Snow

Tiddlypom said:
Crikey, the local town FB page had to shut down comments on the page that listed today’s school closures which included the town’s two secondary schools 😳.

Apparently the teachers were getting an absolute bashing ☹️.

The schools couldn’t get enough staff in to safely open. Staff often travel in from much further away than the kids, but the keyboard warriors got stuck in anyway. The parents wanted the schools to operate like a giant crèche so that they could get on with their day unhindered by child care arrangements.

Roads are still flooded here. OH borrowed my 4X4 to go to the local village surgery for a routine jab as my car has a much greater wading depth than his. He was followed out of the village by a small van which stopped behind him to watch the Shogun negotiate one of the floods. The driver evidently decided that his vehicle wasn’t up to it and turned round.
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That is disgraceful, and if their wretched offspring slipped over in an understaffed school playground, those would be the same parents trying to sue, I suppose?
 
As a retired primary headteacher, snow was in my opinion one of the most stressful things.
I was expected to get into school to see if it was viable to open, that meant I had to leave extremely early and negotiate often terrible rural roads. My school was in a village with awful access, down steep hills. Generally, the county council don't make a blanket decision, it is left to the headteacher. Most of my pupils lived in the village so they could walk, but the staff couldn't. I usually tried to talk to all my staff by 7.30am and then decide if i would have enough staff to open. If not i would contact parents. Sometimes I delayed opening until 10am.Most parents were very understanding but some were down right abusive about it!

Now in my retired life I do 2 evenings a week as a Tesco delivery driver - slighty different I know!
I was working last night. I started at 7pm with dense fog driving on rural raods. By 8.30 it was raining in torrents, don't think I have ever seen rain so heavy. By the time I got back to base at 10.30pm roads were beginning to flood. I was very wet!!
My county of leicestershire has now declared a major incident due to extensive flooding. Delivery drivers have really been struggling to get through to customers and some orders have had to be cancelled, unsurprisingly. Fortunately for me, I don't work again until Saturday night.

On a horsey note I arrived at the yard to a flooded tackroom and fields under water. Very grateful that no water got into the stables. We have an indoor school so both horses have been worked and put back to bed. Hopefully I can put then out on their hard standing area tomorrow.
 
Goodness sake! I’ve had the minis in all last week waiting for the snow, finally got fed up of it not coming and left them out and it’s snowing!! I can’t go and get them in so they’re on their own. They have shelter thankfully.
 
I had thought it would be common knowledge to clear the buildup of snow from the roof of one’s car before driving it, but that seems to be wishful thinking 🙃
 
Escapade said:
I had thought it would be common knowledge to clear the buildup of snow from the roof of one’s car before driving it, but that seems to be wishful thinking 🙃
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I didn’t, last time, got to my junction on the main road, came off the slip road and braked… instant blindness. Was very embarrassing 😳
 
Whoops.
We were discussing the possibility of snow overnight at work yesterday.
I confidently said it won’t come to much and decided to leave my laptop at work.
I’ve woken up to reports of traffic chaos in the towns near me.
I’m hoping the snow doesn’t stick around long and I can be reunited with my laptop later this morning.
 
More snow here last night. A lot of local schools closed and the roads are chaos.
My cars got its MOT so this morning has been a bit hectic getting 3 horses done and getting the car into the garage. My 1 mile route home from the farm took twenty five minutes due to the traffic.
 
Tiddlypom said:
Crikey, the local town FB page had to shut down comments on the page that listed today’s school closures which included the town’s two secondary schools 😳.

Apparently the teachers were getting an absolute bashing ☹️.

The schools couldn’t get enough staff in to safely open. Staff often travel in from much further away than the kids, but the keyboard warriors got stuck in anyway. The parents wanted the schools to operate like a giant crèche so that they could get on with their day unhindered by child care arrangements.

Roads are still flooded here. OH borrowed my 4X4 to go to the local village surgery for a routine jab as my car has a much greater wading depth than his. He was followed out of the village by a small van which stopped behind him to watch the Shogun negotiate one of the floods. The driver evidently decided that his vehicle wasn’t up to it and turned round.
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One of our local Primary schools has posted today that they are partially open, purely to provide childcare for those who need it. Normal lessons will not take place and the usual staff ratios will not apply. I guess that the staff will mostly be support staff who live locally, while the teaching staff generally live further away.
 
Pearlsasinger said:
One of our local Primary schools has posted today that they are partially open, purely to provide childcare for those who need it. Normal lessons will not take place and the usual staff ratios will not apply. I guess that the staff will mostly be support staff who live locally, while the teaching staff generally live further away.
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Our school has done this in the past. TAs tended to live close by, with a couple of teachers. Most of the kids could be in the school hall watching a film, minimal supervision required. Snowmen all round at break. Far fewer accidents when the reduced number of kids were spread over a soft snow field. Hot chocolate on return.

During COVID, TAs were the only ones in anyway. That was to supervise the work set by the teachers, who worked from home, so at least formal learning was going on. There would be one qualified teacher in every day for the school, usually the head, but she'd be isolated in a office, unless there was a major incident.

