Are any schools closed today?

[Lockjaw]

I hope you got a note to explain your delay.What did the head say?

 

 

Ooh, you and your fancy wordplay! You never miss a trick.

[Dannyno]

we use to have to WALK to school and back never remember the school closing and i'm talking snow much deeper than this

 

When were you at school?

 

I was at school in the 1970s/80s, and remember listening for school closures on local radio during heavy snowfall.

 

Now, of course, thanks to government policy, people/children often travel much further in order to get to school - sometimes well beyond walking distance.

 

Teachers will often live much further away than they used to.

 

Reliance on cars has increased.

 

One thing that has improved is the quality of heating pipework.

 

Just for interest, I did some searches of newspapers going back early last century, and they are full of stories of schools closing because of broken pipes.

 

Here are some snippets from The Times (will be missing lots of local detail and news, of course, but it's interesting for a bit of perspective):

 

January 1936, schools in Llanidloes, mid Wales, closed

 

January 1945, “some schools had to be closed through lack of fuel and frozen pipes”

 

January 1947, “at Portsmouth 2000 schoolchildren had a holiday when 12 schools closed because of frozen pipes”; later the same month: “A number of schools in various towns, including Oxford, Hove, and Dover, were closed because hot water pipes were frozen.”

 

February 1956, “About 3000 Birmingham school children were sent home when 12 schools were closed because it was too cold for the children to work. Nine schools in Bournemouth have had to be closed, and in Hertfordshire nearly 600 pupils at Chestnut Grammar School were sent home when burst pipes caused flooding.” Also: “12 schools in Bridgwater, five at Weston Super Mare, two at Yeovil, and one at Taunton had been closed.”

 

I think people just don't accurately remember the past.

 

---------- Post added 05-02-2013 at 22:43 ----------

 

I used the term "ancillary" staff in a reply to someone else. Support staff frequently outnumber the teaching staff in snow conditions and that is a fact.

It was a fact at Loxley a fact at Norton a fact at Parson Cross and presently a fact at Hillsborough and Norton.

 

Gosh. Where have you got your statistics from? It would be fascinating to know the source of your "facts".

 

And what is the usual ratio of support staff to teaching staff in each of those colleges?

[sedith]

Any schools closed today ... 2cms of snow!!!!!... seems to me the minute they close the Snake Pass the schools start closing!

[kayie]

Birley is shut

[sedith]

Birley is shut

Unbelievable ... when i left Mosborough this morning there was hardly any snow, what there was is turning to slush and the roads were perfectly clear, so whats the problem at Birley?

[francypants]

Don't know if it's the same in Sheffield but in Barnsley all the schools are closed.

 

 

IT'S HALF TERM !!!

[irenewilde]

Don't know if it's the same in Sheffield but in Barnsley all the schools are closed.

 

 

IT'S HALF TERM !!!

 

No, it's not the same in Sheffield.

 

---------- Post added 11-02-2013 at 10:00 ----------

 

Any schools closed today ... 2cms of snow!!!!!... seems to me the minute they close the Snake Pass the schools start closing!

 

You might only have 2 cms where you live, out here it's over 10 cms.

[doodle]

Birley is shut due to a teacher training day. Sheffield's half term is next week.