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.

I don't understand what you expect them to do. What do you think they can do?

Apostrophes, I think what I would expect in the OP's position is for them to close during that week, but then to reinstate those 5 lost days elsewhere in the calendar (probably by taking the closure as INSET, so the staff would be there for 195 days, the pupils for 190).

Then the position vis a vis days of learning, and also number of days for which childcare is required, would be essentially unchanged, just with trickier logistics because of the precise timing of the closure.

But the staff will be there so they will have competed their designated days.

Yes, so the children should be in school for any other days that have previously been designated 'INSET', so that the total number of days for the staff remains at 195 while that for children doesn't go down to 185 (195 - 5 days closure - 5 days INSET) but only 190 (195 - 5 days closure counted as INSET)

Obviously you can't do that at short notice - so you can't move INSET to cover an unexpected emergency closure due to e.g. floods or boiler breakdown - but it would be entirely feasible to do in June, with 3 months to go until the new school year even starts.

Wouldn't they have to get a week of supply teachers in then?

Why?

OK, maybe I'm being dim.

At the moment:

• Staff have to be in school for 195 days: 190 with the children, 5 INSET, probably at the moment scattered around the school year.
• Children have to be in for 190 days.

What I think i would expect the school to at least try to do is to cancel all already planned INSET days, and then put all 5 onto the 'move' week (or at least to do that as much as possible, so if e.g. 2 days are already booked with shared speakers with other schools, the other 3 would be cancelled).

This would then mean that the children would still attend for 190 days - they would have a 2 week break in October, but they would not have any other days off for INSET. It might in effect mean that they might go back a day or two earlier in September, and then not have the 'random' INSET days throughout the school year.

Teachers would actually be in school for exactly the same days that they would have been normally - but 5 days when they would previously have been teaching in October would be non-teaching for the move, and 5 days when they would previously have been on INSET days they would actually be teaching. No change at all in number of days - still 195.

When would the teachers make up the five days of training that they've missed while moving boxes around?

That is the compromise tat the school would have to make, it seems to me. IMO - as a teacher - some of the best training is actually peer to peer training in staff meetings, really common in most primaries. Individual staff can still attend specific individual training courses with cover - as happens at the moment - and can feed back to other staff at staff meetings. 'Whole Day' INSET is rarely as valuable, which is why a lot of ours is done as twilights - essentially longer staff meetings of a couple of hours after school, long enough to do e.g. basic first aid, child protection updates etc.

Even a 3:2 split of 3 days of 'INSET' and 2 days of 'closure' would bring the number of days lost from each child's schooling down.

When my DD's school closed due to a new school building they had 3 days called exceptional closure days and sent worksheets home for the children to do to make up for the days missed. Another school nearby did the same thing for the same reason.

several years ago, DCs school was shut for a term following a fire

its the way it goes

When would the teachers make up the five days of training that they've missed while moving boxes around?

The contractors who failed to deliver would pay for the supply teachers for the time to cover the training. If the contract with the contractors failed to include such penalties for late delivery, then the school will need to pick up the tab. As others have said, closing the school in October is not exceptional, there's plenty of time to plan for it.

I know of more than one school in recent years who have had similar occur and have had to close for an additional 3-5 days in the year. These schools did not make the time up elsewhere.

It's difficult to move holidays once they've been announced - often a year in advance - as people make holiday plans based in them. They cannot then be penalised by having a 'term time ' holiday or missing school. A fair few people will have made holiday plans for the upcoming term ime.

Also it can be difficult to use them all for INSET due to other demands and potential bookings they have made for their INSET plans,.

And you can't ask teachers to work for free and give up their own holiday weeks. Many already do that a lot as it is, but it can't be an absolute requirement.

I wouldn't want children in the room whilst trying to move furniture and equipment around and reorganise classrooms. It's likely to be a H&S issue as it is. And surely it's a waste of learning time - if they are in school they need to be learning, not removals.

So it's definitely possible to have schools shut for additional days for such situations Im afraid. The school will have taken advise already; they won't just make the decision themselves.

Sirfred often the contractors are the Local Authority so penalties aren't included.
I've taught a class during building work and during the time to set up a classroom and it's a nightmare of dust dirt and interruptions. Parents complained that the school wasn't closed.

The school my children attended was closed for half a term due to building work delay and unfortunately nothing could be done (old school had been demolished so nowhere to accommodate pupils) so I can see both sides.

I contacted the LEA last thursday and was told someone would call me back but no one has. I have called three more times in total and nobody will speak to me about it as it is not in their remit
I have infact spoken to my Mp who is writing a letter to the education Department, perhaps they will have the courtesy to reply to her.

Just as a piece of random information - a primary in our local area had over-running building works back in September.

They have had an equal number of days added on to the end of the summer term, so break up later than any other local schools.

I have been involved in setting up a school in a new build and it is a lot of hard work and takes a long time.

The school have given you a lot of notice and you need to now be pro active in sorting out your childcare. Ring around childminders, speak to other parents - in four months this is sortable.

This building work will be causing a lot of stress for all involved without you calling in MPs etc and adding to the trouble.