[Archived] .

[MCMC1875]

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[K-Hod]

The biggest farce of this is Accrington Academy is closed, but St Chrisopher's next door is open......

[FGS5635]

The schools are terrified of a kid getting injured and being sued for damages. The crazy claim culture we have for everything is at fault for a lot theze days

[Pedro]

12 minutes ago, FGS5635 said:

The schools are terrified of a kid getting injured and being sued for damages. The crazy claim culture we have for everything is at fault for a lot theze days

Absolutely correct. Schools won't grit because by trying to solve the problem, it is apparently them admitting liabity for any accidents.  They are petrified of children getting injured on or around the grounds. 

Claim culture is an absolute disgrace.

[matt83]

Yeah it’s probably the blame culture and the lawyer on speed dial. I do feel sorry for school kids and teachers tbf. 

I reckon some of my favourite childhood playground games could have been lost under the mantra of health and safety. Snow ball fights were fun, particularly against teachers can’t see those happening now. Conkers is probably too dangerous as well. I can’t see British bulldogs being played anymore either. 

Hard to believe I’m alive not without wearing a helmet and safety goggles. 

[gumboots]

The problem is often staff living a long way from school too. If you don't have enough staff, you can't open so you have to look realistically at how many staff you can get there. Then you have to look at safety issues, not just in the morning but what the forecast is for the day. You have to think about how kids and staff get home safely. When I was a kid, the furthest staff lived from school was a couple of miles so most staff could make it and schools stayed open even in the worst winters in the 60s when it snowed for months on end. Kids walked to school in the village they lived in or in my case at the other end of the street. Now with parental choice, loads of kids travel a long way to school. Staff come to Blackburn schools from Halifax,  Lancaster and other places up to 30 miles away. It's hard to say those staff should come in in bad weather

[JAL]

Quote

 

Extreme weather doesn't last forever and what with the spare capacity of the summer recess,  schools should be utilising this period to cover any downtime occured now meaning a shorter summer break for all.

Who's managing this ?

 

[gumboots]

And what if you've already booked summer holidays to fit with partners or kids who haven't had a school closure? Not practical really. Besides which it's the odd day once every few years not worth getting wound up about. School closures are not as frequent as is made out by some. I worked for 19 years for Blackburn with Darwen and only had half a dozen or so days closure for bad weather 

[Baz]

3 hours ago, gumboots said:

And what if you've already booked summer holidays to fit with partners or kids who haven't had a school closure? Not practical really. Besides which it's the odd day once every few years not worth getting wound up about. School closures are not as frequent as is made out by some. I worked for 19 years for Blackburn with Darwen and only had half a dozen or so days closure for bad weather 

I actually think a day running around, sledging etc and having fun isn't exactly the biggest problem in the world for the kids wellbeing anyway.  

[gumboots]

Quite agree. Kids spend too much time indoors so anything that gets them out and about is good. 

[JAL]

7 hours ago, gumboots said:

And what if you've already booked summer holidays to fit with partners or kids who haven't had a school closure? Not practical really. Besides which it's the odd day once every few years not worth getting wound up about. School closures are not as frequent as is made out by some. I worked for 19 years for Blackburn with Darwen and only had half a dozen or so days closure for bad weather 

Sorry gumboots a change is needed.  Contracts need to be re drawn in the knowledge that no one books an holiday during the first week of a summer recess as duty may bound them to their job in cases of adverse winter weather conditions. To add to this no teacher should be allowed to relocate within four years of teaching unless disciplinary matters dictate otherwise don't you think.

But then schools can independently cover their own staff between them for holidays sickness etc., I.e only so many can have a day off whilst an.other covers this day on their behalf.

[JAL]

8 minutes ago, JAL said:

 

 

[gumboots]

4 hours ago, JAL said:

Sorry gumboots a change is needed.  Contracts need to be re drawn in the knowledge that no one books an holiday during the first week of a summer recess as duty may bound them to their job in cases of adverse winter weather conditions. To add to this no teacher should be allowed to relocate within four years of teaching unless disciplinary matters dictate otherwise don't you think.

But then schools can independently cover their own staff between them for holidays sickness etc., I.e only so many can have a day off whilst an.other covers this day on their behalf.

Doesn't work like that if your kids are taught by specialist teachers. There's no benefit to having kids in school being deliberately covered by non specialists. I could cope with supervising and helping kids in subjects where the text book or source material showed me what to do and I just had to explain to kids hut I dreaded being absent as a languages teacher because 90 % of the time people covering my lesson hadn't got a clue what to do even if I left step by step instructions 

[matt83]

I’d wager if each school had a few grand ready for any teacher who made it in they’d all be in. Particularly with the conditions round here.

But I’ll add the caveat if I was a teacher I wouldn’t be in either. I always thought being a teacher was the easiest gig going. The money is ok but more the late starts, early finishes and holiday but over the years speaking to few of my mates who are teachers I’ve done a 180 on that job and it sounds utterly horrendous. And I would use any excuse not to be there. 

[Tom]

SNOOOOOOW DAAAAAAY

Love it! 

However I was meant to be in London but my train was cancelled

[DE.]

I can't blame any schools around this area for closing today. The paths are literally blocks of ice, very dangerous to walk on. Only small proportions of the town are gritted and the paths even less so. The roads around here today are actually fine, but as always the paths are a nightmare.

[K-Hod]

3 hours ago, MCMC1875 said:

Can anyone name a hospital or, for that matter, a private school that has closed? Their staff manage to get to work and avoid the 'claims culture'.

