Schools close as snow falls in South Essex (From Echo)

How flipping stupid!

weren't we treated to a story some time back about how the Council were ready for the weather and had tons of rock salt piled up somewhere?

Perhaps their staff's drives were frozen so they couldn't get to the depot to get the gritter out...

Limehouse station tells commuters to be careful due to adverse weather conditions. Been telling us that for over a week now; we've got sun up here today.

No wonder the education has gone to pot in this country!! Closing schools just because a little bit of snow falls. Next year they will close every time it rains.
I wonder how they manage to cope in places that have snow for 3 months or more of the year?
Kingdoms are ruled by Kings, Empires ruled by Emperors and Countries ruled by C**..... Need I say more?

Eric Whim wrote:
weren't we treated to a story some time back about how the Council were ready for the weather and had tons of rock salt piled up somewhere?

Perhaps their staff's drives were frozen so they couldn't get to the depot to get the gritter out...

The school management decide whether or not the schools open sunshine. Many teachers will battle in regardless as they are more professional that you think!

Olivia2847 wrote:

Eric Whim wrote:
weren't we treated to a story some time back about how the Council were ready for the weather and had tons of rock salt piled up somewhere?

Perhaps their staff's drives were frozen so they couldn't get to the depot to get the gritter out...

The school management decide whether or not the schools open sunshine. Many teachers will battle in regardless as they are more professional that you think!

No work, no pay.

Olivia2847 wrote:

Eric Whim wrote:
weren't we treated to a story some time back about how the Council were ready for the weather and had tons of rock salt piled up somewhere?

Perhaps their staff's drives were frozen so they couldn't get to the depot to get the gritter out...

The school management decide whether or not the schools open sunshine. Many teachers will battle in regardless as they are more professional that you think!

the staff I refer to are the gritter drivers

Woodenspoon wrote:
No wonder the education has gone to pot in this country!! Closing schools just because a little bit of snow falls. Next year they will close every time it rains.
I wonder how they manage to cope in places that have snow for 3 months or more of the year?
Kingdoms are ruled by Kings, Empires ruled by Emperors and Countries ruled by C**..... Need I say more?

Schools do not want to close but they are left with little choice if most of the staff are unable to get in because of the road conditions - and I don't just mean the snow, I'm talking about gridlocked roads. A shool cannot be run with only a handful of staff. And don't forget; a lot of teachers are parents too, if their own children have been sent home then they have to collect them just like 'normal' people!

Doris70 wrote:

Woodenspoon wrote:
No wonder the education has gone to pot in this country!! Closing schools just because a little bit of snow falls. Next year they will close every time it rains.
I wonder how they manage to cope in places that have snow for 3 months or more of the year?
Kingdoms are ruled by Kings, Empires ruled by Emperors and Countries ruled by C**..... Need I say more?

Schools do not want to close but they are left with little choice if most of the staff are unable to get in because of the road conditions - and I don't just mean the snow, I'm talking about gridlocked roads. A shool cannot be run with only a handful of staff. And don't forget; a lot of teachers are parents too, if their own children have been sent home then they have to collect them just like 'normal' people!

Its not a case of whether school staff are "able" to get to work, its about how many look out of their window in the morning, see a bit of white and rub their hands together with glee at the excuse of yet another day off.

need roads salted, and then maybe people can get to work, i live in rayleigh, and work in witham, the A130, this morning was so bad, it had taken me 2 hours to get to work! when it only takes me normally 30 mins, GET THE ROADS SALTED!!!

This whole situation about schools closing after the smallest dusting of snow is becoming pathetic. If it was "that" bad why did ALL schools not close?
Secondly, headteachers should be made to forward a full report, forwarding it to the LEA (and then the Dept of Education), explaining their decisions to close the school, including explaining any assumptions why they thought staff attendance would be low. Also, all staff who did not attempt to attend (if said school had not already been put on notice of closure) should also report their reasons to the LEA and any found that were local enough to walk or could easily reach the school by other means should have pay docked and issued a formal written warning.
The system as it stands makes it too easy for schools to close and staff to be able to use the flimsiest of excuses not to attend.

