[Closed] Why are so many schools shut?

Teachers want to go sledging.

Mods - wrong forum - can you move you chat please? A button to let posters do so would be cool too 🙂

Because all teachers are really, really crap drivers

Our kids' primary school only tends to close if there's a risk the teachers can't get home. I suppose in this day and age a lot of staff aren't within walking distance as they may have been in the "old days". Also - let's face it - most people simply aren't prepared to drive in snow any more and that has a knock on effect.

Modern life.

When I was a kid there were still lots of village schools and most teachers lived local (a bit like coppers etc). So few had to drive/travel.

Plus parents would complain/sue if teachers weren't there to look after their kids.

While half of me is unhappy, I can see it from the Head Teachers' viewpoint - a decision made early solves loads of hassle later.

Lazy people using the snow as an excuse is my guess.

Tune into R5 - debate in full flow - hilarious.
You need to listen to the Lancastrian bloke who was on earlier - fantastic.

Teachers often live a fair way from schools nowadays. So it has to be safe enough for them to drive in.

In the old days, most teachers used to walk to school, so there'd usually be enough teachers to look after the kids who managed to get in. Nowadays if there aren't enough teachers to look after the kids, they can't run the school.

Not exactly sure why teachers live further away, but then I guess people in general live further from their jobs, so unless we all work a short walk from home it is hard to moan about teachers driving to work. It's also probable that teachers move around jobs more than they used to, and it isn't always possible to move home every time you change jobs.

Also, I remember when I was a kid, they used to wait and see, and send us home at lunchtime if it looked bad, because most parents worked pretty locally (or one parent didn't work). Nowadays, parents are also much more likely to work a long way away, sending kids home at lunchtime is harder if many of the parents are in a city an hours drive away (potentially a few hours drive if there is bad snow). So if there is a forecast of bad snow, it is probably more practical to make a decision the evening before or early in the morning and cancel a full day.

Im here.. well in body..

Extra holidays for teachers, they don't get much.

My son is network/IT manager at a school in south wales. They opened up on friday because of examinations and volunteers were sought to keep the place open for the exams. Seven Admin employees turned up including my son and one teacher turned up very late. All the affected students made it in including several who walked in six or seven miles. Exams went ok, no thanks to the teachers.

[i]Lazy people using the snow as an excuse is my guess. [/i]

My wife is the deputy head at a Special Needs school.

Children at the school come from a wide area and a number are in wheelchairs. Most make use of a minibus service.

To avoid the problem of children either becoming stuck in buses that cannot get either to the school or back to their houses or becoming 'trapped' at the school by deterioration of the weather during the day they closed the school today and last Friday.

but you're right, she's just being lazy, I'll go downstairs and have a word if you like?

Both of my children are at their (different) schools which are open today but serve the needs of children who could pretty much all walk to and from school. Lazy teachers not wanting to pay to heat their houses during the day to blame their I expect.

Not exactly sure why teachers live further away

probably so they don't get knifed while walking home

'elf and safety innit.

who cares, kids needs to play more, people tend to go nuts when schools shut for a few days as if a whole generation will turn out to be numpties because of it.

kids need to be outdoors more having unstructured play aiding life skill development.....

Seems to depend on the school.

Mine (c.a. 1200 pupils, suburb/rural catchment, I live out in the sticks 12 miles away) never closed, I remember having to go in in the back of the landrover (not a fancy school run mum one, the local farmers pick up).

The next one in (similar size, town/city center catchemnt) was always closed as it was spread over two 'sites' linked by a path. As thy couldn't gaurentee the path to be free of ice they couldn't make 600 kids walk it between each lesson. That and no teacher's would want to live localy whereas mine was in a nice area!

I'm a guitar teacher in 10 schools, the closest of which is ten miles away. My two main schools are 26 and 41 miles away. It's the nature of teaching these days.

Getting kids out of school at the end of the day is a real problem. Most buses/school coaches stop running, teachers aren't allowed access to the " special clear roads network" that my boss appears to believe exists to get my staff to work....

We are open (a university) and the amount of moaning and whining I'm getting from students that we are open is ridiculous - and they aren't even forced to come in for lectures!

Unfortunately we live in a compensation/blame/nanny culture. If a child at school slips on the ice/snow then parents want cash and blame the school. Simple answer is shut the school. H&S gone mad im afraid.

[i]If a child at school slips on the ice/snow then parents want cash and blame the school[/i]

Have you got any actual examples of that happening?

Only one School open here and yeah the Teachers live far way thing doesn't work with me sorry. My wife commutes and has got there today, no surprise she got though as the roads are clear.

Not exactly sure why teachers live further away

from experience, at secondary level you don't really want to be living in the catchment area of the school your wife works at.

I went to a town school, cannot recall a day when it closed due to snow. My parents would make me walk 3 miles in and home if the buses were off. Different time, different attitudes, different world.

My kids are at the local school in the valley, many come from local villages, some from further afield. If it's open mine will walk the 2 miles into school, the eldest has to as he has GCSEs this week.

The play argument is fine, but if you look at the compressed syllabus taught you would see that there is precious little time to make up lost time. My son is about to be examined without having been taught the full course, and yes I am all over the school about this as well as putting my A-Level Physics to use after a lot of years!!

My Sis is a Head Mistress and so too her Hubby. When I've asked about issues like this (closures, early closures etc.) in the main her response is simple, the School can't cope with looking after all the pupils that can't get home.
So the steer has always been, close the School early or don't open it at all.

who cares, kids needs to play more, people tend to go nuts when schools shut for a few days as if a whole generation will turn out to be numpties because of it.

kids need to be outdoors more having unstructured play aiding life skill development.....

