School closures why….

Schools are closed by the local authority – NOT by teachers!!

This poster on this thread has a different take on it – which is it then?
http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/the-reasons-schools-shut-is#post-951533

My wife had to make the decision this morning it really is quite complex:

You have to decide by 6.30am as you have to let the school buss companies know whether to do the pick ups or not.

You have to have an eye on the Weather forecast – not just if the pupils can get in safely in the morning but the likelyhood of getting them home safely in the evening.

You have to guess how many teachers and support staff will make it (more than you think – they are not all slackers) into work and how many children. Then you work out if this is a safe ratio of pupils to teachers.

Then you make a judgement call on how likely it is that the pupils at home will be home alone and potentially unsafe.

Then you check if the heating is working.

Then you make the decision.

My wife is not the head of the school but she makes the decision jointly with the facilities manager (caretaker) as she is normally the first person to arrive on the premises each day.

My Wife is the ———

Catering Manager!! (Not – I repeat NOT a Dinner Lady).

Headteachers can only close a school with the approval of the local authority.

Simply not true! (I should know, my wife is a headteacher)

Tails said

Just a quick question, I could almost defiantly make more money as a teacher in my current financial position, but there is a little devil sitting on my shoulder saying if I took that root I have failed in my profession (industrial design) and I don't want to look back when I'm old and feel unfulfilled.

Do many of you teachers have that feeling, as a few of my teaching friends appear to have gone into teaching as a "easy" choice?

It's not that easy. For example, if you want to teach English you need to know when to use the word "route" rather than "root"

And I expect if you'd not made a typo on "definatly", you'd have got that wrong too – it's "definitely"

BTW – that wasn't gratuitous – my wife's a teacher and as usual she set out at 7.15 today for her "easy" job. She'll probably be home as usual at around 6 p.m. and have tea before doing an hour or two of marking/planning.

Do many of you teachers have that feeling, as a few of my teaching friends appear to have gone into teaching as a "easy" choice?

I know what you mean I spent years wanting and training to do science research, when i finally got my dream job i hated and 4 years later trained as a teacher sometimes i feel i somehow took an easy choice but never when actually in the classroom. its also a much harder job both mentally and in terms of hours worked.

They certainly err way too far on the side of caution round here – nothing to do with the caretaker not wanting to clean up after 150 pairs of wet wellington boots have stomped through the doors of course – and it is the caretaker who calls it in at our local school as he lives on site.

As for teaching profession – from what I've seen, way harder than most people imagine.

rightplacerighttime, you certainly don't want to look at me for a shining example of English, especially on this forum. I am aware of a teachers day, my father was a head teacher and he often even worked marking papers on sunday. I do think for many it is chosen as a easy choice as my knowledge of design is far greater than that which is taught at A level, which is a shame as a lot of the information could easily be conveyed at that level.

Thats a fair point aa, I won't pretend to feel inspired, fulfilled and mentally challenged every day, but is it not frustrating/easy teaching the same topics every year.

ah, rules is rules eh Miketually?

believe it or not, rules can be bent in extremis to make things work
That's not really fair- easy to say when it's not the rules that you have to work to, and the consequences of breaking them aren't on you.

Anyway, another problem for schools might be what to do with the kids if their parents can't come and get them in the evening. All sorts of reasons for closing besides "there's a bit of snow on the ground".

Does annoy me that I know a few people who work within a few miles of where they live, and they really do seem to think that if they can't drive then they can't get into work. Bit sad really.

Just pi$$es me off hearing people running teachers down, even if subconsciously.

if I took that root [teaching] I have failed in my profession (industrial design) and I don't want to look back when I'm old and feel unfulfilled.

My wife also started out in another job, but then went back to college and did a further degree in teaching. She then worked for 9 years in a pretty rough area of London (Camberwell) before moving out into the countryside to live with me. Even so she's put in another 7 years at other schools. This year her school (and more specifically her class) had the 4th highest SATs scores and the highest value added score in Dorset. She has made quite a difference to countless kids lives.

In her spare time she's had 2 kids.

Why would she feel unfulfilled?

It's not about the job you do. It's about what difference you make in the job you do.

my knowledge of design is far greater than that which is taught at A level, which is a shame as a lot of the information could easily be conveyed at that level

Conveyed and assessed? In 360 hours? (And not many places get the 360 hours per A level – we get 270 hours per A level.)

Teaching (especially at primary) isn't really about what you know, it's about how to get/help kids to learn how to find out for themselves. A constantly moving target (well, usually 25-30 constantly moving targets).
Just teaching facts gets nobody anywhere useful, skills it where it's at!
But anyway, I thought this thread was about why I am at home with my wife (also a teacher) because of a bit of snow? I was lucky, only tripled my journey time to get home again, her 25 minute journey took 2 and a half hours, without any extra end of day traffic.
In our cases it was issues of staff being able to get home (well, in her case she was the only teacher who made it in). We don't operate an emergency service and don't always have the option to live near our school if we wanted to.
As with any profession, some will make an effort to get there, some won't or can't make the effort. Don't forget that on here people generally enjoy the great outdoors and a bit of a challenge, they aren't all like us/that.

