Snow and school closures.

I think the parents "moan about the school being closed" mainly because they can't go to work and probably don't get paid suzied.

^ Maybe just tell them that a snowball should only be snow and nothing else but maybe I'm old fashioned.^
I do remember some 'very naughty, rough boys' making snowballs with stones in the middle when I was little and pelting us girls with them.
very naughty, rough boys, keep away from them - my DM's words.

I’m sure they do, gilly, but if the HT cannot guarantee the safety of the children if there aren’t enough staff, then it makes sense to close. Some parents are litigious and blame the school for inadequate supervision if there is a fight or their child falls over. ( even when said child is misbehaving)

I seem to remember in the dim and distant days if you were a teacher who couldn't get to the school where you taught, you went to your local school and taught there. Seems a good idea now that schools are closing because staff can't get to work because they have to travel.

My teacher daughter-in-law has a snow day today so is simply working from home and catching up on the mountain of paperwork that she would otherwise be doing in her own time after school.

Teachers no longer live near their school. If teachers have a long journey to school, head teachers may be concerned that they will not have enough teachers in for proper supervision.

It is a difficult call to make. I had an evening class on Tuesaday in a town 15 miles away. We had snow showers all afternoon and they were due to continue all evening and temperatures were plunging. I decided not to go. Of course once the decision was made the snow stopped, it turned to be very localised, with none in the town where my class was. But I had to make a decision and made on best information available.

Last time it snowed my DGS school closed for one day only until the playground was cleared of snow and ice.
The others schools on either side (walking distance from DGS school) remained closed.

Today DGS school remained open.
The school cleared a path and opened side a entrance for all pupils.
The schools on either side were closed yesterday and today.
Up to yet my other DGS nursery has also remained open.

I actually hope that the nursery and school are closed tomorrow.
The roads were very icy at school pick up and the snow was blowing the snow like a sand storm from the fields and on to the roads.?

The wind was blowing the snow.....

Poor Head teachers it's a case of damned if they do and damned if they don't. I am certain, sure that this is a decision not taken lightly, they do have to answer to LA and Ofsted

'Twas ever thus. And that's why no one wants to do the job!

Agreed trisher

When I was a child in the bad winter of 62, our school never closed - nor did any others. BUT it was the norm for mothers not to work, grandparents to live nearby and school to be just a walk away with no need to drop off siblings at nursery or childminder en route.
Things have changed.
Our school closed early on Wednesday and the staff all tripped gaily off to the pub. For my twopennorth, I'd have preferred the Head to say in the text "Anyone who can't leave work and doesn't want their child in an empty house/snowstorm, the school will remain open and students will be supervised by staff who live locally." I don't teach anymore but I don't see why I should get a paid day off when I could be looking after kids whose parents will lose money if they leave work. I suppose the drawback is that you have to guarantee a child/staff ratio for Elfen Safety.

Why do people complain so much is my question. The UK doesn't usually have extremes of weather, we aren't geared up for excessive heat, snow etc. We have an austerity government where essential, front line services are being slashed to the bone. Is it surprising we don't have snow ploughs etc when it so rarely snows?
As others have said, in the 50's and 60's most of us, including teachers, walked to School. Teachers may now drive at least an hour or an hour and half to do a 15 mile journey that outside rush hour would take half an hour. Pupils often take two buses to get to their high school of choice. It isn't complicated to realise that opening schools under these circumstances would pose more problems than it solves.
I wish it were not so. It is. We should just get over it, count our blessings and stop complaining.

Well said Iam64

As I walked through snow to the shop yesterday -not too bad here to be fair -yesterday a woman was shouting across the street to a neighbour that although school was open with normal lessons -its a five minute walk maximum -she wasn't sending her children as she thought they would like a 'snow day'
I'd just had a call from our DD, a teacher,to say she had finally got into work after much longer and tricky commute across city to her school.She can't afford to live in the area she works in.It must be much harder for heads to decide wether to close or not now with many teachers travelling further,parents often both working and disgruntled at closures and health and safety to factor in.I don't envy them.

I think one of our problems is we expect everything to carry on as normal when there is heavy snow. In other countries that have heavy snow every year they know that when the snow is tipping down, normal activities have to be suspended.

