I'm not a mum and don't want to be................ just wondered why the bags were all outside?

Ummm, I cannot think of a time ( if I had the time) before having kids, to walk past a school and think " Now, why do the bags hang outside?"

This is my experience of getting someone to deal with snakes...http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...14#post6074414

Get your point! They were all on the ground in a square kinda spaced out - just happened to notice it a few times (not that I do school drive-bys )

(in a whispering voice)
But it did I saw it on t.v.............
Joking aside, I did go to school in Aus, although I never saw any snakes and we had to trek around with our bags on our backs.
now, spiders in schools.......
Hi N

I would agree too that it's unlikely - I lived in Australia (Sydney, Melbourne and Cairns) for 5 years and NEVER saw one wild - maybe a dead one only on the side of the road but thats it.

Having said that though, I have no reason not to believe the OP - see below.

Well Brisbane has been having unusual rain and the wildlife has been going a bit potty I guess!!

There's one that's living in the low shrubs near their locker room and this other one which they saw yesterday as it disappeared into the cracks between the bricks in a raised planter.

To their credit both mine and the Ozzie kids don't turn a hair when they see these creatures, I guess if something really dangerous was seen enough people would recognise it for what it was and some concern would be raised.

Guess it would be possible for snakes to crawl into school bags, I've known mice to do the same but then they're after a slightly different food source.

DS mentioned in passing that he'd brushed a red back off his leg yesterday, he was more bothered by a mozzie bite on his hand though

The school my daughter used to go to was built right in the middle of Marshland, which happens to also be a natural habitat for Brown Snakes

Their policy is that during the season when the snakes are likely to be about they send someone around in the morning to check for them, then periodic checks are done through the day. If a snake is seen on the grounds while there are kids on the premises then there is a lock down until the snake catcher has been and removed them - all kids are aware of what to do if they see one.

So yeah, it does happen - but if the school know about the problem then they will more than likely have a procedure in place to deal with it.

Ive just spoken to the school, they say their policy is to tell the kids not to go anywhere near a snake if they see one but that most of the snakes are harmless tree snakes (I think this is what the one by the lockers was) but they're going to ask the groundsman to keep a look out just incase.

They sometimes do get a snake handler out to relocate anything that's dangerous but as the noise of the kids usually keeps most things at bay, snakes being quite timid creatures, it's mostly during the quieter holiday times that they're spotted.

Of course you get snakes around schools, especially if they are set in bushland. Kids have talked about one on the oval and several times in the bushland reserve, only one I have seen is a black one in the carpark, only because the lollypop lady was warning people. I'd guess being australia most kids would know not to touch it anyway. I know when the one was on the oval they cleared it of kids and sent the groundsman out.

Snakes are not that big a problem if left alone, toursits should worry more about the beaches, 4 drowned this weekend, never heard of snakes getting 4 people in a weekend.

Snakes in school! LMAO! HA HA next thing itll be snakes on a plane, gerrouttahere!

I've heard about a snake recently getting a tourist on a GC beach though

This school isn't set in bush and my kids have only been here a few months, the only wild snakes they'd ever seen before have been adders in the south of Britain and they were even more elusive than these tree snakes .

TBH I'm more worried about them getting exposed to too much UV than snakes, I just wanted to see how other schools were dealing with them. No doubt there are also some other parents reading this thread wondering the same as I was.

Most of the schools our kids have been to have their grounds as bushland, think the current school has 12 acres of it and the private had a real rainforest type reserve, totally surrounding the school, it would be impossible not to have snakes in that terrain. Guess were used to it.

Agree with you totally about UV. Instead of spiders and snakes I would rank UV as threat no one, followed by unpatrolled beaches, spiders and snakes kill a fraction of what those two do.

Geckos are my main problem at the mo, nice little things, eat spiders and flies and mozzies etc, thought I was being a real greenie but they crap everywhere, went up in the roof yesterday and theres so much gecko poo up there its unbelivable, dont want to kill them but would love to move them off the houes, before the ceiling caves in with the weight of the crap

I bet ours is just the same - we've got them all over the outside of the house and even a baby one in the shower (good swimmer it is too )

Spiders aren't a problem for us either - I caught a small huntsman a few mornings ago, sheesh those things can move! but other than that it's been daddy long legs all the way.