Why on earth do they use schools as polling stations?

[Blu]

For the Mayoral Election in London tomorrow thousands - probably hundreds of thousands - of primary school children will lose a day's education.

Thousands - probably hundreds of thousands - of parents will lose a day's pay, have to take holiday, or be out of pocket paying for childcare.

Thousands of teachers and other school employees will be paid to not do their jobs.

The scale of economic impact must be enormous. Especially on national election days.

Why don't they use community centres, libraries, church halls, a SINGLE hall in a big school (a sports hall with a separate entrance, for example), or if they must use schools have the election on a Saturday!

& as a secondary teacher, I'm at work, not allowed time off (paid or unpaid), & my own (primary) dc are off.

Dh has had to do some juggling!

I'm fine with it. Good for kids to learn about importance of voting.

Ours is a library. But most of my friends in neighbouring streets use the local school. I do think that local authorities could come up with better ideas than to close schools for a day.

And in case anyone asks - libraries/leisure centres/church halls, tennis/bowling club pavilions - give them a bit of money, will cost much less than closing down schools for a day

Our school asked to cease being a polling station. The council though are required to adhere to quite rigid definitions to do with distance from addresses, access, size, etc. The school were told there was no alternative within that framework.

Around here (London) the council use a big mix of schools, churches, public and private leisure centres, so I don't believe it is their default to use schools.

Our teachers are in for a training course all day (8:30 am - 4 pm). I would have expected most schools would be similar, using the time for training, preparation, etc.

Not saying it is ideal. We voted on Saturday where I grew up and that seemed to make much more sense.

If you are in London, I think you are spared next May. But it will be European and council elections May 2014 and (if the coalition keep to their plan) national in May 2015. Might be worth keeping a day's leave for, it is a good day to go to attractions that are busy in holiday time.

When we lived in a village in the UK, voting was in a regular 4 berth caravan. No prob, just outside the post office.
Loved voting days when i was a kid, day off school, great news.

The best suggestion is voting on a weekend, or making election day a bank holiday. It's the only way to get turnouts that convey any legitimacy on the result, and as a taxpayer (though without the eligibility to vote in the UK) I think it's worth paying council staff for an extra day's work to man the polling booths.

I understand in Australia you HAVE to turn up to vote - you don't have to mark your name next to anyone (and I believe "none of the above" may be an option in Australian voting, is that right?) but you have to take part in your democracy. That doesn't seem unreasonable to me.

Yes, I think they made voting compulsory in Australia. I think New Labour's Peter Hain thought we should do something similar here.

But in a free country, if you don't want to vote for any of them, if none of them represent you, then you should be allowed to show your disapproval by not voting. New Labour were worried about not really having a democratic mandate on such a low percentage of a low turnout. But forcing people to vote just hides reality and rubber stamps the same old and lets the same old claim that they are popular.

But, I agree that they should do what France does and have voting on a Sunday.

More people might vote if it was a Sunday - or make it a Bank Holiday so that it is easier for many (I realise that quite a lot of people still have to work on BH's).
However for a school it is just used as one of the 5 INSET days they have to have anyway - the school isn't closed for an extra day, and if it wasn't closed for INSET on polling day, it would just have to close for INSET on another day.