Snow Days - what is your policy?

[roisin]

We rarely get decent snow here as we are coastal, but our HT informed us that policy is that even if the school is closed staff are expected to come in, unless they are unable to do so because of local snow conditions.

So although the school is closed to students, staff are expected to come in and work.

Is this the same where you are?

OOh roisin, I've just started virtually an identical thread, except mine is primary.

I'll be interested to see what folk say about this.

Yes, standard after all you are being paid still. However if it is dangerous for staff to come in and travel home ie not a problem with local snow conditions then you can be at home.

I thought the schools were closed as the staff couldn't come in - why else would they be closed?

Ours is closed due the the potential hazards of ice, but all the staff CAN get in on foot.

We live within walking distance of DH & DS SENIOR school

And he doesn't go in ~ message sent very early this morning that school closed

Although they did go to play in the snow and take photos

It is a private school though so may be different rules

erm....no, definitely not - probably because in the south-east they close schools to keep the roads relatively free for emergency services.

And the advice is non-essential journeys only.

My DH (Head of Faculty) has enough marking to keep him going for 3 days plus he can get on the school system from home and the Edexcel website for planning.

I would love to work from home today but dd's school is shut and impossible to do antyhign with her here.

That's ridiculous Roisin - if the school is shut it should be shut for everyone - duh!

--with the possible exception of course of the school caretake----

For us it is pretty much academic as we're coastal so never get a decent amount of snow

But if we did and they had to close schools, then they would also be closing the schools that children of staff attend.

I don't know how they determine whether it should be a snowday or not, but when it is, it is applicable to both staff and pupils.

I actually did show up at school today, but was turned away in the car park.

No, at the infants school next to dh's workplace all the teachers had sloped off home and left the lollipop man to inform the parents that they had made a last-minute decision not to open the school that morning. Now that shows real commitment .

At least some of the teachers live locally and dh had no difficulty walking in to work (Not to mention that the buses were running).

In dd's secondary, all the children came in (since the school was not among those listed as closed), but the school then decided to close anyway, at a few minutes notice, as not enough teachers had turned up. So they sent the children home without anyone checking that they had somewhere to go. Dd had a moment of panic as dh and I had both left for work and they are not allowed to bring mobiles into school so she had no means of contacting us, also she had no latch key. But she managed to make her way to the childminder who took her in.

Ds's school was open but the children were not allowed out at playtime 'as they might slip on the snow and break an arm'.

I noticed that hardly any of our university students or university teachers had difficulties making their way in and dh's work colleague was able to drive down from Basingstoke. All the buses were running on time too.

All in all, I am not impressed by the local school teachers. But I am impressed by the commitment of university students, childminders and the driver of the disabled taxi who hung around and looked after dd.

Actually Cory, teachers don't make the decision to shut a school. It is up to the head and the governers in consultation with the LEA. Nor is it the job of a teacher to inform people the school is closed. I doubt they had sloped off home, but were actually advised not to attend in the first place

Universities are usually located in a city centre, so main access routes will be open. My school is stuck on a very very steep hill, with very very thick snow. Gritters couldn't get down or up the hill to grit it. Therefore it was too dangerous for staff or students to get in. Headteachers have to consider the well being of a child who may have to travel across a city in dangerous weather conditions.

No Roisin, we don't have to go in, as school is too difficult to access

Cory - this really isn't about individual teachers trying to get a day off work and showing a lack of commitment to their charges. Either the headteacher or the LA will make a decision to close a school, or to keep it open. Whichever option they take, somebody will moan one way or the other but individual teachers will have no say whatsoever.

We are back tomorrow and we have had a great time. Had a great couple of days building snowmen, snowball fights and drinking hot chocolate.

I even managed to complete with my GCSE & A level marking. The DCs have even 'cheerfully' done music practice.

... and to all those who moan - when was the last time that Surrey children had the right type of snow and the right volume to have such a fab time?

fizzbuzz on Tue 03-Feb-09 16:31:01
"Actually Cory, teachers don't make the decision to shut a school. It is up to the head and the governers in consultation with the LEA. Nor is it the job of a teacher to inform people the school is closed. I doubt they had sloped off home, but were actually advised not to attend in the first place"

If so, why could the school not have listed the school as closed with the local radio station? What the children at dd's school were told was that it was a last minute decision because not enough teachers had turned up.

In the case of the school near dh, there were a few teachers in the school, but they did not come out to speak to the parents: that was left to the lollipop man.
I would have thought that was even less of his responsibility? But of course informing the radio station would have been better.

"Universities are usually located in a city centre, so main access routes will be open."

