School in the heat. Bloody nightmare. A rant.

[OhWhatFuckeryIsThisNow]

Secondary school, exams over, 11s and 13s gone. No fun trips. Sports day over. And it’s sweltering. Kids are basically refusing to work. (Year 9s whenever anyone mentions the heat pretend to collapse dramatically on the desk in synchronisation. Which would be funny if I wasn’t so hot and grumpy) One tiny little fan for the whole room. Kids bringing in frozen water bottles, genius, except for the crunching, crackling and rattling. I’ve re roomed the worst classrooms, but still complaining. (I know, I’m hot too.)
Any tips on what I can do? (I’ve got a week of very dull cover to get through)

Outdoor lessons are really not sensible in the sort of heat predicted for next week.

It’s a nice idea in theory but in practice there would be little to no learning, wasps, sunburn and nowhere to put the exercise books for starters. In weather of 40 +, it’s just silly to go outside tbh.

Oh gosh. Our kids’ school is not at all set up for this. Genuinely makes me think we should be taking the kids out of school. What are they going to gain from being way too hot in the last week of term?

It is a universally known fact that y9 are horrid.

Add in heat/snow/rain/PE next lesson/any other tiny inconvenience and they turn into actual ogres.

You have my sympathies. What's your subject - maybe we can devise an alternate lesson plan for the last 9 days of term?!

No advice but sympathies! My classes are mostly 36 pupils, so there’s a lot of residual heat! The windows open about three centimetres and I’m almost 32 weeks pregnant. I honestly thought I would collapse today! The kids we do not feeling it today which makes it so much harder when you have so much less energy! Feeling a bit worried about the forecast for next week! Eeek!

The school I work in has said they can wear PE kit every day till end of term which was surprising generous

I'm not sure there are enough trees in our school grounds to accommodate leafy lessons for over 1000 kids.

Bowl of ice in front of the fan, as someone previously suggested? Are you covering in a variety of different classrooms/year groups, or one subject in the same classroom all day?

I don’t even have a fan in my classroom.

My DD is in primary school and that's bad enough, secondary school in heat is a nightmare! I really do think school should be shut if it's as hot as predicted and all exams are finished.

And outdoor lessons would not be a good idea 😬 my DD is horribly burnt from just lunch and breaktimes because 6 year olds are not great at remembering to put suncream on and the 8hr stuff doesn't last on her (very fair redhead, it really does need applying every hour). I'm not sure I'd trust year 9s to be any more reliable - that's without the heat, wasps and lack of shade.

I took a can of cooling spray with me today - god send! I kept spraying my legs and feet under the desk 🤣

I appreciate the classrooms are boiling, but spare a thought for us poor school cooks!

3 ovens going, 6 gas rings (minimum), no air con and bizarrely the room with the most windows (in my school).

In full heavy uniform and hats!!!

Boiling doesn't even cover it!

I took a can of cooling spray with me today - god send! I kept spraying my legs and feet under the desk 🤣

I’d forgotten about this stuff, you’ve just made my evening! Thanks 😂

DD's secondary (Cornwall) have been told either wear PE kit for rest of week or uniform with no blazer or tie. She's opting for PE kit. I'll run it through on a 20 minute quick wash each night, in this heat it'll be dry by the morning.

Don't worry I'm sure they'll all take them off again in December or thereabouts

I've seen at least 7 wearing jumpers and coats today.

The same ones who constantly take their blazers off in winter and wear their skirts so short, you can see their underwear, complaining that they're hot.

The contraryness of a Year 9 cannot ever be overestimated.

Everyone collapsing at the same time is a til tok thing

Can you imagine if the schools were closed? The childcare issues? Folk would go nuts!

(I'm in Scotland btw so no skin in this game: schools are already closed and no hot weather here ever)

@Jessieharriet181 you've just reminded me I have cool it mama spray from my hospital bag that I never used! Thank you!

@ivykaty44, I do a lot of 'is it hot in here or is it just me?'. Thank you menopause.....
@noblegiraffe, I'd advise that even a small fan (I take a tower fan into school in the warmer weather), stood with its back to an open window in the shade really helps.

Not PAT tested = not allowed. And school wouldn’t buy me one.

It was the smell as well - I was teaching in one of those greenhouse-like ‘temporary’ portacabins when Lynx Africa spray was peaking in popularity years ago. I had a major wobble and threw every window and door open and banned the spray on sight (the Year 9 boys were liberally spraying their shirts with it whilst sitting in lesson). Horrendous.

Aw @onmywayamarillo I thought this was my moment as I was going to share this nugget of knowledge! Beaten by 4 mins. I'll have to find another way to impress people with my tiktok knowledge 😆

@noblegiraffe you don't need a PAT test if it's new

Our kids have been told to wear PE kit. I will be doing very non-taxing work with them and we often go for a walk anyway (I’m fortunate that my classroom opens out directly into the school grounds) so we will have a few gentle, shady saunters. We’ll all drink lots of water. I will sweat profusely whilst Year 9 boys insist on keeping their coats on. There will be one session where we all just slump in our seats, sweat, and look helplessly at each other and then it will be over and we’ll all move on with our lives,

Well, mine were singing It's getting hot in here so take off all your clothes
to which I sang You can only take off your blazer thanks/ It's getting so not but I dont wanna see that!

Seriously though, no air con, blazers/ties off, a frigging wordsearch and a menopausal teacher wearing a mask and staying behind a screen the whole double lesson - as positive for covid but expected in regardless (with added rebuke for having tested). Nothing to see here, oh no.