To think closing schools or making them "optional" during the heatwave is putting pressure on working parents and is just a bit silly?

Going the the OPs title it's absolutely guilt tripping people who agree the schools should close or have the option to stay at home saying it's putting pressure on working parents and us a bit silly. Prioritising the children's health and welfare is not being silly. When you become a working parent you should know you will have to accommodate sick day, school closures, it shouldn't be a surprise, they are your kids not the schools

Everything is built for combating the heat in Australia. The UK isn't. That's the difference.

The Tories made it very clear they don’t care about school buildings.RAAC and the cancelling of investment made that very clear. The electorate won’t want to pay more in taxes so….

Schools can’t fund expensive air conditioning or the running of it without the money to do so. They are struggling to fund things from glue sticks to TAs as it is.

I can't answer for what every workforce should do in this situation. Of course not all places are adaptable, teaching being one of them, I had to send my child in because my school was open.

But the responsibility shouldn't only lie with schools to adapt and accommodate, businesses need to as well and many can, yet they are never part of the dialogue.

It’s only going to be getting hotter! What do you think they do in Australia ffs?

Nobody ever said your kids had to go in, so you didn’t ever have to risk anything, for anyone’s sake.

You could always have kept them off should you have wished?

The world does not revolve around working parents, they are your kids, sort it. The health care system is not going to collapse because primary schools closed, working primary school parents don't run health care alone, but by the way people are acting in here you would think they do 😂🙄

This! Parents sort sick days so it’s perfectly possible to sort health risk days.

Er I'm a teacher who has been working in 40+ today so no need for the snark.

Spent last night sleeping at school to make sure the chemical cupboard didn't combust. What a fun week it's been.

Who said Im at home? Not me. Some of us have plans in place for when children are sick, use these plans during heatwaves and snow days. My children are not going to suffer in school on a hot day because SOME working parents carnt sort themselves out.

Authorities are warning of risk to life even for the healthy- but hey who cares if you work in a school or are a child. It causes extra admissions to A&E putting extra pressure on the nhs but hey it’s ok if it’s school staff or children.

And GPs have been striking.
Resident doctors, which include GP registrars in training, have staged multiple rounds of strikes over pay disputes with the government.

If schools don’t have better conditions for staff and kids in the heat staff should start to strike.

Someone has got to keep the world running, and someone has got to pay into the economy while you're sat at home

So everyone has to go along with what working parents want? Even when it puts out children at risk? Working parents are not the centre of everyone else's world. Schools do what works best for the children and their safety, not working parents. You are the parent, sort childcare. My priority is my kids and their health, not your job

The only key workers clapped for were nhs staff ,even those with zero face to face care. Teachers and TAs got nothing, just berating and a huge amount of expectation that staff and children put themselves at risk when everybody else were safely tucked up at home baking banana bread.

I'm already studying for a social work degree, but thank you for the suggestion.

GPs haven't been on strike.

Unfortunately, it's also an expensive solution.
I can't see the Government being willing to fund it, and most schools can barely afford to carry out essential repairs and maintenance these days.

Some of us have surgeries closed to booking from 9 anyway.

Maybe it’s time teachers and TAs started striking like doctors do.

I’d rather have her job. Nursing homes will have fewer people in rooms and better temperatures. Many school staff are on minimum wages and massively underpaid compared to others doing similar roles in other sectors.

So so sick of schools being berated every time there is some kind of crisis with a presumption that staff and kids should put themselves at risk because some parents can’t be bothered to work out contingency plans they manage to do on the occasions their kids are ill.

Just because you know people in all these services and they don't have primary aged kids, doesn't mean there aren't any in these services that have primary aged kids.

I also know people in all these services. Guess where I met them? The nursery queue and the school gates!

Not all GPS, hospital staff, police, fire sevices have children in primary school, because at high school they can look after themselves. I know people in all these services and none of them have kids in primary. The world of healthcare etc is not going to stop because primary kids are sent home for their own health and safety. In fact sending kids to school in this heat will increase the need to emergency services, do you want that?

Who is to blame for that? We are now experiencing the cost cutting drip feed measures of government after government. Even today Bridget Phillipson came out and said schools can keep their pupils cool. I'm in the West Mids, it should be 33 according to BBC but our SLT recorded 43. I thought lessons would be leaned after Covid, but once again we educators become a sticking plaster until its intolerable.

And you know the worst thing? It'll be forgotten until until the next closure due to weather.

I mean to be fair, that's probably the obvious solution.

Schools need air con. It’s ridiculous.