school closures because of snow

katiejane · January 2010

did any other schools around here close today or was it just stroud green primary?

ShaunG · January 2010

St Gildas did too. I suppose they're at the top of the hill but it still seems a bit feeble. I think it's more the teachers unable to get in than the kids.

SgEnquirer · January 2010

St Aidens closed at 1.30pm and is closed tomo.

ADGS · January 2010

No idea which school, but Clissold Park was full of kids in uniforms by 2ish yesterday. They clearly don't play enough violent computer games because their aim with snowballs was dreadful.

Archer · January 2010

Stroud Green closed for the second day now.

helen · January 2010

personally i'm fuming about the school closures, especially around here. We live next to finsbury park - one of London's biggest transport hubs. Yesterday and today pretty much all the train's, tubes and buses were working. I even made it down to the far reaches of Kent and back and my train journeys were delayed by a total of 6 minutes. Stroud Green School said that they shut because their teaching staff lived far from the school. I'd love to know if they live anymore than a 20-30 minute walk from a bus stop, tube or train station because frankly there is very little excuse for not getting where you need to go either yesterday or today.
Our hospitals are open 24/7 365 days of the year. Our supermarkets are stocked and have staff to serve us. Our post is even working. By shutting schools parents can't work and children can't learn and I think both of these are pretty unacceptable.

rainbow_carnage · January 2010

I went to school in Upstate New York where we had maybe one or two snow days a year. We had a lot of snow, just not a lot of snow days. The only times the school shut was when we got two or three feet of snow in one day, or if the temperature dropped below what was considered safe for small children walking to school. I completely agree with you, Helen. I understand that in rural areas, kids and teachers may have a hard time getting to school. But most of the kids live locally, and we do have excellent transport links.

andy · January 2010

Is it about travel, or about the classrooms being too cold?

copycara · January 2010

St Aidan's was closed half day yesterday and all day today. Apparently due to some staff not making it in. Not sure that would warrant the entire school closing. Currently the website says it's open tomorrow, but we'll see.

ShaunG · January 2010

I completely agree. Transport in London (barring my comical efforts to cycle on back streets) was almost completely normal today, and there was no excuse to be closed (St Gildas was up and running today, so they're not all taking the same approach). I think many teachers tend to drive to work (free guaranteed parking I suppose) and I wonder if, once driving's not possible, they don't all try that hard to find alternatives.

katiejane · January 2010

I think it's shit. I really do. What really gets me is that SG sent home a letter on Tuesday afternoon telling parents to check its (ahem) website or call in in the morning to find out if it was open - like it was a foregone conclusion.

helen · January 2010

i'm writing a letter of complaint to the head and the chair of governors and taking it in in the morning.
i'd love it if other people did too as i don't fancy being an army of one. truth is i like the school but they really need to get their act sorted and it's only going to happen if the parents make their voices known.
the weather isn't due to get better for the next 10 days but our kids need to get back to school and as a parent i need to know the school isn't going to shut down at the first flurry of snow that comes next.
And don't get me started on the website that was last updated in april 09.....

Ali · January 2010

Heard in the playground that the web site has been updated and made publishable etc to make it easy to update etc, the problem is the school have lost the password ! In the last Ofsted report the school was criticised in it’s management methods etc. There was a follow up meeting come workshop that the Governors arranged where the school management presented their plans going forward from the inspection. A workshop followed to get feedback and parents the school leadership didn’t come back to hear or comment on the feedback! The only good thing that came out of that is that a debt the school had with the council eventually got written off by the Council. That seemed to happen because a couple of people got really angry at the meeting. One guy got especially involved and nearly had a campaign going, guess what? something happened. I like the school and think it is a happy place for kids to go to and has a difficult job but it doesn’t help itself or leverage the help it could get from the Governors and Parents very well. I get the impression that the management have the attitude that keen parents will soon get ground down and move on any way as kids go through the school so why bother! First step should be to sort out these comms problems as that is very very easy to do! I think I have now calmed down

lizbet · January 2010

A lot of teachers don't want to live near the schools where the work - so they aren't always bumping into pupils and their parents in their free time. There have been severe delays especially going north of London. Would it be better to leave your children un(der)supervised for a couple of hours to account for the delays? Communication problems are another matter, but to ask parents to call or check the website in the morning doesn't seem like the end of the world. If you have time to moan about it so much over internet forums, the chances are you would be able to make a quick call.

helen · January 2010

@lizbet "a lot of teachers don't want to live near the schools where they work". I'm not a teacher and I don't live near my work either, but I've got there and frankly pretty easily too. I've also gone north to potters bar and far down into deepest darkest snowbound kent and back in the last 2 days and it's been absolutely fine as a set of journeys. Frankly I know someone who's commuted from edinburgh too and if he can, why can't tecahers get to work?
And on the comms problems - checking the website would be great...if it was updated...and as it isn't the phonelines have been engaged from 7am each morning and the school has then shut the office in the early afternoon and so there has been noone to call.
You may call this moaning...I call it a brilliant use for a community forum so we can all get our act together and work as a unit to get stuff like this fixed

lizbet · January 2010

I can't have been travelling yesterday after all then if the services were all as normal, my mistake.

rainbow_carnage · January 2010

Not all of the services have been operating as normal, but the tube has been running fine, as have most bus routes. We've had no problems getting around town. I'm about to go into Central London by tube, then to East London, then back home. I've checked TFL, and everything is running just fine. How far must all of the teachers live if they can't get to a tube or a bus stop? I don't have kids, so I have no real reason to moan. I just think that the schools are taking the easy way out. Maybe one or two teachers can't make it, but unless they're all commuting from the deep, dark countryside, this is just an excuse to take three days off from work.