Stonyhurst is closed.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

1 hour ago, matt83 said:

I’d wager if each school had a few grand ready for any teacher who made it in they’d all be in. Particularly with the conditions round here.

But I’ll add the caveat if I was a teacher I wouldn’t be in either. I always thought being a teacher was the easiest gig going. The money is ok but more the late starts, early finishes and holiday but over the years speaking to few of my mates who are teachers I’ve done a 180 on that job and it sounds utterly horrendous. And I would use any excuse not to be there. 

My wife has always lived within the catchment area of the schools she taught at so she could always walk to work if need be. Her last school was 10 minutes walk away from where we lived, previously 1/2 to 3/4 walk , maybe a bit longer if it had snowed. She had a female friend and colleague who drove from Southport to Rochdale every day. Of course she would have stayed over at our house in the current snowy weather.

At lot of teachers don't like living too near to school in case of aggravation from the kids but we never had any real trouble, just the odd egg thrown at our front windows. If you are firm but fair with the kids they might not like it but they respect you.

After my engineering career came to an end I worked for 12 years as a CDT Technician in a secondary school. Teaching is a really hard, stressful job even if you're good at it. You couldn't pay me enough to do the job. 95% of kids are great but the other 5% can make the job really hard. You only need 1 in a class of 20 to make teaching the other 19 more than difficult. I had to front a class on two occasions unprepared for 1/2 hr each time in two emergencies and at the end of the 1/2 hr there was sweat running down my back !

[K-Hod]

1 hour ago, MCMC1875 said:

How can Stonyhurst be closed when it's a boarding school with many parents working abroad?

My sister teaches there and it's only open for the boarders. (A minority of the overall students). Plus, some of the teachers live on-site.

[JAL]

7 hours ago, gumboots said:

Doesn't work like that if your kids are taught by specialist teachers. There's no benefit to having kids in school being deliberately covered by non specialists. I could cope with supervising and helping kids in subjects where the text book or source material showed me what to do and I just had to explain to kids hut I dreaded being absent as a languages teacher because 90 % of the time people covering my lesson hadn't got a clue what to do even if I left step by step instructions 

In the final week of school just before a summer recess do the classes need the same specialist teachers to enlighten the kids ?

Take your point over the quality of cover which asks why havent schools that have been around for years upon years, why haven't they developed a strong back up group of people to support the schools through the terms and in times of difficulty. 

The teacher training days should be appropriate to train non specialists upto a standard that's acceptable otherwise what's going on regarding training and continous improvement within the schools.

[gumboots]

The training in schools is about new technologies, different ways to teach to engage with modern kids, new insights into the way people learn, data collection and interpretation, new government initiatives of which there are so many it beggars belief. 

If kids don't need the same quality of teaching then it begs the question, why would you insist on their being there? It's just to punish teachers for getting a day off once every couple of years through no fault of their own, because people think with longer holidays than some and shorter days actually on school premises ( although I don't know of any teacher who doesn't either arrive at least an hour early and/or stay at least an hour after the kids leave and still take work home with them)  that teachers have it easy. If that's the case then I always suggest to those people that they do the job for a month. Teaching nowadays is not what you think, and remember you don't get overtime pay, can only have the days off they say you can have, and can't ask for a pay rise. They don't really exist in teaching, even if you are excellent at your job. I had one former colleague who met, and indeed exceed every target set, but was denied the incremental increase she could rightly have expected. 

Teachers in general love the job but don't let anyone tell you it's easy. If you think it is, do some workplace shadowing and see for yourself. Snow days are rare, designed to protect kids, their parents who shouldn't be on the roads taking them to school, and staff who do their best to get there. It's not ordinary teachers who don't go to work. It's those who make decisions based on best info possible who tell them not to. When I worked in Blackburn I would often set off from home early to try to get there only to find that I was stuck in traffic from Langho onwards and/or being texted to tell me not to come in but to go home and check the radio for further info. Many schools run a collapsed timetable using staff who can get there to teach upper school classes who are working towards GCSE exams. Half the time staff struggle to get there only to find that the kids who are supposed to be there haven't bothered to turn up even when they could easily put on their wellies and walk. 

[matt83]

I know I would be a truly terrible teacher. Wouldn’t even be not being able to enforce the sort of discipline I’d have in mind. Or the fact I’d clump one before lunch break.

It’d be stuff like dealing with parents day and the delusions of some parents. There seems to be a ready made excuse for everything now. No, your kid doesn’t have dyslexia he’s just thick. Bring back the thickos table. No, unless diagnosed by a doctor your kid doesn’t have adhd nor are they “on the scale” they’re just a poorly brought up little shit. Thank you come again, see you next term.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Yeah, I've walked to school in a snow storm in the past only to be sent home again when I got there.

[FGS5635]

Kids are not left alone to be kids anymore. They are forced by society to grow up as fast as possible

Let them have snow ball fights, play conkers and all others sorts without the constant need for a risk assesment before every little thing.

We will raise genertaions of soft mard wet lettuce adults otherwise. Who then in turn rasie even softer kids and the next generation gets even worse.

At this rate in 100 years it will be deemed to risky to ever get out of bed.

We do it with everything in society. It gets worse at such a gradual rate that you go with it becasue ahhh its only such and such. But then after 10 years you look back and think WTF has happened there

[Tom]

Agreed let them be kids - allow them to have a day to enjoy the snow on the rare instances we get it!

They'll get more than that than one more day in school