Surely polling day school closures are outdated now?

[SchoolRunRealist]

I know this comes up every election cycle, but surely routine school closures for polling days feel outdated now?

Many schools already remain open safely during elections using separate entrances or isolated polling areas, while others still close completely.

It just feels odd that schools are under so much pressure around attendance and minimising disruption, yet predictable elections still routinely interrupt learning and create childcare issues for working parents.

This morning I finally ended up starting a Parliament petition asking councils to minimise school closures during elections by prioritising alternative venues where possible.

Not anti-voting whatsoever — just feels like there should be better planning by now.

Curious whether others agree or whether I’m missing something obvious?

Our schools close but the voting is all in village halls 🙈

They are only used when there really is no alternative. Church and village halls are much easier for those organising the venues at the relevant council in terms of risk assessments, safeguarding procedures etc.

@AmazingGreatAunt I thought that elections had to be the same day everywhere, and it’s always a Thursday. Are you in the UK?

In my experience, this is true and not true. The scheduled elections are catered for as inset days. But if there is a snap election that can turn into an extra day off (just like a snow day, I suppose).

Our school was a polling station but eventually got it moved elsewhere. They needed to provide evidence that the new venue was suitable which included things like its security, disabled access, etc and persuade the council.

How would that work? Term dates and inset days are usually set in the calendar far in advance of the announcement of election dates.

It doesn't affect school attendance though as the schools in question just schedule the day as one of their allocated inset days?
The children don't attend any fewer days of school by their school being a polling station.

My school was used for polling for a recent election-I think it was probably the last GE. It doesn’t normally get used so I don’t know what would happen normally, but this was definitely outside of the 5 INSET days as those had already taken place.

It didn’t affect the children’s attendance though as it went down as another code.

Other than general elections, dates are set months if not years in advance.

Perhaps if local services such as libraries had not been greatly reduced, there would be more alternative locations.

Our school only posts the dates of 4 inset days when there is an election year or a possibility of an election year. The exact date isn't always known but for stuff like local authority elections they do usually know roughly when it'll be eg a Thursday in May!

In my local authority we have an inset day every May - that covers the Scottish Government election today or usually the local council elections

I successfully challenged our Council to get our Primary School as venue changed as I felt the same.
I was a Parish Councillor at the time though.
If you contact your Parish Council (if you have one) or local residents group to support you.
The main issue for your Borough/County/Metropolitan Council is, of course, cost! The Council have the ability to requisition a school building as it is already for "Council use" (think even a Academy school).
Any Building will be needed from about 6.00 - 10.30pm so Hall hire etc would be high.
I had a word with our vicar (down in the pub where most of our local issues are sorted out!) And he immediately said his hall would do it at no charge - this was used atthe next election, since then venue has changed again as it was deemed too difficult to get into for some - we then had a word with the Scout leaders who couldn't help initially as there Hall lease meant they couldn't rent out the space however as they were happy to "gift" the space for the day then they can use it. We are still using it today.

So, have a word with any local halls, churches, office space or even pub (yes these can be used if there's a separate entrance and accessibility) and see first of all if anyone would allow their space for free (for the good of community/local children - they could probably offset this for "charitable" reasons.
If you want this it can be done - but someone will have to do the leg work.
Good luck.

They have it as an inset day, no big deal

Official guidance according to a website called The Key for Governors that provides advice on various policies says that schools are encouraged to try and make up the teaching by moving an inset day if possible but it is not a requirement.

Elections are administered locally, so each council/local authority makes their own arrangements (apart from NI where they are organised by a separate electoral commission). Our council made the decision several years ago to not use any schools, and our local polling place is the scout hall. If you want change in your area - petition your council as well - it might be quicker to enact change.

Where i am they put it on the holidays calendar inset day **
** may change to co-inside with elections

Which means ALL the schools are closed including schools which aren't actually being used for voting

The last General Election clashed with the Primary School Summer Fayre, so they had to scramble for an alternative venue... it took place in the Caretakers House (usually used for nurture groups etc, but has stairs... they used a temporary ramp). The venue had to be close enough to the usual venue, bus stops etc.

In my local town they use the new School campus on the edge of town. It is a good mile's walk uphill from the opposite end of the town. There is no need for it to be used as the Town hall is slap bang in the middle so why on earth they use the school i don't know.

Our LA combine it with an in-service day.

so overall we don’t lose a day

@BerryTwister No, I am in Europe. Our shops may not open on Sundays, but that is when any elections are held.

I just can't believe how long its taken for councils to combine it with insert days.

I don't know about England but I always feel May is a very broken month for schools. Just back after 2 weeks of for Easter, then its long weekend & day for voting, one full week then Friday & Monday holiday weekend, essentially 4 days off spread over 3 weeks.
Someone needs to re organise that

Councils don't set inset days. They set term dates and schools individually pick their own insets. So it is up to individual schools if they want to make a polling day closure also an inset day. If they even have enough notice to do so that is.

This has been going on for decades though with no ill-effects. I've never met anyone who says that they would have achieved their potential if it wasn't for that one Thursday a year that their primary school had to close.

I remember loving it as a kid, and now I'm a teacher I still love it! I especially love that it coincides with the bank holiday so this week is a 3 day week.

’How long it’s taken’??

That isn’t how it works at all.

Inset days are set by individual schools/Trusts.

Really interesting hearing how differently councils handle this. I genuinely didn’t realise some areas had already moved away from using schools entirely or found workable alternatives through community venues.

Our small (ish) rural primary school is not closed. Voting is in the church hall thankfully.

Last year our smaller partnership school in the next village (we share a head teacher) was shut for polling and those kids were all bussed to our school for the day. Apparently in previous years they would just close the school hall to the pupils but new H&S guidelines mean the whole school needs to be shut now.

This year I noted that the voting location in the next village has been changed to the bowling hall so no kids off school in our area.