Health And Safety!

[wimp]

Power on and off through the night.Wind 93mph! snowing but not laying on the ground at the moment.Schools closed,HEALTH AND SAFETY!!
When I was going to school if there was no power you were told just to wrap up warm and if the roads were bad, walk to school! Wind never came into it because up here if you were to close the schools because of strong wind you would never be at school!What was it like at your school if the weather was abnormal or extreme?

[EcclesCake]

As a child of the 70's I can remember trudging 3miles to school through snow that came up to my knees and frequently higher.

The only lesson that I can recall being altered was PE, instead of dance we went out onto the sports field and had a snowball fight :-)

[carolegif]

We went to school hail, rain, or snow! No transport? We walked! I remember walking home in thick fog, kept bumping into one another. No heating in the school? Kept our coats on.
Remember the outdoor toilets that froze every winter and the caretaker had to keep boiling kettles to pour hot water down and try and unfreeze them?

[tonyav]

I can only remember being sent home ( due to snow ) during the winter of 63, still had to attend school though just to be told to go home.

[woofgang]

Many children now live too far from school to be able to walk, also schools were stuck because it was less easy to tell parents that the school would be closed. Times change.

[ChillDoubt]

I remember going to school during power cuts etc.
The caretaker would use parafin heaters, which were commonplace then, teachers and pupils just got on with it.
No way my stpedad would have been allowed a day off from the pit to look after us, nor my mum time off work as a seamstress either!

[dunnitall]

Attend school in snow and all weathers, no let up at my school, good old days erm...lol

[ummmm]

I don't remember ever being sent home but my memory is broccoli...

When I was in primary hardly anyone had a car so kids went to the nearest school (not us, we had to go to the Catholic school) so it wasn't much of an issue to walk.

[237SJ]

We used to be sent home from school if it snowed because we were in an outlying area and if we would have been stranded. It wasn`t because of health and safety and in those days, people didn`t sue people.

[TheOtherHalf]

we were never sent home from school. I know we didnt live far away but when it was cold in the classroom we put our coats on ! It wasnt nice but we survived although I wouldnt want any children to go through the same. I still think that H & S go a bit too far though

[dustypuss]

Whats a skool .

[shaneystar2]

I trudged to school and back in the big freeze .We lived in Kent then and the snow was awful .It was quite a long walk .Couple of miles .Snow was piled up the sides of the roads but off we went and there we stayed until it was time to trudge back again .We were never sent home and the school never shut .
This went on from just after the Christmas of '62 until early March of '63 .

[murraymints]

I had to stay in school overnight once as the school bus couldn't get up the steep hill half way between school and home...about 40 of us stranded....the local wi came to the rescue with blankets and sleeping bags...lucky ones got into staff rooms easy chairs, the domestic science mock flat...rest of us in hall ! At least we had heating and a kitchen for food...

[Zacs-Master]

Some days the path from the dorms to the study rooms were littered with leaves which made it difficult.

[lozzer50]

we got sent home a couple of times from Rivi grammar in 70'2 coz of snow, but instead of going home we went up Rivi and made huge snowmen and had amazing snowball fights!!! our parents didnt know because there were no mobiles back then and they didnt let parents know anyway! happy days

[sherrardk]

They close the schools round here quite a lot. I am glad when they close boy #1's school as it is about 10 miles away on countrified roads. Last year boy #2 even come home from a residential trip early because of snow.

[Prudie]

I was never sent home from school in snow but when I became a teacher it happened regularly. Now I'm working elsewhere we still get sent home now and then because of snow. I think it's the worry of being sued for lack of duty of care that's the driving force behind these decisions.

[FredPuli43]

I don't remember my secondary school, an 8 mile bus trip away, ever being closed. And the village primary school, a one mile walk, never was. But this is something of a British obsession now. I think I have mentioned before, but a friend in Canada has a 14 year old. The girl complained that they had to go outside at breaks because the temperature was minus 18. Had it been minus 20 the pupils could have stayed inside. Can you imagine the fuss if schools here had a rule like that?