school closure in term -time?

[vickibee]

my son's primary school has announced that the schooll will be closed in October term time.This is because there have been new classrooms built and the staff need a week to get organised. it has overrun and was meant to be complteed for September.

It has been tagged on to the autimn half term so two weeks instead of one. Firstly I am upset that my son who has an IEP will miss awhole week of school. If you were to book a holiday you would be frowned on
Secondly we both work and it will cause massive inconvenience, my DH is Self employed and can take the week off with lost earnings

I do realise the school is not there for free childcare and I value my son'e edcuation greatly. but I plan our lives in maticulous detail booking childcare months in advance (because you have to )etc and something unexpected like this is just rubbish. thre are no holiday clubs open becuase it is not in the scheduled school hols. Are you just supposed to magic out of thin air.

Team Active are linked with schools via the LA, in term time they visit different schools in the area and organise sport sessions - they are most likely busy

The only option for us - my DH to take time off. :(

Parental leave guidelines

Nowhere here does it say it is for emergencies. You need to give 21 days notice which you can.

Why couldn't they get the kids to help organise the new classrooms, I know they already do this to a certain extent - I know my Ds would like doing somrthing like this?

It wouldn't be safe and would take three times as long. It takes a full week to set up a classroom as has been said already. It's inconvenient and unfortunate but there isn't anything else that can be done.

Also as teacher says, they maybe using inset days to cover those days. In that case, children aren't losing any school days in total. You need the child care on inset days as well anyway, it's just 5 consecutive days instead of spreading around.

Have you counted the school days for the year, using their rvised calendar?

If there are still 190 teaching days, then you have to find no more childcare '/ your DH has to take no more days off than you would normally - just it is for 5 days together not 5 days spread around so it 'feels' worse.

If they do have less than 190 days, raise it with the school and the LA .

I asked about this and INSET days are still being taken as they are to catch up on curriculum changes etc so it is not in LIEU of inset days - it is additional and kids are basically losing 5 days schooling

In that case, ask the LA. My understanding is that losing the days is possible in an emergency closure situation, but not in a planned way like this.

Extract from document on gov.uk:

"Schools must meet for at least 380 sessions or 190 days during any school year to educate their pupils. If a school is prevented from
meeting for one or more sessions because of an unavoidable event, it should find a practical way of holding extra sessions. If it cannot find a practical way of doing this then it is not required to make up the lost
sessions.

If schools want to reduce the number of days they have to meet, they can make an application to the Secretary of State asking for a temporary exemption from the requirements of the legislation using the power to innovate"

i think you could argue that, while this particular closure is unavoidable, it does not mean that there is no practical way to make up the 190 days by slighty altering other term dates or removing INSET days.

Having gone through this twice with different schools it is acceptable to take up to five extra days due to building work. At least that it what we have been told twice. Not much help to you but they can do it.

Have you looked at holiday clubs in neighbouring leas? Or that cover others? As not every school has the same holidays, you might find that holiday clubs are available slightly further away. Alternatively independent schools generally have longer holidays, so you might find one that is open to other children, rather than just pupils, at the time you need. Also worth contacting childminders. I know you say change is an issue, but if you can find a childminder you can build it up slowly between now and October, rather than it being a sudden full week.

Lancashuire LA, in a dopcument from April 2015, advises:

"The DfE has advised that planning to close a Local Authority maintained school to enable a refurbishment or relocation would not constitute an unavoidable cause for closure and consequently building projects should be planned to avoid such an eventuality."

which would imply that the 5 days need to be found elsewhere.

It's standard procedure in this situation. When we moved into our new building, we had to close a week early in July to pack.up the old school and opened a week later in September to unpack in the new school (then throw half of it away because the new school is minuscule).

Feenie,

But did the school make up those 5 days per school year within the school year? I'm just really surprised that you can close for 5 days without it being made up from somewhere - in fact, the information I can find suggests that building work CAN'T be used as an excuse to reduce the 190 days unless it is emergency work for safety reasons?

I can't imagine that they have done this without consultation with the LA.

Bit puzzled by the comment that I am upset that my son who has an IEP will miss awhole week of school. If you were to book a holiday you would be frowned on yet you would be happy for him to spend the week ferrying boxes about.

Also, the problem with taking a weeks holiday from school is that learning goes on without you there, you miss things being taught. When there is no school you aren't missing anything.

we have booked an expensive Aug holiday (£3K for a week in a holiday village) to avoid him missing any school, we had not had a proper holiday for years and have saved up for the last two years. Believe me I would take a holiday if I could afford it
I didn't mean the whole week but tey have many usable classrooms that are in operation during the works so I am sure there could be some sort of rota.
I am wondering about the legalities of it all

I didn't mean the whole week but tey have many usable classrooms that are in operation during the works so I am sure there could be some sort of rota.

But the staff have duties elsewhere setting up the new classrooms. Their priority is setting up the new school not your childcare.

I am wondering about the legalities of it all

You've been told several times that it's legal and fairly common.

I'm an ex-teacher and agree that you probably need to grit your teeth and accept this as a one- off. Sorry.

Various schools where I taught had closures with no or very little notice due to:

Tiles falling off the roof
Death & funeral of a member of staff
Drains backing up so no toilets - we had to stand outside and turn every family around as they arrived at 9.00!
Strike action of support staff
Snow

It also took me the best part of a week every summer holiday to both clear up and then set up my classroom - more if I was moving classroom. Needing to educate 30 children at the same time would not have helped the process along either!

Even you found legal grounds, only thing you can do is to demand the school to make up those lost days somewhere, surely?
You can't have minimum number of teachers teaching and supervising all the children while others are organizing/moving classrooms, etc. It's not safe.

Maybe doctor

These are all inpredicted events that can't be planned for, this has been known about for ages and I seriously think that this could be handled and planned for better. Kids are losing 5 days of school

Have you called the LA to discuss this? it would seem an obvious next step.

Then, once you are clear about how you stand, you can put your energies into finding childcare solutions - childminders, a local SAHM, one of the Team Active staff who might be free during the school day, a local private school's playscheme etc.

What childcare does your DS go to at the end of the school day, or do you work school hours only? Again, might they be able to extend or provide childcare for those extra days? The quicker you get into investigating this (rather than saying that the only option is your DH - this MAY be true butb you won't know unless you ask rather than assume), the longer you will have to get your DS prepared for the idea.

I work school hours only. 10 until 3pm.

I have called LA to enquire and am awaiting a call back, i was passed around a lot of people and no one seemed able to answer my questions

If your DH is self employed, can he change his hours that week to work around your hours, e.g. work 6 - 9 am and then start again and do a later block from 4 - 9 or whatever? I know it is horrible having to do tag-team childcare, but is that a way of maintaining his income while still covering childcare?

it's one of the reasons why I teach - my DCs are very busy indeed with extra-curricular activities between about 4.30 / 5 and 9 every evening, but teaching means that I can be there for them between those hours, displacing the final 2-3 hours of my working day until after they are home at night.

I hear what you are saying, but I think this falls under the heading of 'we planned to avoid this, but have not been able to do so'. If all had gone to plan then there would have been no impact on the school calendar. Besides, I imagine that the LA is probably already aware.