SgEnquirer · January 2010

What happens if some of those teachers are parents who's childrens schools are closed too? Surely then it can't just be a matter of travel. It has a knock on effect, if their children can't go to school then they can't work and our children can't go to school. And no I'm not saying all the teachers are parents but 2 or 3 being unable to come in makes a difference to small schools like st Aidens. I think one day of closure because of snow is not the end of the world.

rainbow_carnage · January 2010

BTW, I spoke to a friend last night who teaches at an independent school in South London. His school has been open every day. He has to commute from Hackney.

Ali · January 2010

In most organisation a special incident phone number would be used with a recorded Voicemail. At the school you call the normal number and push a couple of numbers to I believe speak to an individual. This cuts down the number of people who can call. A simple sizing exercise ie over 300 kids at the school would tell you that parents are in an impossible situation to get through. The SMS that was sent out without naming the School so parents with kids at more than one school had an issue and still had to call to check. The comms side is very easy. 1. Use a dedicated telephone number and Voicemail 2. Use a splash on the front of the web site 3. Use a parents group e-mail 4. Use the SMS . ( although that costs the school so probably should only be used for incidents once the kids are at school.) 5. There should be a clear written policy on the web site and handed out to parents about what will happen when there is an incident. A fridge magnet would be a good idea with the info on. Get Davis & Davis to sponsor it so we can all have their add on the fridge at the same time. It is not the Teachers but the real issue is management at the school. Why don’t they “benchmark” with St Adians and see what they do as people don’t complain about them or is that too difficult !

krappyrubsnif · January 2010

I think the real problem is that teachers are lazy and like to drive if they possibly can (all those books and piles of homework to carry about.....) Highgate Wood School closed yesterday because it was 'unsafe'. Presumably they were worried that someone would slip on the ice, poor things.

Cat · January 2010

If people have real problems getting to my work they get put up in hotels. We provide a service so if we're not here the service wouldn't run and things / people would suffer.

This week only a couple of people have had to stay in town as the main roads and public transport have generally been running okay. The people who stayed in town had to because South Eastern trains started later and finished earlier than usual - which affected the likes of us on shift work.

lizbet · January 2010

@krappyrubsnif - would be intrigued to know if you have any evidence to support the fact that 'teachers are lazy and like to drive if they possibly can'. Why do you assume that all the teachers live in London anyway? I would assume many live in Hertfordshire (where there was a lot of snow) and commute to North London.

graeme · January 2010

* gets deckchair and popcorn *

krappyrubsnif · January 2010

Hmmmm....just based my comments on the full nature of the secondary school car park I had occasion to visit before Christmas. I haven't worked anywhere for years where they had space for a staff car park. You're expected to use tube/rail/bus. Schools tend to have lots of space (playing fields etc). Perhaps I should have used the word 'spoiled'. I withdraw the word 'lazy', I for one would certainly not like to have to be at work at 8am and then spend the day shouting at teenagers.

@g-unit - you can put away the popcorn now.

markwhitehead · January 2010

I think it's not constructive to accuse teachers of being lazy. It's a management question, about school leadership, relations with parents and communication. Nor is it about public/private sector schools. My singing teacher is livid because some of the private schools in north London that she does a lot of work at have been closed every day since Wednesday (including Wednesday).
I think it's a lot to do with effective leadership: there may be some occasions when a school must close. If so, the reasons should be clear and the school head should spell them out.
It's also about relations with parents: following on from the above, the reasons should be identified clearly, supported by evidence and communicated to parents. I think this is where some schools have been judged wanting - public transport in London has been almost problem-free, so what exactly is the problem?
The case for closure should be communicated clearly to parents through all available channels: school website, letters home, message left on school voicemail system, noticeboard at the front of the school, etc.
If there is a case for closing a school, lets hear what it is and have a chance to provide feedback.
It's a right old muddle and I can see why many parents are extremely annoyed about the whole thing.

Ali · January 2010

seems like some one has found the password ! From the web site Latest snow update, Friday 8th Jan The school is open today. Treetops will not open in the morning and will close at 4pm. Rainbow is open from 8am to 4pm, Hideaway will close at 4.30pm. Please take extra care on the roads surrounding the school. We will monitor the weather over the weekend but expect to be open as normal next week. Denise Sewell, Headteacher Probbaly should have the time this was posted ! Small step for mankind !

Busby1 · January 2010

At the end of the day it probably has to do with parking spaces being alloted to teachers. All those who presume to be examples of virtue, should go to school by public transport/ski/bike/walk/. Maybe it would mean getting up earlier.

It's called 'meeting a challenge' , something which today's children could dearly do with.

wisteria53 · January 2010

We usually have a full staff car park at the secondary school in North London where I work (I'm bike or bus), but most of the teachers came in by public transport this past week rather than drive on icy roads. Other than those off due to illness, the school was fully staffed Weds/Thurs/Fri. The school closed after lunch on Monday but were open full days for the rest of the week. Our Headteacher rang the Site Manager every morning - he gets there around 6.30am - for an update on the state of the school grounds and then rang our website manager to put a notice on the website. Our children went to Stroud Green and we loved it, but those were the days of the other Headteacher Denise Patrick, rather than the current Denise.

tosscat · January 2010

Is that why you live in Switzerland Busby? Despite your seniority, one of the most ill informed contributors on here.

Busby1 · January 2010

Really? And what has Switzerland to do with anything?

Anyway, I haven't seen your contribution yet to this topic. Maybe you would like to enlighten us - and in this case me especially.

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