Snow and school closures.

drift
Back to snow

Must be a multi non- skilled “ useless lump” Jalima we don’t deal in car parts !

Wonderful way back ....

It’s snowing again here !

Just bloomin’ great .

I don't know where the car parts came from - the useless lump I referred to was our plumber's apprentice - no longer with the firm as it was 'too much like hard work'! He has a new apprentice now, seems a very keen young man.

There were rumours that the plumber's useless apprentice relocated to the NE .....

Aaah there we have it then. That’s cleared that up ! ( not)

www.theguardian.com/social-care-network/2018/mar/02/care-workers-hailed-battling-weather

Care workers should have a pay rise.

They should !

I was very surprised that my grandchildren's schools in central London closed early on the snowy days. I think it was something to do with some teachers living in the outer suburbs or even further away, and also the coach service that brings some children from a distance.

Grandson in junior school says they were allowed out twice to play in the snow, but mostly kept in at break times. I don’t think infant granddaughter was allowed out at all. I’m sure when I was at school we were allowed out at breaks and also during lessons that should have been games. My sons say they were, too.

I know it’s elf and safety but it seems to go a bit far.

It’s health and safety and deserves our respect. It’s not a joke wanting to keep our children as safe as we can. The DM will be hot on the trail of any school where a child is injured as will the personal injury no-win, no -fee lawyers.

Grandma70s I would imagine that few teachers could afford to ive in central London now. It's an indication of what will happen as housing becomes more and more expensive and essential workers live further and further away from their workplace.

...and children attend schools miles away from home when there are schools on their doorsteps. Progress? I don’t think so.

Maybe you should vote for a labour government which wants all schools to be good for our children, and then other parents will not take the places of your grandchildren.
Maybe this last week will make parents think again about sending their children to schools out of their area.
As I said earlier, all schools in Heaton remained open because teachers and pupils went to schools within walking distance.

Not everywhere is like that though, some village schools have quite a large catchment area and some secondary schools in towns have a catchment area which extends way out into the countryside.

Maybe you should vote for a labour government which wants all schools to be good for our children,

Nearly choked on my coffee! The majority of school's problems come from Labour trying social engineering, people are not equal, some are cleverer than others and deserve the chance to achieve something rather than being in a melting pot of mediocrity.

Back to the original topic, a friend's school stayed open during a previous snow event but conditions deteriorated rapidly and parents were contacted to collect their children pdq. Many didn't bother and staff were then stranded at the school, that's one of the many reasons for closing in anticipation.

Try reading Melissa Benn's book on the education system.
I know all about social engineering. I went to a private school myself, despite being the daughter of a bus driver, because I was clever.
It doesn't stop the labour party believing in local schools for local people. My kids went to community schools and had a much better school life than I did.

Macmillan was PM, Tory government, and 11+ with grammar schools. That was social engineering.

Depends where you live as to how good the local comprehensive is. Not an option for my GC.
GD will be back at the best girls independent school in the area this morning now that they can leave the village.
School round the corner to me is open again and the street is full of Chelsea tractors, downside to being the best primary school in town.

Bully for you and your family, harrigran. The others don't matter, of course.
You pay for smaller classes and your grandchildren to be taught with children whose parents have enough money to pay for their education.
Your local comprehensive is not a comprehensive as some pupils from the catchment have been sent somewhere else.

And that's exactly what gillybob is complaining about, that her grandchildren could not get into their local primary because of the Chelsea tractor brigade.

Harrigran so you should sacrifice your DGD's future on the altar of political ideology.
No-one should have the right to choose what they think is best for their child, all should be equal.

Who was it introduced league tables for schools? That in itself has resulted in parents fighting to get their children into schools out of their own 'catchment area'.
John Major, as far as I remember, and taken up with enthusiasm with Education, Education, Education Blair.

I don't think my children's or grandchildren's education has been sacrificed on the altar of ideology.
My sons both have degrees, my eldest granddaughter has a degree, all in subjects they wanted to study.
They went to the nearest school all the time they were being educated.

Harrigran lives in Tyne and Wear. Gillybob lives in Tyne and Wear - or Tyneside.
People Harrigran knows could be taking the places of Gillybob's grandchildren, making them travel a long way.

dj You were very very lucky. My children went to a good local primary, but despite living in a wealthy area the local comprehensive was poor.

We were advised on all sides; teachers at DC's primary school, health professionals we were referred to and a child psychologusts, not to send DS, in particular, to the local secondary school, but, if we could, send him to a private school. So we down-sized and did.

One of the happiest things that has happened to me in the last week is hearing that DGD has got into her first choice secondary school and the knowledge that the state education she will get is comparable with the education I got in a state grammar school in the 1950s.

Children born in the 1970s and 80s were a lost generation, especially the exceptionally able and gifted. As one head teacher told a friend 'there are no above average children, just children with pushy middle class parents. In addition from 1979 schools were starved of funds and resources

I had family and friends teaching in the state system then. One left teaching in despair to return when the education system started to improve. Others hung on, only because retirement was in sight.

Lots of schools in my area ( London) stayed open last week as the snow wasn’t too bad. Lots of them are closed today as there’s no water!