During the frigid, long, freezing winter of 1962/1963, us kids still went to school. There were some transport problems, but people just got on with life and didn't make a drama out of what is a normal winter occurrence in the UK - snow!

three car accident at stambridge primary school today raod closed by police, sutton road acciedents, lorry stuck on warners, bus stuck ashingdon hill accident on nestuda way latests doughnut, brays lane heavey road works, if your a teacher in this lot you may well go back to bed , I was out and the roads were extremly hazzadus only 15 mins after the snow started to fall, I did learn something though, when snow flakes become larger its a sign the the cloud is empty. same as the gritter trucks it would seem.

With regards to teachers just looking out of the window, seeing snow and deciding not to go to work, that is ridiculous! I am a teacher and left for work this morning only to have an accident due to the poor state of the roads. I have spoken to other staff who battled for 3-4 hours to get to work due to grid locked roads and icy conditions. My school did manage to stay open but schools can only stay open if there are enough staff to supervise the children and if this is not possible the school has to close due to health and safety reasons. If the council did their job properly and gritted the roads then schools would be able to remain open, snow was predicted for heavens sake, even if the quanity did take us a little by surprise!

Half inch of snow and the whole county
comes to a stand still.
Council get your fingers out and GRIT
the roads if you have any that is.

It's truly unbelievable the way schools close at the drop of a hat.

A lot of the young kids were out playing in it anyway.

AnotherSister wrote:
During the frigid, long, freezing winter of 1962/1963, us kids still went to school. There were some transport problems, but people just got on with life and didn't make a drama out of what is a normal winter occurrence in the UK - snow!

Too true, but that was when we all used to walk. Nobody was driven to school, most of the teachers lived locally, and children went to their nearest school.

I am a teacher. I walked to work today. I arrived on time. I stayed after the children were sent home. It wasn't my decision to send them, by the way; teachers don't get to make that decision, head teachers do. I left when the school buildings were locked up. I took marking and admin home. Students have emailed me work during the afternoon and I have marked it and offered them feedback. I don't expect praise for this; it is my job and I am paid to do it. But I am sick to the back teeth of crass statements accusing teachers in general of not wanting to work.

An emergency plan, whereby teachers unable to get to their place of work should report to the nearest school, would see more of the schools kept open.

our school did not close. There was no need to. I did call off our journey to the swimming pool - not because of the heavy (ha!) snow, but because the traffic was so bad in our area the children would have spent most of the time in the coach and not in the pool which is not the general idea of a swimming lesson. Asides from that we all got on as normal, went out in the afternoon for ten minutes at the end of the day so we could do some science around insulation and then went off home/stayed to do marking and sort out tomorrow. Schools should only close if they can't get staff physically in to school. Some of our staff were late but not one turned around and said 'can't be bothered'.
@Nebs - there is an unofficial rule that that can take place but unfortunately CRB and safeguarding issues require that each school performs its own CRB on teaching staff before they are allowed to be left unattended. Daft really, but I understand because safeguarding is a top priority. It should be we can turn up with CRBs, our ID and a phonecall from the headteacher to confirm we are in current employment at the school and away we go as supply teachers for the day.

meretty wrote:
With regards to teachers just looking out of the window, seeing snow and deciding not to go to work, that is ridiculous! I am a teacher and left for work this morning only to have an accident due to the poor state of the roads. I have spoken to other staff who battled for 3-4 hours to get to work due to grid locked roads and icy conditions. My school did manage to stay open but schools can only stay open if there are enough staff to supervise the children and if this is not possible the school has to close due to health and safety reasons. If the council did their job properly and gritted the roads then schools would be able to remain open, snow was predicted for heavens sake, even if the quanity did take us a little by surprise!