Staff child ratios are pretty set in stone though, can't be bent. May be unavoidably broken, but if closing the school avoids breaking them, then schools will close as well as a heads responsibility to their staff as well as the children.

I'm a late-comer to this thread, but I've only just got back home having had to go to work (as a secondary school teacher) only for the dithering headteacher to decide to close the school at lunch-time. On the way home, driving with due care and diligence (high gears, low revs, etc) I nearly had 3 accidents due to the conditions and other numpty drivers. Scariest drive I've done for a long time, if not ever. I was home in 50 mins as opposed to the usual 30 mins for the 10 mile journey, unlike colleagues coming from other directions who took three hours when it's usually half an hour. The notion that most teachers wake up, look out the window at a dusting of snow and roll over and go back to sleep is nonsense. We do resent putting ourselves and our cars at risk of damage – we don't have company cars and sure as hell wouldn't be able to claim on work's insurance if we had a prang. Whilst at school today, with about 3/4 of students in, it was a complete waste of time – I teach at a grammar school with bright, well-motivated kids but today they just so weren't bothered and kept asking when they were going home, I would say about 30% of usual 'learning' happened at best.

tails: Just because you're clever at something – in your case we used to call it Technical Drawing/Woodwork/Metalwork 😉 – doesn't mean you'd 'walk it' as a teacher. I've seem many 'very clever' student teachers get eaten up and spat out by groups of students. Personally, teaching was not an easy way out. Whilst doing my Economics degree I had an epiphany of sorts, where I realised its not all about how much you earn, that I enjoyed working with kids, and truth be told, having 1 week in 4 off was a sweetener!

I'm not going in to school tomorrow mainly just to wind up my non-teaching friends.

That and I need a little bit more time to get over the two week xmas holiday

Headfirst – how does your drive to work with the risk of damaging your car differ from anyone elses? None as far as I can see.

What happened to the policy where if your school was closed, you reported for duty at the school who's catchment area you lived in? OK, you may not be able to teach, but you would be able to look after the kids.

OK, you may not be able to teach, but you would be able to look after the kids.

Teachers teach you're thinking of babysitters

Sorry, but for kids who need supervision because they are too young to be home alone that's a significant part of a school's responsibilities.

Sorry, but for kids who need supervision because they are too young to be home alone that's a significant part of their parent's responsibilities.

It is not the authority's decison to close…it is down to the individual headteachers.
I know this cos I've just had a row with someone from the authority about the reporting to parents procedure for closure. I had 3 schools to listen out for on the radio; my own, and my 2 kids.
Some heads phone the radio station nice and early and some don't bother until after 8.15am by which time a lot of kids are on the way to school! Trying to get myself and 2 kids up and ready for work/school while trying to listen to the radio for 3 different closure announcements was a barrel of laughs, on the first day back with a stroppy 8yr old who didn't want to get up!! 8)
And my firefighter husband phoning me from work telling not to go to work as the roads were bad!
I got in OK but the drive home was treacherous.
My headteacher decided to stay open. There were 5 car crashes outside our school this morning as the road was so dangerous!
Now most of the snow has melted she's made the decision to close tomorrow!! 🙄

What happened to the policy where if your school was closed, you reported for duty at the school who's catchment your in

That would be a policy the peado's would love.

What exactly do schools do if they can't contact a parent when they want to close early?

lets say the kid is under 10

uplink – Premier Member
What exactly do schools do if they can't contact a parent when they want to close early?

lets say the kid is under 10

Keep them in school, I would assume it is the heads responsibility to make sure they are supervised and whoever can leave latest would stay (staff that is) Our head lives within walking distance so would probably do it herself. When they don't turn up after school after a certain time we are supposed to hand over to social services, but that hand over never seems to happen…

uplink…we had to close 3yrs ago as we had no water due to damage to the water main by engineers down the road.
We started phoning at 10.00am and didn't contact the last parent until after 3.00pm. It was total chaos. Kids leaving classes a few at a time until each class had about 3 kids left and then they were all put together in the hall.
The staff stayed in school until all the children had left.
We were brought in bottled water.

All i know is it's unlikely i have school tomorrow… and right now i like that.

It's safety thing for kids-give thema day off or be sued by parents as Joe has fallen over injured.

Talk about jealous Mail readers lol.

rightplacerighttime – my post was not a personal attack on your wife, so I hope you don't think that.

It's not about the job you do. It's about what difference you make in the job you do.

Come on there is no point being the best teaboy in the world, if your ambition is to be an actor.

Conveyed and assessed? In 360 hours? (And not many places get the 360 hours per A level – we get 270 hours per A level.)

I believe it could be, but not on top of the existing subjects being covered. Why have you only been given 270 hours, that is unfair on both students and lecturers?

headfirst – It was called Design and Technology in my day 😆 I'm sure I would not "walk it" but I can count the good teachers I met on my fingers, they were the ones who made learning more interesting and digestible.

