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[chrisl_1960]

schools closing in bad weather was unheard of when I was at school (left 1977 aged 17) so why now? I understand that in the current litigation society in which we live, the risk of getting sued if little darling slips on the ice is high, but I wonder if so many teachers would be a bit more eager to make it to work if A) they were self employed or B) any days lost in the winter were made up by shortening the summer holiday

by the way, I'm not anti school teacher, and this isn't exactly a rant about them, but I am slighly miffed about the way we're heading with the nanny state wrapping us up in cotton wool......

not enough space to list things I done as a kid, that kids dont/cant do now

[Nickbat]

One of the things that has changed society greatly over the last thirty to forty years is mobility. When I was at school, the majority of the teachers lived locally. Now, teachers often live up to 30 miles or more from their school. As a result, while local kids may make it in, teachers (and ancillary staff such as school cooks etc) often can't. The school of which I am a governor has a role of 1700 students. It is simply not viable to look after that many students with a skeleton staff. It's not about health and safety as such, more a question of practicality, IMHO.

[STMO123]

One of the things that has changed society greatly over the last thirty to forty years is mobility. When I was at school, the majority of the teachers lived locally. Now, teachers often live up to 30 miles or more from their school. As a result, while local kids may make it in, teachers (and ancillary staff such as school cooks etc) often can't. The school of which I am a governor has a role of 1700 students. It is simply not viable to look after that many students with a skeleton staff. It's not about health and safety as such, more a question of practicality, IMHO.

Tut,tut guv, dont you mean roll?

[albitz]

One of the things that has changed society greatly over the last thirty to forty years is mobility. When I was at school, the majority of the teachers lived locally. Now, teachers often live up to 30 miles or more from their school. As a result, while local kids may make it in, teachers (and ancillary staff such as school cooks etc) often can't. The school of which I am a governor has a role of 1700 students. It is simply not viable to look after that many students with a skeleton staff. It's not about health and safety as such, more a question of practicality, IMHO.

A good example of this mobility maybe that in the early eighties Norman Tebbit was pilloried for telling British workers to get on their bikes and look for jobs,last week Peter Mandelson told them to get on an Italian bound plane to do the same thing (or words to that effect)

[chrisl_1960]

yes, Europe is now our workplace, and I frequently travel to Belgium for work, I dont mind, but so many people dont want days away, or to relocate, just want to travel a few miles to work and then home again, I think the days of parents & siblings working in the same place are long gone, (along with apprenticeships)

any kid at school at the moment needs IT skills and languages.

[Nickbat]

One of the things that has changed society greatly over the last thirty to forty years is mobility. When I was at school, the majority of the teachers lived locally. Now, teachers often live up to 30 miles or more from their school. As a result, while local kids may make it in, teachers (and ancillary staff such as school cooks etc) often can't. The school of which I am a governor has a role of 1700 students. It is simply not viable to look after that many students with a skeleton staff. It's not about health and safety as such, more a question of practicality, IMHO.

Tut,tut guv, dont you mean roll?

I do indeed. Well spotted that man!

One of the funny things I've noticed about using the PC is that I have a select group of words that I always type wrong, even though I handwrite them correctly. One of the those I consistently get wrong is "their" instead of "they're". I think it's something about the way I phonetically sound out the words in my head as I type. Of course, the problem with these words is that no spell checker would pick them up.

[chrisl_1960]

watts spellchecker??

[Richie London]

schools are out for no reason at all but litigations as said. you take yer kid out of school for the day, there straight on the phone asking where he is. school closes for 6 weeks in the summer, 1 day back it closes, and other half terms are the same,teacher training. they got 6 weeks to do training, i dont pay taxes for them to do there training in kids school time.  

[jerry]

Was talking to my mum about this this very morning and yeh, when she was young, just as when I was a kid, when it snowed, it snowed and it was measured in feet rather than inches at times and the country didnt grind to a halt like it does now. If the schools closed it was down to the heating breaking down and only then it had to be pretty cold. The difference today is of course mobility. Nowadays its not uncommon for a 25mile drive to work (inc teachers), then it was a matter of a mile or so and public transport was much better so people could get to work even if it meant a hike thru the snow. These are good reasons for problems we get in any bad weather spells, tho of course it doesnt help that were not geared up for it as a country (decent gritting etc) but even so it pisses me off when so many people use it as an excuse not to get to work when with a little more care and effort they could. Or is that more of a "Grumpy Old Man" syndrome?
                                                                      jerry :-/

[BigAl]

Was talking to my mum about this this very morning and yeh, when she was young, just as when I was a kid, when it snowed, it snowed and it was measured in feet rather than inches at times and the country didnt grind to a halt like it does now. If the schools closed it was down to the heating breaking down and only then it had to be pretty cold. The difference today is of course mobility. Nowadays its not uncommon for a 25mile drive to work (inc teachers), then it was a matter of a mile or so and public transport was much better so people could get to work even if it meant a hike thru the snow. These are good reasons for problems we get in any bad weather spells, tho of course it doesnt help that were not geared up for it as a country (decent gritting etc) but even so it pisses me off when so many people use it as an excuse not to get to work when with a little more care and effort they could. Or is that more of a "Grumpy Old Man" syndrome?
                                                                      jerry :-/

Just to throw a spanner in the works:-
My understanding is that teachers/children have to report to their nearest school in adverse conditions ?

[Vamps]

Was talking to my mum about this this very morning and yeh, when she was young, just as when I was a kid, when it snowed, it snowed and it was measured in feet rather than inches at times and the country didnt grind to a halt like it does now. If the schools closed it was down to the heating breaking down and only then it had to be pretty cold. The difference today is of course mobility. Nowadays its not uncommon for a 25mile drive to work (inc teachers), then it was a matter of a mile or so and public transport was much better so people could get to work even if it meant a hike thru the snow. These are good reasons for problems we get in any bad weather spells, tho of course it doesnt help that were not geared up for it as a country (decent gritting etc) but even so it pisses me off when so many people use it as an excuse not to get to work when with a little more care and effort they could. Or is that more of a "Grumpy Old Man" syndrome?
                                                                      jerry :-/

Just to throw a spanner in the works:-
My understanding is that teachers/children have to report to their nearest school in adverse conditions ?

Not sure about the children but the teachers are suposed to, so that in theory all schools would be staffed