be expensive (£170 each), but also impractical (no-one would know what would be going on).

As a teacher I am aware that many parents have no sympathy with people who work in school due to their perceptions of our working week/ hols etc. I am also aware that many parents view school as childcare rather that education.

As a parent, I know how difficult it can be when your child's school suddenly closes due to unforseen circumstances (weather/strikes etc).

A student died at my school and parents complained that school was closed so that staff could attend her funeral.

Likewise when a member of staff was murdered, parents were muffed that we closed for the afternoon to attend our colleague's funeral.

We have lOts of thoughtless and insensitive parents who believe that their inconvenience is more important than others' grieving.

School is in the right, ours did this when a member of staff died. The LEA said they had to make up the teaching time though so they had to add extra time onto the school day for x days.

Tis true, dying is so inconvenient for all and sundry, especially when it's not scheduled ahead. So why can't these people be more thoughtful and just live forever, perhaps it should be in their job description?