General Chat

Ah for the days when the School Caretaker/Handyman lived on the premises or close to, kept the Coal fired Boilers going and the school warmer than it was at home. we all had to walk there and no excuses,teachers as well,not so namby pamby then as it is now.as for gritting, it was usually the ashes from fires that were thrown on the pavements after it had been cleared by the people living close by. **M**.

On the local mid-day news, it said over 70 schools and colleges were closed in this part of the county, today, and it is getting worse.
Julia in Derbyshire

PS. Even the bin men only came half way down the street. Needless to say, I got missed, and after the OH dragged the bin down the drive.

PPS. Weather girl has just been on the radio and has forecasted another 5-15 cm/2-6in. between now and 10.00 tomorrow morning.
I'll never get to Dun Elm to spend me monies at this rate.

well the second snow day for our school
we had to go out an essential journey
the hospital was up and running fine
then called in the market we had not one stall up

the main roads were not to bad
just the estate roads and smaller roads really bed
and council men shoveling snow everywhere
i dot envy their backs

Sue,
I have nothing against managers per se - just a few seem unable to answer e-mails from home - and the general view from higher echelons that managers shouldn't risk trying to get into work, but admin, apparently soooo indispensible, (so we'll put them on a pay freeze) should risk life & limb to get to work!!
I tore the cartilidge in my knee 4 years ago trying to get to work.
Had an operation on it (back to work after 2 weeks, then damged it the same way 2 years later - yet again trying to get to work on ungritted roads/pavements - and I work for the council that should be gritting the roads!
Not being an operation 'junkie', I've put up with the pain, but am (obviously) very nervous on icy pavements. This year I have 6 days leave left and will happily phone in and take them 'as and when' and if the Council don't like it, I can always try to get in to work and sue them when I fall and break a bone!

Hi Elizabeth

My brother lives in Belford, where apparently the only shop (the Co-op) has been out of bread and milk for days as the delivery van can't reach it. So, if the Co-op can't get its deliveries, there's no hope for the children to get to school.

Sue x

Here in Northumberland a lot of our rural schools are closed. In our village our First School - (up to 9 years) has many of its pupils from upcountry with narrow lanes to hamlets and farms coming in by minibus runs, and I think a major worry is what to do if the children can't get home.

In defence of the managers, Maggie (me being one). I live on the north east coast and I don't drive, so Thursday saw me trudging into work. The normal bus route was closed, so I did three buses and then paid for a taxi to finally get to work. Cold, wet and very late.

Getting home was even worse. I waited nearly an hour for a bus, sat on said bus for another couple of hours, arrived at the bus station nearest to home to find that the connecting service had been cancelled. So, another wait for another taxi. I finally got home at 9.30, having been out from 7am that morning. Lots of cash poorer.

On Friday, I didn't even risk it, and worked from home (where I can manage loads of e mails every hour!).

Today, I traipsed through the snow to the local bus stop, got on the bus to my connecting service - which had been cancelled. Unfortunately so had the bus back home. I finally got home at about 11am, having been out since 6.30. But I still managed to do a day's work!

The snow is lying on the sand, inches deep. I've never seen this before!

Sue x

No snow yet (North Somerset) but forcast for tomorrow. Our local secondary school is in a very rural area and the majority of the pupils are bussed in along country lanes that wouldn't know what a gritting lorry looked like. It's quite a resposibilty for the bus drivers to undertake, I wouldn't like to do it.

That does surprise me. Maybe we never have snow that bad here, or maybe things have changed since I was working full time and teachers aren't expected to get in as we were. I know in some parts the police were telling people not to drive.

None of our schools here were closed apart from the special school because the taxi drivers said they couldn't guarantee getting the children there or being able to collect them at home time.

Good that friends stepped in to help with child care. Its always as well to have back up in case a child is ill or cannot go to school for any reason.

Gwynne

our school is deffo shut due to the teachers not been able to get to work because of the snow
no problems with child transport or heating or water in the school

we had to look after a little girl whos
mum had to walk to work in this bad weather
and the school been shut she had no child care
lots of our friends and neighbor stepped in
to help working mum with child care today
that part was nice to see community spirit alive and kicking

There can be several reasons why schools close even though the teachers can and do get there.

1. School dinners cannot be provided, for whatever reason.
2. Heating problems, the school will close if the heating is inadequate.
3. School transport isn't functioning and most pupils cannot travel to school.
4. Sometimes the LEA takes the decision to close all schools within the area, even though staff and children can get to some.

