Should schools be open in this heat today?

[DtPeabodysLoosePants]

Thankfully we are not in London but we are still due to have temperatures of around 33 degrees today. Dd2 is still at school. We are attending this morning for an event but I'm then thinking of bringing her home.

The school has no protection from the heat and after attending an event when the temperature was 26 degrees a few years ago and it was unbearable then I suspect today will not be good. I don't drive so would have to walk over a mile to collect her with my 4 year old in tow.

We have asthma and hay fever and I struggle to breathe when it's above 23 degrees so I'm dreading today.

The school also refuse to put suncream on the children or allow them to apply it themselves. We are expected to use 8 hour stuff but after reading about this it's not necessarily long lasting and is banned is Australia due to giving false security.

The event finishes late morning. Would it be shitty parenting to collect dd when it finishes so we can avoid the hottest part of the day? I really think schools should either have cooling systems in place or close but I appreciate this would cause huge bills and difficulties for working parents. I just don't want anyone with heat exhaustion or heat stroke.

DSs school has finished but they run a holiday club so hes there today. They have plenty of natural shade and a big hall with curtains so not too worried. They wont apply sun cream but I put some on DS this morning and gave him more for later along with sun hat and water. I've also put an ice pack in with his lunch he can cuddle it if necessary:)

His school is an independent. They have a no close policy even in snow although they ask children to attend only of it's safe to do so and it's none uniform. DS loves snow days at school as they run "snow activity days". Apparently they closed once in early 1947 because the snow was so heavily piled they couldn't open the doors!!

I am single parent too but not sure what that's got to do with it? It's not hot at the moment and the event is for ds so we had to come in anyway. But by lunch time it's going to be over 30. I've arranged with school to take her home when the event is over.
Schools used to finish earlier in July but the last few years it's got later and later. The neighbouring school doesn't finish until Tuesday!
I agree schools shouldn't close unnecessarily but they need to be able to cope with the heat and this one can't.

I wouldnt send my child to school in 33 degrees. Its too hot to think.

Here’s an ancedote. When we were at school it was over 33 degrees for a good third of the year. No air con. No well designed or ventilated classrooms. There was generally one small pedestal fan which funnily was situated directly behind the teacher who blocked it from reaching us at all - which it would not have due to size anyway. We all coped just fine and made our way through school to come out and be doctors, lawyers, bankers, builders, housewives etc. Not a nation of people who couldn’t add 2 and 2 as it was ‘too hot to think’. Although it may explain our appreciation of a cold beer in hot weather. As kids it was hot water from the bubbler. As I said earlier, many kids are still in this situation and they learn just fine as we always did.

When do schools go back who only break up this week? Asking as a child-free person who is hoping they go back first week of September still?!?

So you are going to walk your DD home late morning for an hour instead of waiting till late afternoon and the end of the school day, when it will be cooler?
I don't think your reasoning makes any sense and I suspect this is so you don't have to walk more hours in the heat.

I'd be annoyed if my school closed because of the heat- even extreme heat. There is nothing cooler about my house/ garden/ tap than the school.

My Childrens school was always super strict about sun cream .hats and so on ,I thought this was the norm TBH( both DC now in their 20s)!I was shocked a couple of weeks ago ,when I passed a different schools sports day .Not a hat in sight !.Boiling hot open field no shade at all!.(Too hot to wait in the doctors waiting room for my ADC). had to walk outside for a bit!.Just say to the teacher you would like to come home after .(Make sure she can say goodbye to chums though!)

Ours goes back first week of September Prosecco. Like pp ours breaks up late due a 2week Oct half term. It's DS last day today. They have changed it to own clothes day and cancelled the disco. Still a little concerned about how hot it'll get as met office say 38C here

I’m appalled that they won’t allow children to put on sunscreen! Jr school kids at our school are required to wear a hat in the summer term when outside too.

Thankfully we are not in London

Thankfully I am.

London schools have broken up. The last ones finished 2 days ago, many had broken up by the end of last week.

My DS is still in school until tomorrow lunchtime. The school helps children to apply suncream, and have sent home a letter to parents remembering to send hats, cream and water bottles.

It's not ideal temperature wise, but I trust the school to look after the children as best as they can.

Personally, I would be raising a complaint about their suncream policy as this would be completely unacceptable to me.

@ProseccoSupernova we got an extra week end of May/early June, so only get 5 weeks Summer holiday rather than 6. That's more than enough (and allows us to get much cheaper two week holiday abroad!)

