Time to start docking teachers pay, when they don't turn in for work?

[Mr Gobby]

My son's a teacher and it was he who was told by the powers that be NOT to turn up for work, it was not his decision .To the moaners on here, if your boss told you not to go into work what would you do,and to anyone else who thinks teachers have an easy life you know nothing and are totally ignorant to the amount of work teachers do.

[horribleblob]

I do sympathise with mums (or dads) that have to stay off work because their child cannot go into school and lose money through it, I tried to get to work this morning by bus but roads were impassable so ending up coming home. last year only got as far as granville road and had a 9 mile work home, . my kids are now grown up but would hate it if my child had had to walk home, took me nearly 4 hours. it may be that they consider the child's safety more paramount to opening up the school.

[my bold] Good point.

 

I received a text at 6.40 am from my daughters school to say both Lower and Upper were closed.

Was a bit surprised to get it that early

You got it too huh? 6.40 - 10 minutes before my alarm was due to go off - but it was really useful to get it that early.

[crisps]

Whether teachers do a 'reasonable' job for their salary is irrelevant. The weather is bad, the roads are covered in snow and ice and there are lots of issues to consider when deciding to close a school. As others have correctly pointed out, a situation could arise whereby children are stuck at school with no transport home. Schools are not babysitting services and as such are not responsible for ensuring that parents can attend their places of work.

[mohawkvic]

Some of us walked over a mile in deep snow yesterday to get to school, and then were told it was closed.

 

Schools closing is not done on a whim, and it takes into account the safety of 150 staff in a large secondary school for example, and over 1500 children.

I am sure that some would be the first to complain if thier son/daughter were to slip and break a leg on the school yard, and then obviously blame the teacher for not looking after them.

 

I personally live fairly close to my place of employment (2 miles) but would CERTAINLY not risk my own life by getting into a car in order to educate another persons child if I lived further away. At the end of the day, my safety is more important to me than my job.

 

We have snow most years, and most years schools have to close due to not enough staff being able to get in in order to provide a safe student/staff ratio. Deal with it.

 

Teachers will always try to get into school, as we actually like our jobs, however, we are TOLD whether to go in to school or not, and that decision is made by the Headteacher. We do not decide to just 'have a snow day'- if school is open you do your damndest to get in. Last Jan i drove 35 miles to my old place of employment, in the snow, and when my other half phoned to tell me that all traffic was sliding down the hill on the way to my house in sheffield, I asked my HT if i could leave, she said NO, as we have a responsibility to look after the children until their parents could arrange an alternative babysitting service than us (oh, sorry, we're a school). 3 hours later i left, and 5 hours later than that i arrived home. The main reason I was allowed to leave was because the others from Sheffield couldn't GET IN, so please, don't assume teachers make the decision, we're the same as everyone else and get into work if we can, and if its too dangerous, we are told not to. If we are advised to stay at home by the Police and Highways agency, or if school is closed and it is not our decision, why would we risk driving or why would we have pay docked?

 

The reason so many staff live out of catchment (i.e. driving distance not walking) is because we can't do anything out of school without parents and students passing comment on the minutae of our lives.

[mohawkvic]

oh, and the other thing, a large proportion of the leadership team are in schools by 6:30-7am every morning. Not just when its snowing. So the text at 6:40 is about normal!

[Cyclone]

Some of us walked over a mile in deep snow yesterday to get to school, and then were told it was closed.

 

Schools closing is not done on a whim, and it takes into account the safety of 150 staff in a large secondary school for example, and over 1500 children.

I am sure that some would be the first to complain if thier son/daughter were to slip and break a leg on the school yard, and then obviously blame the teacher for not looking after them.

 

I personally live fairly close to my place of employment (2 miles) but would CERTAINLY not risk my own life by getting into a car in order to educate another persons child if I lived further away. At the end of the day, my safety is more important to me than my job.

 

We have snow most years, and most years schools have to close due to not enough staff being able to get in in order to provide a safe student/staff ratio. Deal with it.

 

Funny how teachers can't manage to get there though, when nearly every other business carries on as normal...

[Cyclone]

Whether teachers do a 'reasonable' job for their salary is irrelevant. The weather is bad, the roads are covered in snow and ice and there are lots of issues to consider when deciding to close a school. As others have correctly pointed out, a situation could arise whereby children are stuck at school with no transport home. Schools are not babysitting services and as such are not responsible for ensuring that parents can attend their places of work.

 

They are an education service and are responsible for seeing that the children receive an education. Closing at the 1st snow flake isn't going to achieve that.

 

Now this morning, I can believe that many would need to be closed, I expect to find a half empty office when I get to work...

[Cyclone]

Can't wait to see what would happen on here if all the schools opened even with 4" of snow, all the kids turned up and it snowed like buggery for the next 6 hours so all buses went off and majority of parents couldn't get there by car. Several thousand kids stuck at school and several thousand parents on here complaining that the school should have closed in such shocking conditions.

 

Mind you, school could have closed earlier, as soon as it started to look dodgy - after several thousand phonecalls to parents had been made of course - then we'd have several thousand parents complaining that they 'couldn't just leave work you know' and several thousand more wanting to know why their kid was 'sent home without any warning in such bad conditions. It wasn't my fault you couldn't reach me'

 

I ask myself, could these scenarios ever happen?

 

It's a bit late to change this, but children should live within (potential) walking distance of school, not on the other side of the city!

[mohawkvic]

Funny how teachers can't manage to get there though, when nearly every other business carries on as normal...

 

many staff do. I would have been at school by 7:30 yesterday. but we closed. NOT MY DECISION.

Adults are responsible for themselves in their place of employment. Teachers are responsible for others children. If its so easy, retrain and become one.

[mohawkvic]

It's a bit late to change this, but children should live within (potential) walking distance of school, not on the other side of the city!

 

completely agree!!! But on the flip side as a teacher I try not to live next door to my Y10 and Y11's (and their parents) as my life is no longer my own. I could not have a party in the back garden, an argument with my spouse etc without the whole school knowing about it and commenting on it... This is different if you're not a teacher as your life isn't interesting to teenagers!!!! Luckily, i live JUST out of catchment, can still walk to work and don't have kids next door -- this just to give some reasoning to why teachers don't all live walking distance to their school.