Conveyed and assessed? In 360 hours? (And not many places get the 360 hours per A level – we get 270 hours per A level.)

I believe it could be, but not on top of the existing subjects being covered. Why have you only been given 270 hours, that is unfair on both students and lecturers?

That's per subject. Exam boards recommend 180 hours per subject per year for A level, but it's down to individual establishments to choose how long to give – we manage to get some of the best results in the country on that time.

Bet when they do go back they`ll need another day of for teacher training.Great work if you can get it

Tails,

I didn't take your comment as a personal attack, but like I said, I think it highlighted a common unconscious attitude problem (likewise, I'm not making a personal attack on you now (not this time 🙂 )).

But the implication of you saying that you would think yourself a failure for having to resort to teaching your subject, rather than pursuing it in its own right, is that teaching is a second rate profession. To quote the old cliche "Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach." Which I'm sure most of us know is a crock of $hit.

Everyone has to learn and everyone needs teachers. I'll admit that I had some shockingly poor teachers at school. But luckily I also had a few good ones and I think that the good ones made more difference to the way I turned out than the bad ones did. Maybe what we need though is for a few more people to realise that being a good teacher might be more important and more fulfilling than being a good designer (say), although you could say that about being a teacher versus most other professions too as far as I'm concerned.

I wouldn't want to be a teacher myself as I don't think I have the right temperament to do it well (far too grumpy), but I have every admiration for those who do do it as a true vocation.

OTOH I think that anyone who does do it as an "easy" job is likely to change their mind pretty quickly and will either get out or end up pretty miserable.

mine is shut tomorrow – work from home 🙂

Most of this thread seems to be about schools not opening in the morning – just a few posts on schools deciding to shut in the middle of the day. What's all that about then? All the schools round here seem to have decided to send their kids home late morning or lunchtime (there was no snow at 9am – loads came down mid morning), with the seeming result of putting lots of cars on the roads just at the point they were struggling anyway. Given the kids and teachers were all there anyway, what exactly was the problem with having a normal day and picking up as normal – at which point the roads would actually have been a lot clearer than they were when they did shut, and most of the numpties (apart from the school run numpties obviously) on the road would have made it home?

"What happened to the policy where if your school was closed, you reported for duty at the school who's catchment your in"
That would be a policy the peado's would love.

Because of course it wouldn't be possible to do any sort of checking to make sure the people reporting for duty were actually teachers? Or is there some other way you're thinking of that the cunning paedo's (who of course didn't exist 30 years ago) could exploit the situation?

my girlfriends uni is closed, no staff/student ratios there I'm fairly sure, she made it over the mountain road to get there, where is everyone else? not even the building is open

I dont carry a card that says I'm a teacher and have been CRB checked, those checks would be done by who if none of us can get to our right place of work. Face it that is a stupid idea.

Think you find its all down to insurance
and also health and saftey.
Have found out the caretaker at my daughters school
will not clean away the snow on the paths etc incase
he/she hurts themselves and claims?

Countrys gone made

I dont carry a card that says I'm a teacher and have been CRB checked

and schools don't have telephones?

Most of this thread seems to be about schools not opening in the morning – just a few posts on schools deciding to shut in the middle of the day. What's all that about then?

If the head thinks that conditions will make it more of a problem to get the kids home later then they shut the school. They might not always be right, but they only have a forecast to go on – same as anyone else.

As all those people stuck in Basingstoke overnight could attest, sometimes it might be better to be cautious.

My daughter spent all afternoon doing nothing at school because several teachers were sent home early by the head just in case the Severn bridges were closed ffs.

The school is in Bristol and the teachers live in South Wales. IIRC both the bridges are on motorways and they can drive the long way home through Gloucestershire if necessary.

Why should my kids miss out on schooling because the teachers CHOOSE to live 40+ miles away. Their choice surely.

Of course you could home educate, then you'd never have to put up with any of the disadvantages of the state system and the weather could never cause your kids to miss a vital minute. Your choice surely?

I dont carry a card that says I'm a teacher and have been CRB checked, those checks would be done by who if none of us can get to our right place of work. Face it that is a stupid idea.

Utter pish – the local education authority could easily set this up again. School heads would then know which teachers lived in their area and who should turn up.

It's what many geographically-distributed companies do and there's no reason why the schools shouldn't do the same.

Schools closing is one of the fundamental cornerstones as to why this country can't deal with 1/10th of the snowfall our european neighbours have: Children off? Then bus drivers, train drivers and guards off = more people can't get to work = other services not working etc etc. It's the beginning of a vicious circle which brings the country to it's knees.

However, I'm not saying that if the kids are off tomorrow then we won't go sledging as a family.

I remember seeing an old film documentary on British winters.
The difference in attitude is astounding compared to today.The people they were interviewing all stated they made every effort to get to work in the morning,but none of them were concerned about how they would get home afterwards.
😕

Please dont knock teachers. 8)