Schools closing?

[Angus-Higgins]

My school was open, and we had very little snow. The school did loads of work to help make the day as normal as possible by putting grit everywhere; the only places there was snow were places one could not easily grit.

I think the job of teaching must be very hard, and I would never say they are lazy. I know that a fair number of teachers at my school live quite far from it, and if they cannot get there then there would not be the number of supply teachers to cover for them.

I'm sort of glad that school didn't close because I could get lots of work done.

Angus Higgins

 

[Big Chris]

Why do businesses not close?

My office was like a ghost town today, I pretty much ran the place! When the second round of snow came along more people left claiming it would be too hard to get home later.

There weren't even enough people for a decent snowball fight at lunchtime.

 

[iCraig]

The vast majority of pupils live very close to schools, certainly possible to walk to school if things got really bad (it normally isn't though).

Yeah but some kids don't. They can't close it for some and not others. It's easier to just close it.

Why do businesses not close? I don't see any shops closing, all their staff manage to get into work.

Depends on the establishment but I've seen a number of shops shut today that aren't normally. Usually though it's because the shop owners have kids and they have an impromptu day of work to keep the kids occupied.

Is it that teachers can't be bothered, clearly even a handful of teachers not coming in would make it very difficult to manage the situation - so is this the reason? Teachers don't make the effort other employees do and the impact is greater than in most businesses.

If I remember correctly just because the school building is closed, it doesn't mean they have the day off in the same respect as the kids. Definitely an easier day for them but they still have to sort their work out for the next day, and schedule stuff in that they and their pupils missed.

I agree that ideally schools shouldn't be shut, but usually the headteachers prefer to play it safe. If the school is to stay open they have to ensure that the school building is safe from ice on steps etc. We live in an age of compensation enthusiasts and the last thing most schools need is a parent sueing the school because their snotty kid ran too fast into the school and broke his leg on a patch of ice or something.

Plus, during most snow days the classrooms get very cold and damp, causing more complaints about child welfare. Not to mention the fact that on days where snow is lying nicely, the school turns into a massive warzone of kids having snowball fights with everything that moves, the kids are constantly distracted by the snow and basically cause havoc.

I remember when I was that age I spent an entire maths lesson with my friends drawing up battle tactics for the lunch time snowball fight.

 

[Dave M]

WOW So you're a teacher? You know this? Well my lazy ****** of a dad spent his 'snow day' planning some lessons and catching up on some marking whilst everyone enjoyed themselves. Try being a teacher in this day and age where kids have all the rights, OFSTED etc.. are always on your back, the government changes policy on education every minute making your life a living hell learning their half arsed new schemes, teaching absolute brats who can do no wrong and whose parents aren't much better etc.. couple that with not so great pay and you're all set. Oh and everythings 'your' fault, the simple fact that some kids aren't quite the brightest bulb in the array dosen't come in to play, anything goes wrong is the teachers fault. Oh yea, my lazy **** of a father also produces A and B students at A'level AND GCSE on a constant basis, god hes so lazy.

Teaching in a high school is a horrible job, and I really have no idea why anyone does it. There should not be all this marking to catch up on, there should be time in the working day to get it done.

But the simple fact is he hda a day off and used it to catch up on his work - good for him, but for most employees that is not an option, not coming in because of snow would put your job in jeopardy.

 

[Dave M]

My office was like a ghost town today, I pretty much ran the place! When the second round of snow came along more people left claiming it would be too hard to get home later.

There weren't even enough people for a decent snowball fight at lunchtime.

May I ask, where do you work?

 

[Big Chris]

May I ask, where do you work?

NFU Mutual Insurance head office, Stratford upon Avon.

 

[Vertigo]

TBH I think the main reason they do it is traffic. It's bad enough when the roads are filled with idiots trying to get to work and who have no idea how to drive on snow, let alone with hoards of mums taking their kids to school, no doubt driving their 4x4s like they do in the dry because they think they're impervious to the weather.

 

[Dave M]

Does NFU not mind their staff having days off like this? I know they are a big company and obviously have HR departments and so on - but still, doesn't it annoy the higher ups?

I can only imagine the disruption caused to the business, I can't however imagine the vast majority of people were truly unable to make it in, even if it meant getting up an hour earlier.

Perhaps many who stayed at home though were parents, and thus had no choice (you can't leave a kid at home all day after all and obviously no time to make arrangements). But then that bounces back to the OP - why close schools so easily knowing the trouble it causes everyone else?

 

[Big Chris]

Does NFU not mind their staff having days off like this? I know they are a big company and obviously have HR departments and so on - but still, doesn't it annoy the higher ups?

