Presidential Inauguration - Schools closed?

Ellin

Hello!

Just a quick post with regard to the presidential inauguration - Has there been any official announcement about schools being closed on the day? (Or, unofficially, are they likely to be closed?..!)

Thanks!

byhookorbycrook

Unofficially, no,I'd imagine.

solerina

I wasnt teaching the last time but I would be very surprised if we get a day off for it

rainbowtrout

I doubt it. Can't remember it happening before. And the way things are I can't see the government being flavour of the month if they shut down every school in the country on a Friday for the inauguration. It's not like we'd all be attending. All it would be turned into in the media is 'lazy public sector workers getting another day off, rabble rabble...'

Talk Talk talk

Schools were closed 14years ago for the inauguration, have heard no mention of being off on the 11th though:(

Toto Wolfcastle

Were they really? That's mad. It never even crossed my mind that schools would be closed. I see no valid reason to close them.

Talk Talk talk

I remember being told how to mark the the roll book for that day, to write 'inauguration' in, 1st year teaching!!

evolving_doors

Bobblehead Panda wrote: »

Were they really? That's mad. It never even crossed my mind that schools would be closed. I see no valid reason to close them.

Save on heating!!!!

RH149

The schools were definitely closed for President McAleese' Inauguration - I remember being surprised about it but took advantage of it for early Xmas shopping, like an early Dec. 8th.

Can't see it happening now though as the private sector/media/parents etc would be up in arms about it. Plus, am too broke for early Xmas shopping!

EmmaRos

Any update on this? Would love a day off Friday he he

rainbowtrout

If it was to happen, it would have been announced by now, as schools would have to inform parents of plans, school buses would have to be informed etc. It's not happening, and really there's no reason for it to happen either.

HugoBradyBrown

But we have only just put the long Mid-Term Break behind us, we had a closure for the Presidential election, we face the lengthy Christmas Holidays in about 6 weeks, we probably have to make other child-minding arrangements for other days when there will be in-service days for the teachers, not to mention sick days and so forth.

We do need to ensure that the children have at least some continuity of contact hours with their teachers, even if only to ensure that they don't forget their faces!

Treat it as a job, as a full-time job.



Hugo Brady Brown

Juniorhurler

HugoBradyBrown wrote: »

But we have only just put the long Mid-Term Break behind us, we had a closure for the Presidential election, we face the lengthy Christmas Holidays in about 6 weeks, we probably have to make other child-minding arrangements for other days when there will be in-service days for the teachers, not to mention sick days and so forth.

We do need to ensure that the children have at least some continuity of contact hours with their teachers, even if only to ensure that they don't forget their faces!

Treat it as a job, as a full-time job.




Hugo Brady Brown

Under Croke Park this should happen outside school time.

E.T.

HugoBradyBrown wrote: »

But we have only just put the long Mid-Term Break behind us, we had a closure for the Presidential election, we face the lengthy Christmas Holidays in about 6 weeks, we probably have to make other child-minding arrangements for other days when there will be in-service days for the teachers, not to mention sick days and so forth.

We do need to ensure that the children have at least some continuity of contact hours with their teachers, even if only to ensure that they don't forget their faces!

Treat it as a job, as a full-time job.



Hugo Brady Brown

If schools were to close, it wouldn't be the teachers' decision. Not all schools were closed for the election day either.

HugoBradyBrown

E.T. wrote: »

If schools were to close, it wouldn't be the teachers' decision. Not all schools were closed for the election day either.

In deference to the policy elaborated and articulated by Noel Dempsey and reinforced by Mary Hanafin, I think school managers were obliged to take cognizance of what they called "the integrity of the school year". Between days for this, that and the other, and transition years and school tours, it is scarcely surprising that fully 32% of pupils finishing the 6th book cannot perform the simplest arithmetical operations, and that a third are illiterate when they leave school.

I suspect that some higher authority than the mere teachers should be deciding if a million schoolchildren are to be released onto the streets at no notice, when the parents of the land have no other child-minding arrangements in place.

Time for managers, or civil servants, or the Minister himself to take this matter in hand. Is there some belief that a Socialist minister is going to shut down the schools just because we have elected a Socialist president?


Hugo Brady Brown

killbillvol2

HugoBradyBrown wrote: »

But we have only just put the long Mid-Term Break behind us, we had a closure for the Presidential election, we face the lengthy Christmas Holidays in about 6 weeks, we probably have to make other child-minding arrangements for other days when there will be in-service days for the teachers, not to mention sick days and so forth.