In this particular case (the school near dh), it is the school that is right in the city centre, there was hardly any snow there and all buses were running yesterday. The university on the other hand is located outside the centre, up a steep and very icy/snowy hill.

janeite on Tue 03-Feb-09 16:34:37
"Cory - this really isn't about individual teachers trying to get a day off work and showing a lack of commitment to their charges. Either the headteacher or the LA will make a decision to close a school, or to keep it open. Whichever option they take, somebody will moan one way or the other but individual teachers will have no say whatsoever."

My understanding is that for both the infants near dh's workplace and for dd's secondary school this was a decision taken by the headteacher at school starting time when they saw that the teachers were not turning up.

Else, why could they not inform the local radio station like other schools did? Why wait until the children were there waiting in the playground? It's not as if the facilities of keeping people informed were lacking: the local radio station were updating their website every few minutes.

And besides, dd's school specifically told the pupils that there had been a change of plan and that they had to go home because not enough teachers had come in.

Please accept that I am not moaning about the schools closing or about teachers finding it difficult to make their way in. I am complaining about schools not making use of facilities for information which were available and (in the case of the secondary school) for changing their minds at such very short notice without ensuring that all their pupils could get home safely and have somewhere to go.

I give full credit to the local radio station who worked very hard to spread any information they were given.

And btw- I'm not moaning about the snow either; I think it's great. I walked for an hour to get to work this morning (today the buses did stop running) and thoroughly enjoyed it.

well it was choas when we opened on Wednesday. Try stopping hundreds of boys chucking iceballs everywhere - and it was slippy in spite of the grtting - wet corridors, kids late between lessons etc. It would not have been safe to have opened on Tuesday. Student Services were very busy with slips, bumps, bruises etc. It may be easy to control a small primary but a large non-selective comp is a different kettle of fish

happilyconfused, do children at selective schools not play with snow?

lol GP!!!! Of course selctive school kids are just too academic!!! Sorry I'm still laughing at that!

our school was closed details were put on the website even though it was late and I was practically out the door!!!

It was fun while it lasted.

Surely if you are calling in saying you can't make it to work because of the snow, you can and should do this early. I don't think it would be unreasonable for the school to require teachers to notify the school by say 7.45am if they are unable to travel owing to snow, and therefore make the snow closure announcement in a timely manner. I think most schools have rules about how late you can leave it to call in sick (where I worked certainly did) so why should this be any different?

Now Roisin I can confidently tell you that your school HAS in the past been closed for snow DO NOT give up hope!

I think you should say that the snow is too thick outside your door to even open it or that you have a snow allergy.

DD's school is closed for the 2nd time this week - the old head would NEVER close it for this amount of snow (I know having walked the 4 miles to get there in the last equally bad snow falls!) - that new head tch! She's really making her mark......

DS's primary stayed open as nearly all the staff and most of the children live within walking distance. The Head has always said on the school website, newsletters etc that this would be the case in snowy weather, so really parents had no reason to keep their children at home if they too lived within walking distance of the school. Even so, the school was very quiet on Monday and most parents had decided to let their children stay at home. I don't think this is very supportive of the teachers or sending the appropriate message to the children.

The secondary that I work in was also open for everyone on Monday. The head was confident that enough staff would be able to make it to work safely to supervise those students who would come in. The school website said that students and staff should only travel to school on Monday if they felt they could do so safely and that they were confident that they could also get home as more snow came in during the afternoon. In other words he was really saying that school was open to those who could get there on foot. On Tuesday, because parts of the school site had become quite icy he opened the school to Y11, 12 and 13 but said all other students should remain at home.

My word GP that was to the quick. What I meant was that we could not stop the snowball fights - it may be feasible to stop the primary kids but big kids are a bit more of a challenge. DS is at a selective and had a great mass snowball fight with the sixth formers. One day we have parents moaning that the school is closed and the next they are moaning because their child is hurt. Problem with schools and teaching is that nothing is ever right.

Interesting that not many people picked up about parents are moaning shortly after a report is issued about how unhappy UK children are.

When we closed for our snow day staff were told to stay away as the day before several staff had needed to be towed out of hedges and ditches trying to drive into school.

When the wind gets above a certain speed we have to close because we have lots of old trees and an old manor house building. On those days staff come in but no students.

We were closed on Monday and Tuesday Roisin and all staff were told to stay away, on full pay. A lot of the teachers live a long way from school and since our area was very hard hit, it was just foolish for them to try to get in at all. I could have walked or braved the roads, and I offered, but my boss told me to stay away.

Our school was one of the very last schools to be listed on the radio station, not because she made a last minute decision, but the sheer number of calls going through to the radio station meant it took almost an hour for her to get through!