Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
School closures website set up within 28 hours. So what?
Okay, at first my response was wow, that's an impressively quick response to the problems thrown up by last Monday.
But on reflection, I thought well does it need a national website? Yes, the tech bods can create a 'mash up' very quickly at the bidding of a technowhizz minister but isn't this more about 'Look at we can do' then answering a genuine need? After all whose schools but those in your own area are you interested in? And do you care that people can comment on the closure? Once you've established that the school is closed, bingo. Out with the sledge and off we go
So, I feel a localised service would surely be much better via the local council website ( or even hyperlocal websites such as this) which enables you to set up email or text alerts for the schools you are interested in.
Furthermore, how do you get info about an incident like a burst boiler or a small fire which can close a school out to the parents? An SMS alert system would ensure that happened. You wouldn't check a website in the ordinary course of events, only perhaps in extraordinary ones like a blizzard.
It would deal with the issue of authentic info that was raised by some on the blog post linked to, as it would come from the schools direct.
Also we have to ask about the inclusion of many families. A website implies internet access and I have my doubts that many SH parents fire up the computers in the morning but they probably have a phone.
Technology is lovely, no one likes it better than me, but sites must answer a need and I'm not sure this one does.
http://schoolclosures.org.uk/
But on reflection, I thought well does it need a national website? Yes, the tech bods can create a 'mash up' very quickly at the bidding of a technowhizz minister but isn't this more about 'Look at we can do' then answering a genuine need? After all whose schools but those in your own area are you interested in? And do you care that people can comment on the closure? Once you've established that the school is closed, bingo. Out with the sledge and off we go
So, I feel a localised service would surely be much better via the local council website ( or even hyperlocal websites such as this) which enables you to set up email or text alerts for the schools you are interested in.
Furthermore, how do you get info about an incident like a burst boiler or a small fire which can close a school out to the parents? An SMS alert system would ensure that happened. You wouldn't check a website in the ordinary course of events, only perhaps in extraordinary ones like a blizzard.
It would deal with the issue of authentic info that was raised by some on the blog post linked to, as it would come from the schools direct.
Also we have to ask about the inclusion of many families. A website implies internet access and I have my doubts that many SH parents fire up the computers in the morning but they probably have a phone.
Technology is lovely, no one likes it better than me, but sites must answer a need and I'm not sure this one does.
http://schoolclosures.org.uk/
Tags for Forum Posts: local ideas, school closures, technology
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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I think I disagree with you Liz. If the site gets traction, it'll be a great go-to place - even if only to link to local sites.
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Permalink Reply by Liz on
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Its a lovely simple site (except it doesn't work properly yet, I know, I know its beta) but there's the rub, you put your finger straight on it, 'gets traction'. The need to ensure that this is used by most schools would require real work and then the cascade to parents is important. Like many of these sites, it's not enough to set up a beautiful site, you have to work to generate awareness.
Also how often would this site actually be needed? Parents are informed of planned closures far in advance and even for things like teachers strikes or transport strikes, there is at least 24 hours notice. So, it would be for weather events and usually these would be quite localised.
If DirectGov were to help council websites to create these mashups for themselves, then that would be much more useful. I actually only want to know if my childrens school is closed; a text or email is all I need. It has been suggested that SMS alerts from bookmarked schools could be set up, well I just think its making a heavy weather (pardon the pun) of a relatively easy and quite rare problem.
In answer to your point about going to that site just to get directed to a local site seems a step too many. First thing I did was go to the Haringey website on Monday, after failing to get through on the phone. Camden's website had a rolling feed of news thanks to a man in Ely in his dressing gown on the sofa. A simple message is all it needs for such rare events.
(Knowing my ex pupils, a site like this could be open to the most obvious abuse. So problems with the authenticity of the info need to be looked very carefully).
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