We do need to ensure that the children have at least some continuity of contact hours with their teachers, even if only to ensure that they don't forget their faces!

Treat it as a job, as a full-time job.



Hugo Brady Brown

HugoBradyBrown wrote: »

In deference to the policy elaborated and articulated by Noel Dempsey and reinforced by Mary Hanafin, I think school managers were obliged to take cognizance of what they called "the integrity of the school year". Between days for this, that and the other, and transition years and school tours, it is scarcely surprising that fully 32% of pupils finishing the 6th book cannot perform the simplest arithmetical operations, and that a third are illiterate when they leave school.

I suspect that some higher authority than the mere teachers should be deciding if a million schoolchildren are to be released onto the streets at no notice, when the parents of the land have no other child-minding arrangements in place.

Time for managers, or civil servants, or the Minister himself to take this matter in hand. Is there some belief that a Socialist minister is going to shut down the schools just because we have elected a Socialist president?


Hugo Brady Brown

:rolleyes:

implausible

HugoBradyBrown wrote: »

I suspect that some higher authority than the mere teachers should be deciding if a million schoolchildren are to be released onto the streets at no notice, when the parents of the land have no other child-minding arrangements in place.

Time for managers, or civil servants, or the Minister himself to take this matter in hand.

What are you on about?! You suspect that it's a higher authority? Of course it is - teachers don't just decide willy-nilly to close schools, we're told to!

If you are so concerned about this issue, you should be aware that it has "been taken in hand " in the form of the recently circulated new school calendar, which stipulates that contact days lost due to unforeseen circumstances e.g. snow, a death must be made up. As well as that, parent-teacher meetings take place outside schooltime and Croke Park hours cover other meetings, inservice etc.

HugoBradyBrown

implausible wrote: »

What are you on about?! You suspect that it's a higher authority? Of course it is - teachers don't just decide willy-nilly to close schools, we're told to!

If you are so concerned about this issue, you should be aware that it has "been taken in hand " in the form of the recently circulated new school calendar, which stipulates that contact days lost due to unforeseen circumstances e.g. snow, a death must be made up. As well as that, parent-teacher meetings take place outside schooltime and Croke Park hours cover other meetings, inservice etc.

I am greatly consoled to hear that things have been tightened up at last, to some extent at least. I appreciate your taking the time to clarify the point, and I agree that teachers have been in effect a law unto themselves until now, talking down to parents and other adults, as if they were in some sense their superiors. What made it stop? I presume it wasn't Mrs O'Rourke.



Hugo Brady Brown

implausible

HugoBradyBrown wrote: »

I agree that teachers have been in effect a law unto themselves until now, talking down to parents and other adults, as if they were in some sense their superiors.

Em, where exactly did I say that?

HugoBradyBrown

implausible wrote: »

Em, where exactly did I say that?

I was agreeing with a previous poster on that aspect of the point, though I am sure that all reasonable men would converge on that view.


Hugo Brady Brown

spurious

As a reminder, from the charter:

Fair comment and constructive criticism about teachers and lecturers is permitted in this forum. However posts with general sweeping statements criticising all teachers or lecturers, or those naming and abusing particular individuals may result in the poster being banned from the forum.


If you play in our yard, you play by our rules.
HugoBradyBrown, please take this as a warning, if you wish to keep posting in this forum.

HugoBradyBrown

spurious wrote: »

As a reminder, from the charter:

Fair comment and constructive criticism about teachers and lecturers is permitted in this forum. However posts with general sweeping statements criticising all teachers or lecturers, or those naming and abusing particular individuals may result in the poster being banned from the forum.


If you play in our yard, you play by our rules.
HugoBradyBrown, please take this as a warning, if you wish to keep posting in this forum.

Thank you spurious, for your moderate response; I accept your ruling without question or reservation. I suspect I may have been misinterpreted by any reader who may have complained to you, as I was making neither a sweeping critical statement of all schoolteachers, nor was I naming or abusing a particular schoolteacher. My point was an allusion to a dying social and cultural practice, sustained by the unusual standing of schoolteachers in their communities in the past, but one which has been addressed and undercut by a combination of higher educational attainment by the mass of the population (so that the schoolteacher is no longer by any means the most highly educated person in a community), and by political forces, which have taken on vested interests. I trust that explanation of my position will draw the sting from any perceived offense: so often people are exercised when the cause is not what has been said or intended, but by their flawed understanding or their idiosyncratic interpretation of the argument.