Meretty, I hope you are okay after your accident.
I entirely agree with you - a story a couple of weeks back said 'we are ready for any adverse weather conditions'. Ahem. FAIL.
Us teachers will unfortunately always get stick - we are in a profession where we are damned if we do, damned if we don't. Don't rise to it. Just go in, do our jobs and know that WE are going to work when some others from ALL professions (including ours) will see a bit of snow as an excuse for a day off.
My cousin in Canada who is also a teacher finds this all extremely amusing. Her answer? Buy a snow mobile.

notalazyteacher wrote:
I am a teacher. I walked to work today. I arrived on time. I stayed after the children were sent home. It wasn't my decision to send them, by the way; teachers don't get to make that decision, head teachers do. I left when the school buildings were locked up. I took marking and admin home. Students have emailed me work during the afternoon and I have marked it and offered them feedback. I don't expect praise for this; it is my job and I am paid to do it. But I am sick to the back teeth of crass statements accusing teachers in general of not wanting to work.

I totally agree. Once I arrived home after my accident I spent the rest of the day doing school work and marking work which my sixth form were emailing me. I have just finished working. I am fed up with people blaming teachers so situations which are completely out of our control!

emcee wrote:

Doris70 wrote:

Woodenspoon wrote:
No wonder the education has gone to pot in this country!! Closing schools just because a little bit of snow falls. Next year they will close every time it rains.
I wonder how they manage to cope in places that have snow for 3 months or more of the year?
Kingdoms are ruled by Kings, Empires ruled by Emperors and Countries ruled by C**..... Need I say more?

Schools do not want to close but they are left with little choice if most of the staff are unable to get in because of the road conditions - and I don't just mean the snow, I'm talking about gridlocked roads. A shool cannot be run with only a handful of staff. And don't forget; a lot of teachers are parents too, if their own children have been sent home then they have to collect them just like 'normal' people!

Its not a case of whether school staff are "able" to get to work, its about how many look out of their window in the morning, see a bit of white and rub their hands together with glee at the excuse of yet another day off.

Idiot!

Gritting the pedestrian bridges seems to be putting a lump of sand in the middle of the step and hope people move it around for them.

Why is it when we get a little snow all you see is schools closed.You do not see Tesco closed, Fords closed,garden centre closed etc.

notalazyteacher wrote:
I am a teacher. I walked to work today. I arrived on time. I stayed after the children were sent home. It wasn't my decision to send them, by the way; teachers don't get to make that decision, head teachers do. I left when the school buildings were locked up. I took marking and admin home. Students have emailed me work during the afternoon and I have marked it and offered them feedback. I don't expect praise for this; it is my job and I am paid to do it. But I am sick to the back teeth of crass statements accusing teachers in general of not wanting to work.

Exactly Miss! As I have been told off by Noddy today I have to be on my best behaviour! Many teachers have used Sykpe today for example ...

kev1956in wrote:
Why is it when we get a little snow all you see is schools closed.You do not see Tesco closed, Fords closed,garden centre closed etc.

BECAUSE all those places you have mentioned do not have adult to children ratio which they have to work by, BY LAW.

I remember working at the old Woolie's in Southend Highstreet with only a handful of staff when it snowed, however a school would not be allowed by law to operate with 200+ children when they only have a hand full of staff.

Saarfend Lass wrote:

kev1956in wrote:
Why is it when we get a little snow all you see is schools closed.You do not see Tesco closed, Fords closed,garden centre closed etc.

BECAUSE all those places you have mentioned do not have adult to children ratio which they have to work by, BY LAW.

I remember working at the old Woolie's in Southend Highstreet with only a handful of staff when it snowed, however a school would not be allowed by law to operate with 200+ children when they only have a hand full of staff.

when you worked at Woolies with a handful of staff i presume the rest were at home looking after their kids because the schools were shut.

kev1956in wrote:

Saarfend Lass wrote:

kev1956in wrote:
Why is it when we get a little snow all you see is schools closed.You do not see Tesco closed, Fords closed,garden centre closed etc.

BECAUSE all those places you have mentioned do not have adult to children ratio which they have to work by, BY LAW.

I remember working at the old Woolie's in Southend Highstreet with only a handful of staff when it snowed, however a school would not be allowed by law to operate with 200+ children when they only have a hand full of staff.

when you worked at Woolies with a handful of staff i presume the rest were at home looking after their kids because the schools were shut.

nope from what i remember it was either a school holiday or weekend... as I wasn't meant to be working but was called in because i lived walking distance away.

