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

Op do you have the heating on or something.

If your house is 40 degrees you need to start looking at black out blinds, cooling fans, shutters etc

I wish it was the last (or penultimate) week of term! We break up on the 23rd (Derbyshire secondary school), so we’re expected to be doing proper lessons for at least the next two weeks before doing any ‘wind down’ activities.

They should carry out risk assessment. Health and safety covers home workers.

They might suggest op has cold showers, comes into the office, works different hours, gets extra breaks.

Il not suggesting they'd have to install air con! But lending you a fan from the office isnt unreasonable.

And they do have responsibility for cold too. If it was assessed as too cold to work safety they'd have to make adjustments.

Lots of schools have either removed the trees or had large portions of their fields sold off by their councils and had houses built on. Sadly.

My middle child’s school has the outside space it owns the size of a houses garden. They have to use communal grounds / greens.

Just because your child is fine and learning at school in the heat doesn’t mean they all are. At least at home they have free access to paddling pools, cold showers, ice lollies and anything else at home to keep them cool. The schools local to me are letting the kids come to school in PE kits. Fine I guess for younger ones in cotton T-shirts and shorts but both high schools have horrible PE kits that are 100% polyester.

DD is 10 and her school is an old Victorian building. It reached 38 degrees and thankfully had sent the kids home before then but the teachers were doing a continuous risk assessment and shared this with the parents to evidence why they had to close the school. DS is at a secondary with air conditioning throughout the building including the sports hall. His school remained open whereas DD has been home a lot because of the weather. So it really depends.
The other question is how much learning is going on, if a lot of kids aren't sleeping or eating well because of the heat not to mention end of year fatigue.

And here were we leaving the children sat in blazing sun with just one small drink with a roast dinner! 🙄

If you shut the blinds to keep the sun out you mostly block the draft from the windows and often when it is hot there's no draft at all.

But even with the blinds closed and the windows open classrooms will often be significantly hotter than outside.

And when it's hotter, children do stop learning.

Not understanding the debate - if you’re able to keep your kids at home as it’s safer in your opinion then by all means do so. It’s either the last week of term or penultimate week. How much learning is actually taking place. Those who have to send them due to no childcare support shouldn’t feel guilty for doing so.

This is the shape of things to come unfortunately, need to install air con I suppose and asap. Eventually we will acclimatise to it I’d have thought- like elsewhere in the world.

It’s not meant to be as hot this time at least.

Schools need to adapt, children can't just stop learning.

So pe kit as soon as the temp goes above 25 degrees. Drinking water stations in every class room (don't have to be expensive).
Blinds to keep out sun, windows that open and allow a through draft.

Factor 50 always available. Shade, preferably trees in play grounds. Lunches that meet warm weather needs.

It does feel like it's changing and getting hotter earlier in the year. The summer where it was 40oC in 2022 started end of May. I guess we're getting longer, hotter summers now.

Why is your house so hot? The school I work in gave parents the option to pick up at lunchtime and about 80/90% did. It was much hotter in my 32 degree (by 10.30am) classroom then in my house. It meant the small group of kids left could be moved to the coolest part of the school. I think that struck the right balance.
Even if they are in school in 35 degree heat they won't be learning. It's purely a babysitting service which some parents do need..
Hopefully they won't close this time and we can manage it.

I’ve already had one child sent home today before we get hotter again.

Schools don’t have air con or enough fans. 30 plus bodies in one room. No shade outside. Can’t bring in their own fans either.

At home my children can relax in front of a fan or jump in the pool, sit under the canopy with a breeze by the trees.

Most of our hottest weather seems to be taking place in June/ July before cooling off (usually raining) in August.

Actually, this is not quite correct. The hottest weather is normally mid-July through to end of August, which is why this year's heatwaves in May and June were so unprecedented.

Schools are very much damned either way. I think this is where parent choice has to come in and parents should not be penalised either way.

My DDs school is modern, has wrap around shade and is generally quite cool in warm weather. However, when it was above 28 degrees for days at a time and over 19 degrees at night the other week it was very hot and uncomfortable for them and quite a few of DDs friends who stopped at school for the whole day were quite poorly with heat exhaustion by Thursday. We are lucky, we have an Aircon unit at home so I was able to keep us in our lounge somewhat cool.

I also don't blame any parents who are sending their children to school in the heat and very much need schools to stop open where possible. At this time of the year pretty much every working parent has completely exhausted their AL (covering school holidays) and is now relying on workplace goodwill for last minute school closures. I am fortunate, I work for our own business very part time, term time only and this year I'm on Maternity leave. However, any other year I really do need these last few weeks to tie all the loose ends up before I finish for the summer.

I do wonder if as a county we need to address the school holiday structure. Most of our hottest weather seems to be taking place in June/ July before cooling off (usually raining) in August. Perhaps shifting the holiday to mid June/ July with pupils returning in August would work better. Obviously there would need to be notice/ transition but could happen over the course of a couple of years.

Children are also not 'happy' in hot classrooms, they are tired, lethargic and sweaty. Some get heat exhaustion and are ill. Some faint, vomit or have nosebleeds. They're not learning and ask 'what is the point of being here'.

The point is apparently to keep people like the OP happy. Poor kids.

The fact that it works for you and your child doesn’t mean it works for everyone. Some schools are hotter, some houses are cooler, some kids don’t cope as well with heat as your does, obviously!

Personally id rather be at work as my office is 19 degrees which is far better than home, but if school felt the need to close I’d support it because they no what works best in their building for all the kids and staff.

Schools can’t win! Stay open and you get people saying how cruel it is making students work in a sauna - close and everyone begins the national sport of bashing the “lazy teachers who will do anything for a day off”

When our students got send home early, the teachers absolutely had to remain in school!

@Alwaysperplexedwithlife your house is 40°?

Oh my God, what does it go down at night?

One person at home is likely to be much cooler than a class of 30 children in a classroom. Imagine 30 young people in a small confined space and you’ll be very close to the reality.

So they should apply heaters in the winter to staff working at home as well? Also if they supply fans/heaters who pays for the electricity they use?

I work in a school that didn’t shut and is unlikely to ever. It was still horrendous last week for staff but even worse for children.

There was no learning going on, children couldn’t focus on anything other than fighting who could get closest to the fan!

My classroom is currently 42. It's holding so much residual heat I'm not sure it will cool down for weeks. One fan, 2 windows open an inch and one door opens onto a corridor of glass. Yup, so well designed !!!!