primary school weather closures

sandra06

does anyone know ,if this weather stays the same or gets worse,will school be open monday,the roads outside where i live are v bad,and the paths also bad

byhookorbycrook

Impossible to say, it will fall to each individual school to make the call. There will be no blanket closure like that idiot Batt O' Keefee made last year.

D4RK ONION

Not a fan of the man? I often wonder why they don't just put qualified people in these positions. :rolleyes:

PcAngel

byhookorbycrook wrote: »

Impossible to say, it will fall to each individual school to make the call. There will be no blanket closure like that idiot Batt O' Keefee made last year.

What was so wrong with that decision. there was a major snowfall and freeze. In my opinion lives were saved by making this decision.
It also meant that those doing junior/leaving cert exams weren't put under pressure to travel to school as school X 5 miles away was open.

byhookorbycrook

He declared all schools closed for a long period, even where there was v. little snow and/or roads were fine.One of our teachers came from Galway yest and couldn't believe the snow here, so should the schools in her native place have closed, even when there was no need??

dvpower

There are some lists of open / closed schools being maintained at:
http://www.schooldays.ie/articles/School-closure-updates-November-29-2010
and (in Dublin)
http://www.98fm.com/news-sport/news/school-closures943/

hamlet1

Do the schools have to make up all the lost days due to the bad weather? If not ,will the teachers be paid for those days? I will be furious if they are,because I work in the public service and if I didnt make it into work because of the weather,I would have to take annual leave or unpaid leave.It would be grossly unfair if they are paid without having to make up the days.Our school is taking its SEVENTH day off tomorrow.

overmantle

Conditions clearly vary from one place to another. Some parts of the country have been significantly worse than others at certains times during this cold snap. Part of the difficulty has been the danger that the volume of traffic schools generate can/would contribute to risk of accidents significantly.
Our local schools have all been open, even though roads have been bad. I am also aware of many cases where many school staff have been present, even though children haven't. Also, in order to keep school grounds salted/gritted, parents informed by text and heating boilers operational, principals and other staff have been in schools at weekends and night time during this cold spell, often putting themselves in increased danger. If some teachers working in schools that were closed through no fault of theirs, be deprived of pay, should those who have worked above and beyond the call of duty to keep schools open and school communities safe not then be paid extra? I don't think that would happen as unfortunately, most the unseen work is taken for granted, all too often.

mat cauthon

hamlet1 wrote: »

Do the schools have to make up all the lost days due to the bad weather? If not ,will the teachers be paid for those days? I will be furious if they are,because I work in the public service and if I didnt make it into work because of the weather,I would have to take annual leave or unpaid leave.It would be grossly unfair if they are paid without having to make up the days.Our school is taking its SEVENTH day off tomorrow.

I take it hamlet that your place of work was open. Therefore it is up to you to get yourself in.
Should a school open, it is up to teachers to get in. Should they be unable to do so, they must take that day as a leave day, or an unpaid day.
However, if the school is closed, then clearly, the teachers couldnt go in. If your place of work was closed due to weather, then your "free" day would not need to be made up.

downthemiddle

hamlet1 wrote: »

Do the schools have to make up all the lost days due to the bad weather? If not ,will the teachers be paid for those days? I will be furious if they are,because I work in the public service and if I didnt make it into work because of the weather,I would have to take annual leave or unpaid leave.It would be grossly unfair if they are paid without having to make up the days.Our school is taking its SEVENTH day off tomorrow.