It has been reported that airports in both Switzerland and Norway and other countries have been closed for periods over the last week. The only difference is that because heavy snow is an annual event the snow removal equipment at airports in countries like Switzerland and Norway can clear their runnways more quickly because they can justify the purchase of bigger beefier more expensive equiment.

The same applies to the roads. It is just in this country drivers expect to go about as normal so hundreds are stuck in snow drifts and spinning off roads when they should never have even been on them. there is no virtue in running off the road and dieing from hypothermia.

We have to listen to the safety reports. There have been red alerts. School heads have the safety of their children and staff as a priority. I’m afraid some people will complain if schools are shut and others will complain if they are open. We’ve all seen the news - would you want to risk the safety of your loved ones just to be able to say “ ah, but, the schools stayed open”.
There are a whole host of issues to be taken into consideration, and believe me, the decision to close a school is not taken lightly. The teachers will not be viewing it as an extra day or two’s holiday, either!!
In the “ good old days” when people were made of “ sterner stuff”, the children and staff were, by and large, local to the school. Neither was there the volume of traffic that there is now and neither were there so many children been driven to school. Roads were generally quieter. We’ve seen the pictures in recent days of vehicles skidding out of control - should we put the children walking to school, standing at bus stops in zero temperatures at risk just so we can say the school remained open, though?

Sympathise with everyone yesterday; in the morning I felt the schools closed far too readily; by the end of school day the roads were treacherous and full of people leaving work early. If children had been at school some of them would still have been there at 6 o'clock as parents struggled to collect them from relatively short distances, and staff would have to stay also. Difficult.
I have struggled through the snow to get into school (nearly three hours for a forty minute journey, to find only eight of my class of twenty four, (those were the days!) at school. Equally, I have held the fort whilst other teachers left early, because they had to battle through snow to collect their children on time.
The main problems are too many schoolchildren not within walking distance of their homes, and too many parents both having to be at work, (include teachers in that).
No helpful solution; fortunately we don't have many days like yesterday.

I’m afraid, * grannyhaggis* that it’s not as simple nowadays for a teacher to turn up at their nearest school. In these days where we have to be so careful, a stranger, unknown to the head of a school, turning up and saying they are a teacher from another school would very likely be turned away. They could be anyone.
Actually, the schools nearer to me ( I don’t teach any longer, by the way, retired), were closed yesterday and Wednesday, so even if I was still working and turned up, I would have had a wasted journey!

Yes, it must be a difficult decision. One school I know of didn't close first thing, some parents had to travel some distance to get there (rural school) then an hour later the HT made the decision to close the school.

I don't remember ever having time off because of snow when I was a child in the 1950s. We went to school in all weathers wearing our skirts and socks with bare knees. Our school was at the top of a steep hill and there was a hand rail to help you climb the hill but you needed woolly gloves to touch it.

I don't even remember our children having time off for snow in the 1970s. They had woolly tights and annoraks with hoods and walked to school in all weathers.

My grandchildren are having a lovely time today sledging, snowballing, snowboarding on tin trays. I'm glad that times have changed.

So am I varian, glad that things have changed. I remember 1959 (I'm pretty sure that was the year) when my young sister fell in a snowdrift on our way to school. I took her home as she was soaked to the skin and crying. She stayed home and I was sent back to school, aged 8, soaking wet shoes, bare legs etc. At school, there was a huge fire in the middle of the hall. All classes were moved in there so the children could thaw out. Our various socks and coats were hung over rails to dry out. We had our morning milk and had to break through the ice or sit it on the edge of the fire to thaw that out. We wore our plimsolls and hoped our socks and shoes would be dry by home time.
M y mother had an old washer with a wringer. We had a fire in one room. I remember bringing in frozen washing to help mum, we had a tiny baby at that time.
Oh the good old days

It was more straightforward in the days when schools were run by the local authority. With academies and free schools and the like, education has become privatised, so teachers couldn’t just turn up at their nearest school.

‘Elfen Safety’ ? perhaps you can’t spell or perhaps you think the safety and care of children is a laughing sneery matter Hells?

My DGD2’s head teacher sent an email to parents asking for help to clear the playground and paths and more than needed turned up. Enough teachers. Class assistants, dinner and playground helpers all arranged to come in. All systems go. Then the police closed the school as the pavements outside were slippery. DD2 lost another days pay which she desperately needs.