The LEAST likely cause, in my experience, is that teachers cannot get there.

Every single "snow day" that I was teaching I was already at the school when the decision was taken as were the rest of the staff.

I imagine it's the same in most schools in towns and cities, probably different in rural locations.

Gwynne

I wonder if some of the non appearing teachers have young children at other schools which were also closed? Although as 'Proffessionals' one would have thought they would have contingency child care plans in place.

OH can sympathsis with Teresa's comment. 2 years ago, OH was on Jury service. He phoned to see if the Court would be open, to be told that the Judge would make a descion when he was due to sit. OH knew one of his collegues was ill, but conscious of his civic duty, bundled up, packed a flask of hot soup, sarnies, shovel etc and set off 30 miles in the car. His journey, as it turned out was quite easy. The Defence barrister couldn't get there but had briefed his Junior. But......the Prison Service wouldn't transport the accused 1 mile in case the van over turned. Grrrrrr

Indeed JBA.Lol

Teresa :)

All the staff at our local hospital managed to get in
some of the doctors live miles away so it can be done

so why not teachers

Last year one lad came 10 miles on the public transport to School only to find it had been closed due to snow! My son walked along with the rest of the kids also to find it closed.

The Primary School across the road to me closed and I managed to drive 15 miles to work on late shift, and again in the morning for an early shift.
I work for a public sector organisation where it is vital to get to work and it organises itself to keep the service running as normally as possible.

It really beggers belief and wo betide if any one trys to take a child out of
School for a holiday because it "Disrupts their education"

Teresa

Hi joy,
I too remember going to school (NE Scotland) in the snow - we were taken by bus. Unfortunately, once, the bus coudn't take us home again.
Very few parents drove or even had cars, so (aged 6) me and my 'buddies' started walking the 4 miles home. Fortunately a random farm worker went by on his tractor and the 4 of us squeezed into the cab with him and he gave us a lift to the top of our road.
That woudn't be allowed nowadays!!!!

Interesting point about the dinner ladies having to get in to get home if they wanted paying!!
Talk about the great divide!

Hampshire county council has the same attitude - Managers MUST work from home if it's snowing/icy.
The rest of us plebs (admin) have to get in to the nearest office or lose leave!
As the buses where I live will refuse to run at the slightest excuse, I usually walk to work.
Well, if the Council doesn't grit the roads, you can imagine what the pavements are like.
Seems the plebs are indispensible at work - so they can injure themselves attempting to get in to work, while the managers 'work' from home (does it really take 4 hours to read an e-mail?)
Oh - and the admin have had a pay cut & freeze for the past 3 years - this, of course, didn't affect the managers (there are more managers than admin)

yes i can understand if the pipes are frozen or the heatings off
i also think you all have valid points

all our kids at our school live local so could get in no problem


and most of the little darlings
where playing out snowballing windows and cars

aw im loving the littun being off, we had a wii afternoon today, and im happy hes off again tomroow yiipiii, xxx

I suspect 'elf n safety has something to do with as well. If the playgrounds or paths are icey , then little Johnny may slip and break a limb. The school could be sued as they haven't haven't taken 'due care'.

Yes, teachers do tend to live further way from their place of employment. Sometimes its because they don't want the students/pupils knowing all about them, other times its because of the cost of houseing/attraction or otherwise of the location.

Actually, Teachers are supposed to report to the nearest school to where they live if they can't get to the one they work at.

The boy next door to me used to take the day off if it snowed, which really made me cross. I worked at the same school and could get there either on foot or by car! So from that aspect, some children (or their parents) are too soft.

In the SE, I suspect it is a cutural memory of some 20 odd years ago when the county was paralysed for a week - no trains or motorway travel etc. A few years ago, I had a couple of hours off during the middle of the day (timetabled) and took one of my children to a specialist dentist in the nearest town. Despite no further snow, I found on my return that the Head had decided to close my Secondary School as the coach company was fussing.

The only time we got sent home was for frozen pipes and the loos couldnt be used,!!!

We had frozen milk to drink.!! which we loved it was like the having the luxury of ice cream}}}}}

We trugged there no matter what as did the teachers even if they had to walk and were late,


I think its parents that have made it worse...

*Its too cold for little Johnny or I cant possibly drive in snow.*