Discussion
Schools in my neck of the woods mostly shut again for 3rd day running (apart from the good ones...go figure) despite no more snow falling since yesterday afternoon and most of it begin blown form the ground by wind. Roads are clear.
If the cold snap lasted a week or two, would the teachers decide not to go in for all that time? when is enough enough? the rest of the public sector makes it in, thank god and i think the nhs staff attitude is superb with most going well above and beyond to do their jobs.
i appreciate health and safety is an issue but if they really wanted to, pupils could be kept inside, with minimum movement outside, and the paths and site could if they really wanted be cleared using salt etc for the very leat to make passage between lessons safe and in and out of school.
is it any wonder the latest generations are considered 'snowflakes', wont accept work they consider beneath them, etc when the example given to them by there educators is just give up and take the easy option?
im a millennial myself, but we had the grand total of one snow day in senior school, due to a broken boiler. yes health and safety wasn't as bad in the early 2000's but still. i have very little respect for secondary school teachers/staff as having family insight into it over the last 5 years it seems to be a politicized left wing, agenda driven system that is inherently lazy. Yes there are still great teachers and exceptions to this, but the whole school closure thing, regardless of how much it messes up parents work etc, seem as just another symptom of the couldn't give a s
t attitude. add to this those parent who fully support the schools decision. such wasters are another reason things are a bit crap these days.
keep children indoors, supervise closely between lesson transit times, and clear paths and access, and maybe start the day a bit later and end earlier to allow for longer traveling times.
my school was a on a vast sprawling site and 1500 pupils, but thats what they managed to do. teaches escorted groups to and from different lessons. kept in form rooms at break time and closely escorted in and out at home time.
by all means close in severe situations, but mid Essex for example hasn't been severely hit and has had ample time to make sites safe.
whats the PH consensus on this. are you a parent who supports the schools closing at the drop of a hat or even one of these staff members?
If the cold snap lasted a week or two, would the teachers decide not to go in for all that time? when is enough enough? the rest of the public sector makes it in, thank god and i think the nhs staff attitude is superb with most going well above and beyond to do their jobs.
i appreciate health and safety is an issue but if they really wanted to, pupils could be kept inside, with minimum movement outside, and the paths and site could if they really wanted be cleared using salt etc for the very leat to make passage between lessons safe and in and out of school.
is it any wonder the latest generations are considered 'snowflakes', wont accept work they consider beneath them, etc when the example given to them by there educators is just give up and take the easy option?
im a millennial myself, but we had the grand total of one snow day in senior school, due to a broken boiler. yes health and safety wasn't as bad in the early 2000's but still. i have very little respect for secondary school teachers/staff as having family insight into it over the last 5 years it seems to be a politicized left wing, agenda driven system that is inherently lazy. Yes there are still great teachers and exceptions to this, but the whole school closure thing, regardless of how much it messes up parents work etc, seem as just another symptom of the couldn't give a s
t attitude. add to this those parent who fully support the schools decision. such wasters are another reason things are a bit crap these days.keep children indoors, supervise closely between lesson transit times, and clear paths and access, and maybe start the day a bit later and end earlier to allow for longer traveling times.
my school was a on a vast sprawling site and 1500 pupils, but thats what they managed to do. teaches escorted groups to and from different lessons. kept in form rooms at break time and closely escorted in and out at home time.
by all means close in severe situations, but mid Essex for example hasn't been severely hit and has had ample time to make sites safe.
whats the PH consensus on this. are you a parent who supports the schools closing at the drop of a hat or even one of these staff members?
Either that or the 'no win' brigade would soon be up in arms when the children started falling over in the snow, or shivering inside old poorly build buildings....
I refer you to two recent topics:
1. My wife fell on the ice
2. School holiday cut short
I'm not advocating closure, however when will people and their rights realise.....
I refer you to two recent topics:
1. My wife fell on the ice
2. School holiday cut short
I'm not advocating closure, however when will people and their rights realise.....
It's not about the pupils getting in or falling over...it's about the staff.
Generally, staff, like myself, don't live anywhere near the school (40 miles away in my case). The pupils do so can walk in.
In the seven years at my current school, we've had two snow days. I've had an additional two occasions where adverse weather was localised to me and anyone north of the M55 was flooded in or the roads were closed due to snow.