Saarfend Lass wrote:

kev1956in wrote:

Saarfend Lass wrote:

kev1956in wrote:
Why is it when we get a little snow all you see is schools closed.You do not see Tesco closed, Fords closed,garden centre closed etc.

BECAUSE all those places you have mentioned do not have adult to children ratio which they have to work by, BY LAW.

I remember working at the old Woolie's in Southend Highstreet with only a handful of staff when it snowed, however a school would not be allowed by law to operate with 200+ children when they only have a hand full of staff.

when you worked at Woolies with a handful of staff i presume the rest were at home looking after their kids because the schools were shut.

nope from what i remember it was either a school holiday or weekend... as I wasn't meant to be working but was called in because i lived walking distance away.

I was still in 6th form when i worked there.

notalazyteacher wrote:
I am a teacher. I walked to work today. I arrived on time. I stayed after the children were sent home. It wasn't my decision to send them, by the way; teachers don't get to make that decision, head teachers do. I left when the school buildings were locked up. I took marking and admin home. Students have emailed me work during the afternoon and I have marked it and offered them feedback. I don't expect praise for this; it is my job and I am paid to do it. But I am sick to the back teeth of crass statements accusing teachers in general of not wanting to work.

Good for you but I can assure you that for every teacher that will make such an effort there will be many more that won't. I have worked in education for many years and have had close contact with teaching staff and I know for a fact that an awful lot of teachers will, if they can get away with it, do as little as possible for as much as possible.

Don't you just get fed up with people always having a go at teachers because the schools are closed due to snow. It is quite obvious that they do not understand how decision are made and by who. The safety of the children has priority, you cannot have a school full of children with only a handful of staff. Teachers do not always live near the school they teach at and can have a long journey before they reach school normally, so bad weather causes problems outside their control, maybe people expect them to sleep at the school when we have bad weather so schools stay open never mind their own families.
Maybe it would be more useful if people had more helpful suggestions than keep blaming teachers as to how to keep schools open.
No I am not a teacher.

Why are people blaming the council for not gritting???

I live and work along the A127 and have seen gritter after gritter passing by.

The gritters will only spread on major routes, it is impossible to grit EVERY road.

Also, once the road has been gritted and then driven over by many 100's or 1000's of vehicles, that grit becomes useless.

Stop blaming the gritters and start looking at the driving styles of those who have had accidents.

As for schools being closed, shame on the headteachers who made those descisions today.

As I said before.....

If the safety of the children is the main concern, why is it that it's ok for them to go out playing in the snow and ice, but not for them to go to school ?

Head teachers being paranoid about being sued, is a nonsense.

I feel many parents would soon complain if an accident occurred in a school which was under-staffed due to weather conditions. Also, there is the problem of pupils throwing ice lumps at each other and causing nasty facial injuries and the stairs being awash with melted snow from boots etc. Sadly, we live in a huge 'blame' culture.

We always seem to have managed in the past when teachers were absent.

I think the "blame culture" card is over played. It is all too often used as an excuse nowadays.

Lots of Urban Myths too.

AnotherSister wrote:
During the frigid, long, freezing winter of 1962/1963, us kids still went to school. There were some transport problems, but people just got on with life and didn't make a drama out of what is a normal winter occurrence in the UK - snow!

This is not true! I was at school in the 50s and 60s and the schools often closed on the first day or two of snow as the teachers couldn't get in and if the school doesn't have enough teachers to supervise the kids they have no choice but to close. As the Council gritters got out and cleared the roads the teachers could get into school and the schools re-opened. This is what happened in the winter of 62/3, many schools closed for the first day or two of snow but managed to open on subsequent days. Some people's memories of childhood are seen through rose tinted spectacles.

What are we going to do when the winter weather arrives ?

going to school or jeremy kyle
nuff said!!!!!!!!

Odd isn't it....that the 2 Southend Grammar Schools seldom close.