I can only imagine the disruption caused to the business, I can't however imagine the vast majority of people were truly unable to make it in, even if it meant getting up an hour earlier.

Perhaps many who stayed at home though were parents, and thus had no choice (you can't leave a kid at home all day after all and obviously no time to make arrangements). But then that bounces back to the OP - why close schools so easily knowing the trouble it causes everyone else?

Not sure what those on the top floor thought of it, my boss was one of the ones who left around 10am when it started snowing again though.

It bugged me a bit because I slid sideways to work in my Escort but at least I made the effort. The thought never ocurred to me to blag the day off, and consquently I was doing more work because of it.

Hopefully I can use it as leverage next time I want a day off at short notice though.

 

[Werewolf]

I think the person who mentioned the travel probably hit the nail on the head.

From what the news said earlier the decision has to be made very early in the day as to if the school will close or not so they probably have to play it safe - if it's looking bad at say 6-7am and the forcast doesn't say it's going to get much better they would have to decide then.

As for marking during school time, that would probably require a lot of extra teachers to do it, something the government won't pay for.

 

[Fraggr]

Our teachers gave us a lecture about how snow is dangerous.

They banned ALL forms of fun with snow when it snowed a month ago - "snowball fights are dangerous. By breaktime the snow will have turned into sludge and it will hurt if you get the sludge in your eyes"

"Don't underestimate the weight of snow. If a snowperson is to fall on someone they will be hurt"

If we were caught building snowpeople or snowball fighting we'd be given 10 minute detentions or something.

 

[SGCWill]

I took out a teacher with a snowball once - he thought it would be good revenge to get the upper 6th years to hold me down and throw ice cold water over me.

I hate snow full stop - gives lazy sods excuses not to come into work - i spent 3 hours getting into work on a motorbike in a blizzard and people who lived 5 minutes away phoned up to say they couldnt get in because their driveway was snowed in.

 

[jesta]

My school was the only school in our whole borough which carried on as usual, spoilsports tbh,wouldn't let the little kids on the playground to play with the snow

 

[Psypher5]

stourbridge college has closed, woot for me

 

[SexyGreyFox]

stuff

Good post and spot on.

One reason could be that most teachers live a long way from the schools they teach at. My wife lives 400 yards away but she reckons the average distance is more like 15 miles and one teacher comes 30 miles.
The majority of parents would give permission for the kids to stay at school but if the staff haven't arrived then theres no one to look after them.

 

[Kroegen]

Its nice to have a rest from Educational Establishments once in a while

 

[Raymond Lin]

Teachers work loads - there, end of that discussion.

Back on topic, School closes because kids can't get to school. Why ? Because their mums can't get them there in their 4x4's, why? Because women are bad drivers

Honestly thou, i really don't know. This country as a whole are terrible when it comes to weather. A gush of wind and knock some tiles off roofs and it's headline 6 o'clock news. 2 inches of snow and the country literally closes down. Its not like we don't grit the roads, it's not like our cars are worst (ok...debatable), and not like our driving test are easy to pass, quite the opposite in fact.

So what is it? All I can think of is that we are not used to it, hence over cautious over the whole thing. There are parts of the US it gets snow by the foot and not inches. Right now I've been informed Cleveland has about 3 feet of snow, a friend of mine still gets to work in her Toyota Celica and she doesn't have chain tyres either. Kids still go to school, she even said one time her bus drove past a snowplough stuck in a ditch on the way to school, the snow was that heavy and yet the buses were running, school opened.

I had a driving lesson today in the snow, wasn't that difficult really. It was good actually to learn driving in this condition under a professional so I learn a bit more about driving.

 

[Will_3rd]

because it's Britain not Switzerland/Nordic countries etc

 

[PeterT]

The schools have to close because sometimes the teachers cannot get to school as most would not want to live in the catchment area.
One of my colleagues lives 50 miles away and others approx 30 miles away.
I actually live 2.5 miles away from the school I work at and got there yesturday by 8.15 only to be locked out by the caretaker. A snow day is normally a good day to go to work as you can catch up on the jobs you can normally never get around to.
To me being locked out was a major pain in the **** as I was unable to prepare properly for interviews I was running today.
Today the snow was much worse but the school was open!!

 

[mishima]

I saw on the news yesterday one school hadn't closed and pupils there (primary school) were as part of the activities using the snow. Building things, and playing in the snow. Thats how it should be really, get wrapped up and have some fun.

I guess this political correctness jive wouldn't allow children to do that though, even if they were to do sledging there would be some health and safety rules infringed.