Nice sentiment but do you think that all the kids who could be playing outside right now aren't on their PS3's and 360's?

I can remember School closing but it was when the boiler packed in other wise they stayed open and yes the teachers travelled on then too.

My kids schools are open today, both semi-rural. We have a fair bit of snow, so I just slung the kids in the sledge and pulled them to school. We usually cycle.

Yet the city schools are listed as closed- so not sure what the criteria is.

Thanks for the responses - this really isn't meant to be a knock teachers thread. The responses from those in the "trade" are very valuable. I'm luck enough to do a job where I WFH most of the time. I appreciate that that's not true for most teachers!

Not exactly sure why teachers live further away,

In many cases around here because the teachers can't afford to live in the areas they teach in.

glad they are shut, it means that the roads were not full of chelsea tractor driving numpties this morning - so the rest of us had no real issues with the snow/ice

you watch, tomorrow the schools will reopen and the roads will grind to a halt again.

School only closed for us when the boiler packed in, usually the young 'uns were allowed to go home & year 10/11 were still expected to come 2000/2006 btw

Teacher at work here in Perthshire. Rural location. Amber warning of snow being upgraded all the time. In my experience the bus companies tend to run scared quite quickly. You then have half a school who are desperate to get away. You ever tried keeping a lid on that? 500 kids who have just seen another 400 sent home as the snow falls.

Worked great the schools I went to, they always seemed to manage to keep the rest of busy when those in the hills were sent home.

I'm at school 50 mile commute (much nicer house in the countryside as opposed to a hovel in the city. why shouldn't I have teh choices everyone else has with regards where i live). Although to be fair we are reassessing my ability to get home at lunchtime.

My sister lives in the same town I do and teaches primary there they have "resiliant schools" which means that staff attend nearest school as opposed to their own school.

If the rest of us can get to work why can't teachers?
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Also, why should parents get a 'free' day off just because the schools are closed? If I just decided not to come to work I would have to take it as a holiday, they should too. It really irks me that the rest of us have cover for parents all the time, because the little dears school is shut or the little darling has a poorly tummy, and they feel entitled to take a day off, while the rest of us struggle in. Two poeple in my office didn't make it today, one becuase the school was shut, so she's legally entitled to have a day off because of childcare problems, (Tough. It's a school, not a glorified baby-sitter) the other couldn't make it because of the roads where she lives but has had to take a days holiday.
And don't get me started on maternity holiday, they can take the best part of a year off, paid, (and still accrue holiday entitlement while they are off!) and then decide not to return to work, seen this done here many times. There shouyld be a law which says if they leave before, for example, 2yrs after returning to work they should have to pay back the maternity pay.
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Rant over. Probably failed due to lack of random capitals.

you're just miffed because you don't have any kids to give you an excuse to stay home andrewh 😉

[i]they can take the best part of a year off, paid[/i]

you might want to check that 'fact'

If the rest of us can get to work why can't teachers?
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Also, why should parents get a 'free' day off just because the schools are closed? If I just decided not to come to work I would have to take it as a holiday, they should too. It really irks me that the rest of us have cover for parents all the time, because the little dears school is shut or the little darling has a poorly tummy, and they feel entitled to take a day off, while the rest of us struggle in. Two poeple in my office didn't make it today, one becuase the school was shut, so she's legally entitled to have a day off because of childcare problems, (Tough. It's a school, not a glorified baby-sitter) the other couldn't make it because of the roads where she lives but has had to take a days holiday.
[b]And don't get me started on maternity holiday, they can take the best part of a year off, paid, (and still accrue holiday entitlement while they are off!) and then decide not to return to work, seen this done here many times. There shouyld be a law which says if they leave before, for example, 2yrs after returning to work they should have to pay back the maternity pay.[/b]
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Rant over. Probably failed due to lack of random capitals.

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My Sis is a Head Mistress and so too her Hubby

(can't resist) - her husband is a Head Mistress???? 😯

"Not exactly sure why teachers live further away,"

you know whats not nice - living in the catchment area of your school and not being able to go out in the street without kids stopping you or even worse in some areas - kids giving you abuse and vandalising your house - such is the times we live in.

My mrs is a teacher and we have had the kids stopping us in the street was ok as we lived in a nice area with a nice catchment.

the mrs new catchment is tillydrone - if we lived in the catchment im pretty sure we would have the house firebombed or similar by some of her students...

Schools closed = far less cars on the dodgy roads, making it easier for us to get to and from work, so I'm happy with it.

Some of us 'lazy teachers' work in schools on the north Yorkshire moors where we have a foot of snow.

I tried but couldn't physically get the car out. Plus I was up till midnight last night planning to give your children the best possible start in life!

It has to be safe, we are not just baby sitters!

School have to decide whether they'll have enough staff to cope with the kids. Generally, the kids are local and the staff are not. They also have to do this on the basis of the forecast weather.

There's not a single closed school in Darlington today though both Durham and North Yorkshire have loads closed.

We (sixth form college) [i]never[/i] close. But, we don't have to worry about having more staffing levels like a school and most of our staff are relatively local while the students travel in from further afield.

A friend of mines wife is a teacher, and they are told that if they can't get to the school they work at, they should go to the nearest local school where they live. Not sure how widespread that is though, or if any of them actually abide by it.

One other major difference when I was at school was that most familes not only lived near but also had one parent (usually the mother who was at home and didnt work). Its a lot hader being able to send kids home early if you can`t guarantee a parent is home to receive or collect them.