Weather forces thousands of school closures
By Martin Evans and Nick Collins, Telegraph
Parents across the country were forced to stay at home to look after their children after thousands of schools closed in the face of worsening weather. Concerns over safety as well as transport problems for pupils and staff meant the vast majority of primary and secondary schools in the worst hit areas could not open. But some parents and business leaders expressed concern that head teachers were closing their doors at the first sign of a snowflake. For many youngsters it meant a welcome extension to the Christmas holidays. After more than a week of problems in Scotland and the north of England, it was the south which was worst affected following the latest deluge of snow. At least 320 of Hertfordshire’s 520 schools were closed, while in Hampshire, where 16 inches of snow fell, at least 410 out of 536 schools remained closed. In Buckhinhamshire 176 schools were shut, while Oxfordshire reported 164 of its primary and secondary schools had been unable to open. In Gloucestershire 330 remained closed, Wiltshire lost almost 150 and Somerset was forced to close 200. In the north, the counties of Yorkshire, Durham, Cumbria, Greater Manchester and Merseyside all continued to fall foul of the snow and ice with hundreds of schools telling pupils to stay at home. There were calls last night (Wed) for schools and local authorities to do more to maintain a skeleton operation to allow those youngsters who could make it in to the classroom to do so.
Margaret Morrissey of the campaign group, Parents Outloud said: “One can understand the need to close schools in the worst hit areas but what we need to introduce are plans to cope with what is becoming an annual occurrence. “One way of ensuring more schools could stay open would be to introduce a system similar to the one used by hospitals, the ambulance service and large companies. If a member of staff can’t get into the school where they work they can go into one near to their home. “This could easily be adopted and would allow children who could get into school to use the library and computer facilities, even if normal lessons could not be organised. It would also minimise the disruption caused to parents, many of whom work. The economy, in the state it is in, simply cannot afford to have millions of people staying off work to look after their children when it is unnecessary.”
Stephen Alambritis, of the Federation of Small Businesses also said the cost of parents having to stay at home to look after their children was costing the country millions of pounds a day. He said: “The vast majority of absenteeism during bad weather is because parents have to stay at home to look after their children and there is concern that head teachers are closing some schools unnecessarily.” There are no national guidelines on when a school should close due to adverse weather conditions and the decision is usually taken by the head teacher in consultation with the local authority. A spokesman for the Department for Children, Schools and Families said: “We expect a common-sense approach based on the conditions at the school and also the safety of any pupil. We would hope that heads can keep schools open while it is safe for them to do so, but decisions about closure have to be taken locally by those who know the local conditions.” However a number of independent schools in the badly affected areas said they had managed to remain open. Neil Roskilly, chief executive of the Independent Schools Association, said about 90 per cent of his 300 member schools had been able to remain open, though some had been forced to close due to exceptionally heavy snowfall. He said: “It is a mixed picture, we know of a handful that have closed. But with independent schools this will usually be just for one day, whereas some schools in the state sector may be closed for a longer period.”
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Interesting to see coverage about the snow and pleased to see it provides another much needed opportunity for honest debate about the way we organise our working lives/business, family life and care responsibilities at home. After all, snow /bad weather is just one element that affects people’s daily lives and in many ways just represents the overall dilemma of how society is best organised and perhaps even more importantly the delicate (and arguably unsustainable) balance of the economy in the longer term.
My main concern is that yet again the arrival of snow and school closures across the country highlights the fact that we have our backs to the wall and have created an impossible situation for average families struggling to cope with everyday life, bad weather or no bad weather. Does society really now expect all parents to be in paid work no matter what? What about the role of care? Is our society so dependent on two parents - dads and mums - working and getting their kids to school that businesses will collapse if a few days are missed by one parent? If so many parents depend so much on two incomes to survive/pay the mortgage (on impossibly high housing costs) , is this sustainable especially in times of unemployment and globalisation with decently paid jobs so scarce? Are we not just feeding consumerism and growth which probably can’t be sustained in the longer term anyhow. Would it not be best to work towards an entirely different and simpler model? Indeed isn’t it about time that care was factored into GDP instead of being viewed as without monetary value or somehow as just ‘unproductive’ or simple ‘inactivity’ (which it clearly isn’t view that the human condition depends on unpaid care work).
It may be true that in the old days schools would just open up and accept local children and teachers would travel to help out in the nearest school, but I doubt whether the rationale behind this was to help two working parents enabling them to travel to the office as usual - rather it would have been in the spirit of community and to help farming communities etc In any case in those days families lived closer to each other and there was more help available - plus untrained adults would step in to help in the classroom without the need for CRB checks etc (my mother led a newly set-up morning playgroup for four years on school premises in the 80s without any training whatsoever - how times have changed).Anyway - for what it’s worth, this is my view. I’m less interested in the snowfall and more interested in a wider debate about where we’re all heading!!! As far as our own family are concerned, we live 3 hours from nearest family members, so no help available from them. We have four children attending different schools in different parts of Wiltshire and Hampshire. Last year in an attempt to travel to school on the Friday I got my youngest in by 9.45 am and the others travelled by bus, only to be informed by 11am that all the schools were closing, that bus services were suspended due to dangerous conditions and that I’d have to a) collect my youngest b) book a taxi for two to travel up from the New Forest 15 miles away and c) at the same time be available in Salisbury to provide transport for our 15 year old (no buses). It became impossible.
I do some part time work but fortunately was not due to work during that particular week (thankfully as the stress would have been intolerable). My husband was actually away on business at the time.
I don’t know what the answer is but I don’t think that we should put unreasonable pressure on people to travel in poor conditions (whether we’re talking about school staff or pupils or workers, although care workers/medical staff in hospitals/care homes should be a priority, caring for the sick and needy). I think people generalise too much and we need to help each other out more often. That includes friends and neighbours, as well as family members. Schools are not babysitting services for adults and employers who have not realistically factored in their care responsibilities/family support systems (and this is not blaming them because at the end of the day we are all just doing our best in the times we live).
I’ve lived abroad and know what regular snowfall is about, but it’s hard to make comparisons as all our systems are so very different.
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