I've had days where everyone to the south and east of the M55/M6 junction i.e. Burnley etc were snowed in where as I made it in fine.
You've also got situations where a staff member's child's school is shut in Burnley, therefore they need to provide childcare for the day.
There are many combinations that could see a school full of pupils but virtually no staff make it.
I don't know any Head that takes the 'snow day' decision lightly.
As a teacher, being off due to snow (or any other reason) would cause me more stress as the final run up to GCSEs is happening and every lesson counts.
Generally, staff, like myself, don't live anywhere near the school (40 miles away in my case). The pupils do so can walk in.
In the seven years at my current school, we've had two snow days. I've had an additional two occasions where adverse weather was localised to me and anyone north of the M55 was flooded in or the roads were closed due to snow.
I've had days where everyone to the south and east of the M55/M6 junction i.e. Burnley etc were snowed in where as I made it in fine.
You've also got situations where a staff member's child's school is shut in Burnley, therefore they need to provide childcare for the day.
There are many combinations that could see a school full of pupils but virtually no staff make it.
I don't know any Head that takes the 'snow day' decision lightly.
As a teacher, being off due to snow (or any other reason) would cause me more stress as the final run up to GCSEs is happening and every lesson counts.
Bikesalot said:
Winter tyres - why we never learn.
Because for the 2-3 days of the year when they'd actually be of any use doesn't really justify the cost of them especially if you need another set of wheels to run them. Anyway took the wife's front wheel drive car on normal tyres today and no problems getting in.ciege said:
Either that or the 'no win' brigade would soon be up in arms when the children started falling over in the snow, or shivering inside old poorly build buildings....
I refer you to two recent topics:
1. My wife fell on the ice
2. School holiday cut short
I'm not advocating closure, however when will people and their rights realise.....
when does it stop? if the snow stays for week, 2 weeks, 3 weeks, do they just never go back in?I refer you to two recent topics:
1. My wife fell on the ice
2. School holiday cut short
I'm not advocating closure, however when will people and their rights realise.....
yes i know the excuses, but if the boilers are working heating isn't an issue.
the health and safety aspect is, but thats a judgement call dependent on the attitude of senior staff.
the telling thing is in general its been the better performing schools who have been open or at least deffered the decision to the morning in question.
the poorer performing schools (one example Shenfield in essex) announced closure for today yesterday morning!
theplayingmantis said:
Cold said:
The decision to close or open the schools is not made by the teachers.
its made by the head and usually a group of senior staffThen it comes down to staff shortages usually.
(worked in a school for 3+ years)
Being rather older than the OP, I was at school during the bitterly long winter of 1962/63 and other very snowy winters. In all my school days we never had a single 'snow day'.
It was a brave teacher who ventured into the yard when there was snow on the ground however
And the Head's study window did suffer from snowball attacks too.
It was a brave teacher who ventured into the yard when there was snow on the ground however
And the Head's study window did suffer from snowball attacks too.hondafanatic said:
It's not about the pupils getting in or falling over...it's about the staff.
Generally, staff, like myself, don't live anywhere near the school (40 miles away in my case). The pupils do so can walk in.
In the seven years at my current school, we've had two snow days. I've had an additional two occasions where adverse weather was localised to me and anyone north of the M55 was flooded in or the roads were closed due to snow.
I've had days where everyone to the south and east of the M55/M6 junction i.e. Burnley etc were snowed in where as I made it in fine.
You've also got situations where a staff member's child's school is shut in Burnley, therefore they need to provide childcare for the day.
There are many combinations that could see a school full of pupils but virtually no staff make it.
I don't know any Head that takes the 'snow day' decision lightly.
As a teacher, being off due to snow (or any other reason) would cause me more stress as the final run up to GCSEs is happening and every lesson counts.
hence my point about staff attitudes in my OP. Generally, staff, like myself, don't live anywhere near the school (40 miles away in my case). The pupils do so can walk in.
In the seven years at my current school, we've had two snow days. I've had an additional two occasions where adverse weather was localised to me and anyone north of the M55 was flooded in or the roads were closed due to snow.
I've had days where everyone to the south and east of the M55/M6 junction i.e. Burnley etc were snowed in where as I made it in fine.
You've also got situations where a staff member's child's school is shut in Burnley, therefore they need to provide childcare for the day.
There are many combinations that could see a school full of pupils but virtually no staff make it.
