 | | We are of course talking about the heaps of agitated letters that arrived on the doorstep of The Daily Telegraph after some of the heaviest snowfall in years caused hundreds of schools to close across the country. Madeleine Brettingham reports.
“How many of these schools will also be taking their pupils on skiing trips?” barked one reader, enraged that a mere snowfall could excuse such epic shirking. “If there was a repeat of the winter of 1962-63, would schools close for six weeks?” harrumphed another.
In the columns too, the mittens were off. “What next – no school when it rains?” demanded Simon Heffer in the Telegraph. “I suspect a lot of this is down to the teachers who fancy a day off,” grumbled the Sunday Mirror’s Richard Stott.
OK, so there were a couple of teachers on the TES webforum posting, “Yippee! No school today!” and “Woohoo! It’s shut!”
But, in reality, the closures were not down to skiving but health and safety laws. Whatever you think of them, many schools live in fear of their repercussions.
Chris Keates, general secretary of the NASUWT teachers’ union, said: “These days you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t. If schools take action, they are accused of overreacting. If they don’t, and there’s an accident, they have to spend weeks responding to legal letters from parents.”
What the health and safety laws dictate
Employees must:
* Take reasonable care of their own and others’ health and safety.
* Co-operate with their employers.
* Carry out activities in accordance with training and instructions.
* Inform the employer of any serious risks.
* If employees follow these steps, ultimate liability lies with the school.
* And risk assessment can be altered on the day to recognise changing circumstances, advises the Prospect union.
Source: The 1974 Health and Safety at Work Act and the 1999 Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations.
This article first appeared in the TES on February 16, 2007
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