As a TA at the time, it was initially worrisome, but in the end, I became a 'PE teacher' LOL. After that, we were a lot more confident to cover normal lessons in staff absence.
 
We had heavy snow yesterday morning (my village has its own climate and we are high up so when I rang work and told them I wouldn’t get there they made me take a photo as they didn’t believe me as they had none 20 mins down the road!) It had all cleared by yesterday afternoon, but loads of roads are shut including the A1 due to flooding.
 
We've had really wet snow here today, then rain,hail and more snow but it's melting now leaving a soggy wet mess, I really hope it doesn't freeze tonight!
 
I can see that a smaller primary school could, with notice, safely be open with TAs, midday assistants and local teachers in to supervise.

The local keyboard warriors were wanting the two big state secondaries (1000 pupils plus) to remain open even if teaching couldn't take place as not enough teaching staff could get in. That’s a whole different ballgame and just couldn’t be safely done.
 
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It keeps snowing here, which is unpleasant if you are out in it but it doesn't seem to really be adding to the accumulation, as it is thawing slowly.
Hoping to get a car out this afternoon as one of the lads in the hamlet who has a JCB, did his bit towards clearing the road yesterday.
 
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Tiddlypom said:
I can see that a smaller primary school could, with notice, safely be open with TAs, midday assistants and local teachers in to supervise.

The local keyboard warriors were wanting the two big state secondaries (1000 pupils plus) to remain open even if teaching couldn't take place as not enough teaching staff could get in. That’s a whole different ballgame and just couldn’t be safely done.
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As keyboard warriors, they’re not making much sense: twelve year olds (usually 11 /12 year olds are the youngest intake in secondaries, don’t legally require permanent supervision. Maybe their offspring just can’t be trusted at all, in which case, I’d question their upbringing!
Unbelievable, the misplaced sense of entitlement some people have....
 
Pearlsasinger said:
It keeps snowing here, which is unpleasant if you are out in it but it doesn't seem to really be adding to the accumulation, as it is thawing slowly.
Hoping to get a car out this afternoon as one of the lads in the hamlet who has a JCB, did his bit towards clearing the road yesterday.
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Well that failed miserably! The cars are now covered in more snow and in the wrong place!
 
Pinkvboots said:
They had parts of Yorkshire on the news last night mainly farmers digging sheep out of snow drifts it looked terrible.
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Can assure you it’s not great, more snow today on top of existing, and Weds night’s forecast for minus eleven (‘feeling like’ minus 15) to look forward to.
Not much fun, but thank goodness we’re not in USA!
 
Snow levels are just ridiculous now.

Too deep for the ponies to dig for grass and the poor mini shetland was up to her armpits in some places. I brought them back in this afternoon as they'd had enough. I think turnout will have to be in the school for the foreseeable. At least the snow is level in there!

It didn't get above freezing here today. Don't know what the forecast is for tonight, but it's supposed to get down to -8 tomorrow night.
 
We’re far enough south and low lying enough that we don’t normally get more than a sprinkle once a year…

Second snowfall already, third and fourth predicted later this week. I’m over it already!

If it snows and the bus routes don’t open I will have to ride to the youngstock field to hay them and check they remembered to keep their water ‘open’. So hoping that doesn’t happen, although I guess the ponies will think it’s a grand adventure!
 
southerncomfort said:
Snow levels are just ridiculous now.

Too deep for the ponies to dig for grass and the poor mini shetland was up to her armpits in some places. I brought them back in this afternoon as they'd had enough. I think turnout will have to be in the school for the foreseeable. At least the snow is level in there!

It didn't get above freezing here today. Don't know what the forecast is for tonight, but it's supposed to get down to -8 tomorrow night.
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-8!!!!! Brrrr. Not had that low for a while.
 
santas_spotty_pony said:
We had heavy snow yesterday morning (my village has its own climate and we are high up so when I rang work and told them I wouldn’t get there they made me take a photo as they didn’t believe me as they had none 20 mins down the road!) It had all cleared by yesterday afternoon, but loads of roads are shut including the A1 due to flooding.
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Hi, dont forget to go to the fat controller thread to change your Christmas name back. -------The OFFICIAL festive name- change restoration thread.
 
been snowing heavily here since 11.30 am. Came exactly on time as predicted. We are in the yellow zone predicated for today.
 
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Our snow turned to slush and then froze, so we now have ice everywhere. One of our neighbours lost control of her car and ended up going through the neighbours hedge and landed just short of his house. Fortunately shes ok. Black ice on rural roads is causing havoc.

As for the horses, cant get some back in as my yard is like an ice rink. My 4 foals/youngsters however are loving it. They have a 24ft field shelter with lots of bedding , mud control mats ( so not in mud) and round bale haylage plus access to a large dry field. Ive watched them for days, and the routine is eat , sleep and poop together in the field shelter, and twice a day have a wander and a play in the dry field followed by a nibble of grass . But no longer than 30 mins and they tuck themselves back up in the shelter. The definitely prefer his set up to coming into the stables.
 
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