I write this with a heavy heart, knowing that it will be seen as an attack on the teaching profession (and I use the word ‘profession’ advisedly) who do a quite amazing job educating our children – when they are there. I refer of course to the concept of a snow day.

I’d like to know this : why are teachers and people in education the only people who get ‘snow days’? I’ve seen all the arguments from the teaching establishment during the latest spate of bad weather, and I understand all the arguments about “if police say only make emergency journeys then I can’t make my staff risk coming in” and “ice and snow on the premises can make it difficult to comply with health and safety regulations” but they always lead to the same conclusion – closed schools, and hugely inconvenienced parents.
I don’t know of another ‘profession’ that would close my place of business because of bad weather and tell me not to come in lest I endanger my life getting to work. Teachers choose to live where they live, the same as the rest of us do, and if that involves a commute, then that is their choice, surely? The LEA didn’t decree that they should live within walking distance of the school, so it is the teacher’s own choice that they live that far away from the school. So, I don’t think that argument holds water. Or ice. Or snow. The teacher, of their own free will, holds the commuting risk of their own volition.
Secondly, why can’t the teacher – like they used to do – turn up at their local school and effectively be a supply teacher? The excuse used here is that you can’t have complete strangers turning up at school purporting to be a teacher. I cannot believe that this is valid – surely an LEA has a register of teachers that are local to each school? A simple list that a headteacher will have that says “Mrs Jones attends this school in case of bad weather”. Teachers have identity cards already?
For years, teachers have been complaining that they aren’t taken as ‘professionals’ any more. Try showing, as a body of people, some commitment to the children you purport to educate on the days that you are required to attend school.
And for pity’s sake, stop demeaning yourself and the rest of your ‘trade’ by not making the same effort as the rest of society to cope with bad weather. Spend some of your winter holiday in Canada. And learn.