Feel a little cross about this note.

[york67]

School in our area have a zero tolerance approach to term time holidays. All are declined which is is fair enough.
However, school almost always closes in bad weather. Again ok as of course teacher safety is important.
However, EWO have advised school to send a letter basically saying that if school opens you must attend if you live within walking distance. So basically if school opens and icy underfoot we must still get children to school even though people do fall on ice and would be dangerous in pregnancy.

Are you angry because you are pregnant and are worried about slipping on ice? Anyone can slip on ice...

For what it's worth teachers get similar letters stating we must make every effort to get to school.

I don't see an issue with that, unless parent or child has a disability whereby they can't walk then of course they should make the effort to get in if school is open.

A bit of ice and the possibility you may fall is not an excuse to keep a child off school.

I wouldn't worry about this. Our school has a zero-tolerance approach to absence as well, and was open when it snowed. I rang and said it felt too dangerous to go down our hill (we had tried) and the school secretary told me that was fine. You are perfectly entitled to make your own risk assessment in these circumstances - no school is going to insist you go in case you do fall and sue them.

I think it sounds reasonable, sensible foot wear and plenty of time to walk there at a steady pace. We live within walking distance and I will be walking my 3yo to preschool and my reception child in the morning no matter how icy, we will probably wear wellies/boots and change at school if needed.

I can see it might depend on their idea of 'walking distance' though - we live a couple of hundred yards away but I wouldn't want to walk them for 2 miles.

You need to remember that one or two unauthorised days' absence doesn't make a jot of difference to anything, ever. It's when you start hitting the below 90% attendance level or sometimes a bit below that, the high 80s (depends on the school and the LA), that letters/EWO involvement etc starts to get triggered.

Yes I am pregnant but I am also concerned about a few other parents who have back/disc ptoblems. Strangely in my area it's probably safer to drive as roads are gritted but paths aren't.

schools dont close in snow because of teachers safety - its for the childrens safety primarily! due to issues such as icy outdoor areas and not having enough adults to supervise...

it will just be a standard letter, probably sent to all schools in the area

It's not the EWO's fault but down to new guidance from the DfES issued in December about emergency planning which says that schools should, wherever, possible, stay open in severe weather. However, I believe that pupils who can't get to school because of the weather have a special code for absence (does the code Y make sense?) so absentees don't go against the school's overall absence figure.