I don't know any Head that takes the 'snow day' decision lightly.
As a teacher, being off due to snow (or any other reason) would cause me more stress as the final run up to GCSEs is happening and every lesson counts.
oop north a bit different given your harsher weather but down here the road infrastructure is working fine and the access is fine. and my mate who works in a primary school is managing to travel 50 odd miles from the norther to the south of the county to get in all but one day this week,
dannyDC2 said:
theplayingmantis said:
Cold said:
The decision to close or open the schools is not made by the teachers.
its made by the head and usually a group of senior staffThen it comes down to staff shortages usually.
(worked in a school for 3+ years)
Now that is blatant profiteering for which someone should lose their job on the face of it.
What they are hoping is that the cost of dealing with all the contestable fines will be outweighed by the number of people who pay up and shut up.
If affected i can assure you i would be going through the legislation right now...
What they are hoping is that the cost of dealing with all the contestable fines will be outweighed by the number of people who pay up and shut up.
If affected i can assure you i would be going through the legislation right now...
CanAm said:
Being rather older than the OP, I was at school during the bitterly long winter of 1962/63 and other very snowy winters. In all my school days we never had a single 'snow day'.
I was at infant school then and vividly remember the caretaker had cut a maze of paths in the playground and the snow was over our heads. I can't recall if we went in everyday - I guess communicating closures wouldn't have been easy then - perhaps that's part of the issue now, it's too easy?The point about teachers living some distance away is also true though. I remember a survey in Liverpool finding only 9% of teachers at Liverpool schools lived in Liverpool. We know a few teachers and off the top of my head the shortest commute would ne 20 miles and many go a lot further.
I'm not a teacher but I suspect that quite a number of teachers simply can't get to their schools.
For example, I live on a hill in a major town that hasn't been gritted and has a nice collection of abandoned cars at the bottom where people have tried but failed. If there is no public transport as a substitute then what are they meant to do?
I'm sure there's a minimum teacher to student ratio that must be adhered to and I imagine he head's have taken a poll on hearing the weather and acted accordingly to give parents as much notice as possible.
Also, many teachers are parents too and their kid's school may have closed leaving them with child care issues to deal with which will probably seal the deal on whether they turn up or not.
Also, all transport and local authority bodies around my way are saying not to travel unless absolutely necessary. Teaching a six year old how to spell 'elephant' can wait for another day.
This sort of weather doesn't come around that often so even if it lasted a week or two it's no real biggy in the great scheme of things and it may be worth noting that it's not just the UK suffering from this week's bad weather as the same thing is happening all across Europe at the moment.
For example, I live on a hill in a major town that hasn't been gritted and has a nice collection of abandoned cars at the bottom where people have tried but failed. If there is no public transport as a substitute then what are they meant to do?
I'm sure there's a minimum teacher to student ratio that must be adhered to and I imagine he head's have taken a poll on hearing the weather and acted accordingly to give parents as much notice as possible.
Also, many teachers are parents too and their kid's school may have closed leaving them with child care issues to deal with which will probably seal the deal on whether they turn up or not.
Also, all transport and local authority bodies around my way are saying not to travel unless absolutely necessary. Teaching a six year old how to spell 'elephant' can wait for another day.
This sort of weather doesn't come around that often so even if it lasted a week or two it's no real biggy in the great scheme of things and it may be worth noting that it's not just the UK suffering from this week's bad weather as the same thing is happening all across Europe at the moment.
Rude-boy said:
Now that is blatant profiteering for which someone should lose their job on the face of it.
What they are hoping is that the cost of dealing with all the contestable fines will be outweighed by the number of people who pay up and shut up.
If affected i can assure you i would be going through the legislation right now...
?What they are hoping is that the cost of dealing with all the contestable fines will be outweighed by the number of people who pay up and shut up.
If affected i can assure you i would be going through the legislation right now...
is this is response to the spoof news posted?
Our school is one of a small handful that have stayed open across Newcastle, north and south Tyneside, Northumberland, Sunderland and Durham (c.150)
In all my education life, we never had one snow day (born 82) ... the kids don’t seem to bothered about being one of the only ones not off and the teachers have done an amazing job making sure the school stays open and the children receive their education
In all my education life, we never had one snow day (born 82) ... the kids don’t seem to bothered about being one of the only ones not off and the teachers have done an amazing job making sure the school stays open and the children receive their education
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