Thanks Ritz and Little! Have a good summer :)

My dcs school has already broken up but loads in our area haven't yet. I agree with pp that they should break up earlier.

Randomly my house is much, much cooler and more pleasant than school. I can leave the doors propped open (school can't, or at least reception has thick plastic over the doors when they are open), ice whenever we want it, more rooms to move to as the day gets warmer, 3 people rather than 35 and the kids can be in their swimming costumes sat in a paddling pool in the shade all day if they want.

The thing is, what are they learning on the 25th July?

The thing is, what are they learning on the 25th July?

Sweet FA. No benefit to them being there is it will be more bearable at home. And certainly where I live, it is hotter at usual going home time than midday, as the heat builds during the afternoon.

The event was fab (albeit cut short due to the heat) but the HT refused to let me take dd home but has arranged for a lift home.

This is a school on a huge hill that is always the last to close when it snows. If at all. Over the years several cars have slid down the hill into the fence next to school where the footpath emerges. It's lethal and I refuse to risk them when it's icy like that.

The HT thinks you are over reacting and I tend to agree.

The temp is due to peak at 3pm. It's very hilly here and over a mile to walk.

I live somewhere where it’s often over 30 degrees and yesterday was 39. Kids go to school, complain about the heat but the school never closes because of it.
Stop molly coddling kids - they’ll be ok

They should be allowed to apply their own suncream.

However, I can see why they don't put it on children - 30 children, couple of minutes per child every 2 or 3 hours, lots of different bottles as can't risk children using each others in case of allergies - and heaven help them if a spot of skin is missed and a child burns on that area.

We use Ultrasun SPF 30 once a day sun cream. We've used it for years including in properly extreme heat. Never burnt yet, even getting very hot and sticky, and even being in and out of sea/pools. I burn quickly without cream. DD reacts to most creams but not this one. We have always been very impressed with it.

My infant school gets very hot inside (and also very cold in winter) - we try to manage it by having windows and doors open, fans on, blinds closed, etc. I work in the computer room most of my time and it is incredibly warm, so I avoid turning the computers on til I really need to, or just use the iPads as they seem to generate less heat.

We do have children inside and out but encourage them to use hats, and we remind them to drink more. We often have a stash of ice pops in the clear freezer too which we top up - teachers buy them for their classes, so not school funds. We have some shade in the playgrounds. We bought some pull out ones too to create more.

Fortunately we've never had any issues with children burning or heat stroke type issues in the time Ive worked there. Everyone seems to use once a day or train their children to reapply at break times, which we allow.

There is no UK minimum working temperature either, whereas there is a lower one.

You do need to remember too that many children across the world go to school in much higher temperates than this, and not all countries have air conditioning as standard either.

Aragog

Its not all about air con, it is about poor building design.

Sorry are you suggesting that because it's hot the taps don't work? That the fridge is broken? That school couldn't fill up jugs of water and chill them and then have them in class for the kids to drink from? OK so thry use the loo more but I don't get your point about where water comes from. There isn't a tap ban!

No. when water comes into a domestic dwelling the service line in is usually short. Taps in houses are located on the edge of a building typically (external wall). Cold water often comes in straight from the external source and so it has not be sitting in pipes where it will warm up quickly.

In a school the taps are internal, there are long pipes and often a storage tank. As a result whilst there is water it is not as cold as it would be at home. In warm weather it warms up.

So demanding that schools give pupil cold water is not as easy as it sounds. Water may have to be chilled to be cold.

How would they chill jugs of water for hundreds of children? They will have access to 1 fridge in the staffroom and possibly 1 in nursery. In many schools the kitchen equipment belongs to the catering equipment and they cant access the fridge or freezers. Even if they could how would they chill enough jugs of water , I doubt they have the 90 odd jugs that would be needed for a whole school and if they did even catering fridges wouldn't have room.

I don't believe in mollycoddling either but did you miss the bit about the heat triggering our asthma? Missed the alerts regarding the dangers for asthmatics today? Asthma can kill. I've had to take my inhaler 6 times already today and the temperature has not yet peaked. It's due to do so at 3pm then cool down around 8pm. At least dd is getting a lift so none of us have to exert ourselves in the heat later. Thankfully our house is quite cool as the front faces north. There's also a breeze which is nice but not good with the high pollen being wafted about.

This level of heat is also unprecedented in our village so it's a bit of a shock to the system. Yesterday was bad enough and today it's much hotter.