AIBU to question calls for schools to close during hot weather?

Apologies if this has already been mentioned, but I think some people forget that children also have to commute to and from school, which may mean a fair bit of time out walking in the baking heat, or sat on packed public transport with no air con.

Well he thrived, he wasn't too hot and he came out very happy to get so much teacher focus, they didn't close the school, he went in. Baffled why this is an issue 🫠

Humans emit heat! Small humans in synthetic fibres doubly so!

Unless your home has 30+ people in a room it's highly unlikely to be more uncomfortable than the majority of school classrooms right now.

There were only 5 kids in the class presumably because it was boiling. Kids can't learn when it's boiling for one. A teacher attempting to continue the 'normal' curriculum of maths and phonics is on a hiding to nothing in that situation. In addition, if your class has 5 kids in, attempting to continue as normal is silly.

Have you ever taught?

One of my staff asked for permission to do rest of her hours on the Saturday heatwave few weeks ago as her attic office was over 40 degrees. Of course I said yes, as who can work in that? Awful.

Teaching in these conditions is tough. Teaching two weeks ago in 37 C with an Ofsted inspector in my classroom was even tougher.

It not as daft this week, so wouldn't close. But based on the 39 C+ measured in our English department, it's just not sensible to have 30 bodies crammed into it.

Have you got 30 children stuffed into one room in your house?

And with regards to you working from home, why haven’t you got a fan?

Fans in a few rooms, you and your children can sit in front of them. Much harder to cool down a classroom full of children with a couple fans

Schools that stayed open in the previous heatwave have been told by Ofsted that the low attendance, due to permitting parents to make a choice, will be counted against their stats. If the school average drops below a certain percentage they cannot achieve some of the upper levels of Ofsted inspection. Schools that closed fully don't have the absences counted against them. This essentially punishes Schools who tried to do the right thing for children and their parents.

I suspect many teachers out there will.be hoping Ofsted have the common sense and decency not to inspect for the remainder of the school year.

I’ve seen you on lots of moany teacher threads on here over the years so you must be a teacher of some sort so I’m not sure why you’re acting clueless. Kids learn by repetition, they see the curriculum more than once, some kids learn better in a smaller group. Some teachers can recognise that and make the most of a quieter day with a smaller group and a kid that struggles in a busy noisy class. All of which is pretty obvious, but you’d rather call the poster/her kids school liar's.

My kids school been amazing - the computer room has air con so they all taking turns in there - they have 1 very shaded playground so have had a sprinkler set up so they taking turns out there

they next to a lovely park with massive trees so been doing activities and stuff out there

dining hall is staying cool not a lot of windows and blinds down on the ones that there’s so after school club been in there - heaps of fans going - and they’ve taken some kids to the computers during after school club too taking turns to keep them cool

no uniform for rest of year

in so glad cus I can’t take any time off work especially with summer hols about to start

My daughters school is like a bloody greenhouse, lots of glass, no air con, just heat and sunshine blazing in all day, factor in 30 kids in class then yes yabu

So the 5 kids that sat there in the heat attempting to learn it the first time - what was the point in that if it's going to be taught again? Either having to prepare a whole new lesson so they haven't seen it before, or making them sit through the same thing again?

What would be the point in not doing? You can teach it more than once

I bet they didn't. What would be the point in teaching 5 kids the curriculum with 25 missing?

Obviously it depends on the school and the classroom.

My current Victorian attic classroom has enormous south-facing skylights. No blinds to block the sun. No fans, certainly no AC. It's like a greenhouse. Over about 25C outside and it's too hot to think, let alone learn.

I have taught in other classrooms in the same school that would cope far better.

Blinds would help a lot (why, why won't they install them??) but even then at 30C+, which really isn't super hot this summer, it would be impossible to teach or learn.

So, yes, closing the school for extreme heat is entirely sensible.

Some schools are hotter than others. Not really rocket science.

They carried on with business as usual. Phonics, maths.

And were those 5 kids actually taught anything, or just babysat?

My son stayed at school in heatwave 1.0. there were 5 kids in his classroom and he thrived. He normally struggles with the noise and busyness. It's hot at home, it's hot at school.

Schools do need to adapt and can with investment. Shaded areas, screens, air con, more water stations, change school day timings, change term dates. Lots of things can be explored. But we aren’t there yet and in the meantime we need to make sure children and staff are safe.

Schools are mad about attendance now though, so you can't just make a decision to keep them off due to the heat if the school hasn't decided to close. At least, a lot of parents wouldn't feel able to do that. I would have to lie and make up an illness or something and get my child to go along with it.

Time goes reeeeaaaally slowly towards the end of term, so those twelve teaching days will each feel 140 hours long (fact).

There wasn’t a whole lot of learning going on during the last heatwave we were just fighting to keep 30 children cool!

That’s 2 weeks and 2 days away! It’s not that bad!

At home the children are likely not crammed in with 30 other kids. They can also wear what they choose, or nothing at all if they prefer. Or stand under a cold shower or sprinkler whenever they want. They can eat ice pops, drink fresh cold water or whatever from the fridge, suck an ice cube, turn their melting brains off. At school there is still so much residual heat from the May heatwave that the upper floor rooms are over 40 during the hotter days, and not much below even on the recent average days. It hasn’t had chance to cool down since then. Add in the sunshine when it appears, streaming in all day because the blinds don’t stop it fully, and body heat from 30+ kids (one class has 32) plus staff, then it’s dangerous. Due to safety latches, windows don’t open more than an inch or so, there is no air and no sniff of a breeze. The fan wafts a tiny warm puff of air around. Children have been sick, even fainted during the last hot spell. So yes YABU to be ‘perplexed’ that some children might not be having quite the experience yours is having in the heatwaves!