Teachers are available for work.Teachers do not close schools, boards of management do in consultation with the principal. Schools are not closed on a whim, they only close if conditions are dangerous.
The school I work in is on a campus with three other schools with over 1000 pupils attending the schools. Yesterday, along with a number of teachers from the other schools, I spent 90 minutes pushing cars outside the school as parents slid down the road attempting to get their children to school. Parents, children and teachers were in tears from the dangerous and frightening conditions they experienced. As a result we closed today.
Since the bad weather started we have being trying to get someone to take responsibility for the road conditions outside the school. We are in a private estate and the road is yet to be signed over to the county council. As a result the council refuse to treat the road. The developer say they are not in a position to help us although they did send a digger down the road to attemp to improve the situation, unfortunately to no avail. The property management company offered us a 25 kg bag of salt:rolleyes:. There is at least 3 cms of compacted ice on the road outside the school and the staff car park is a skating rink as is the school yard.
Today we contacted the army but they cannot help us as they need to be requested to do so by the council. Eventually we managed a get someone to shovel grit onto the roads outside the schools. In the meantime I spent the rest of the day salting and clearing the path outside the school.
Tomorrow we intend to operate a one way traffic system around the schools with the principals directing the traffic and teachers collecting children from cars and bringing them directly into the schools. We are aware of the legal implications of our action but needs must.
As a result of the long term forecast we have ordered 2 tonnes of salt which we will have to spread on the road ourselves.
So much for our "days off".

overmantle

downthemiddle wrote: »

Teachers are available for work.Teachers do not close schools, boards of management do in consultation with the principal. Schools are not closed on a whim, they only close if conditions are dangerous.
The school I work in is on a campus with three other schools with over 1000 pupils attending the schools. Yesterday, along with a number of teachers from the other schools, I spent 90 minutes pushing cars outside the school as parents slid down the road attempting to get their children to school. Parents, children and teachers were in tears from the dangerous and frightening conditions they experienced. As a result we closed today.
Since the bad weather started we have being trying to get someone to take responsibility for the road conditions outside the school. We are in a private estate and the road is yet to be signed over to the county council. As a result the council refuse to treat the road. The developer say they are not in a position to help us although they did send a digger down the road to attemp to improve the situation, unfortunately to no avail. The property management company offered us a 25 kg bag of salt:rolleyes:. There is at least 3 cms of compacted ice on the road outside the school and the staff car park is a skating rink as is the school yard.
Today we contacted the army but they cannot help us as they need to be requested to do so by the council. Eventually we managed a get someone to shovel grit onto the roads outside the schools. In the meantime I spent the rest of the day salting and clearing the path outside the school.
Tomorrow we intend to operate a one way traffic system around the schools with the principals directing the traffic and teachers collecting children from cars and bringing them directly into the schools. We are aware of the legal implications of our action but needs must.
As a result of the long term forecast we have ordered 2 tonnes of salt which we will have to spread on the road ourselves.
So much for our "days off".

Well done, downthemiddle! These are the kind of details we need to hear more about, as it is the unseen and unheard of actions that very often don't get publicity. Unfortunately, the vocal minority tend to engage in a bit school/teacher bashing and perhaps are not aware of the situation. I'm a parent too and I fully appreciate the frustration of parents if schools are closed indefinitely. It's not the fault of teachers though and they would all prefer to be in class rather than have the threat of days having to be made up at other times.

killbillvol2

hamlet1 wrote: »

Do the schools have to make up all the lost days due to the bad weather? If not ,will the teachers be paid for those days? I will be furious if they are,because I work in the public service and if I didnt make it into work because of the weather,I would have to take annual leave or unpaid leave.It would be grossly unfair if they are paid without having to make up the days.Our school is taking its SEVENTH day off tomorrow.

As outlined above, teachers don't close schools.

[SNIP]

Toto Wolfcastle

killbillvol2 please do not take posts from other threads to use them against another poster.

tanzania

My kids haven't missed any day. Parents and the management have made sure the school was able to stay open. Unfortunately, a serious crash outside the school was the deciding factor in closing the school until the ice thaws.

mat cauthon

tanzania wrote: »

My kids haven't missed any day. Parents and the management have made sure the school was able to stay open. Unfortunately, a serious crash outside the school was the deciding factor in closing the school until the ice thaws.

And was it worth the serious crash? To keep kids in a school that was obviously dangerous for a few days? Mykids school was open. But they stayed at home for a few days during the worst of it with their mam.

Id rather they missed a few days than got caught up in a serious accident.