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)

My youngest two boys- both secondary - yrs 9 & 10- academy - blazers and tie required, depending on teacher can take blazer off but only in class. only notification from school regarding the heat is pupils allowed to take a hat to wear in pe... boys came home yesterday wringing - school don't care, at least that's the attitude!

Schools really should be relaxing the uniform rules if they haven't already- all the secondaries I am aware of round here have done, in terms of no blazers or ties needed until the end of term. As Heads rarely teach themselves sometimes they need a reminder of the reality of a hot classroom with 30 odd people in it and the need to remember to adjust the usual policies!

Nope! Kids never have blazers, that’s the annoying thing. It’s quite a deprived area so they are polo shirts and black bottoms all year round so to counteract it staff dress really smart. The head was completely fine with it, the slt member has come from a different school and seems to think that everything we do is wrong.

I have had a parent phone and complain about me saying to not worry about ingredients, which I completely understand but the room is so hot that it won’t be a pleasant environment for anyone with the ovens on. First lesson was ok though because they were all keen to take the recipe home and cook for their family.

My sympathies OP. I was telling my Y9 DD this morning how lucky she is to go to a school that is one of those swanky new ones with Aircon and air filters in every room. She still moaned about the heat. You can't win with a y9.

Fun things?
Are you allowed to show them film's/documentaries, so quiz/ cahoot/etc bring games in...

Have an art weeks/get them outside.

Throughout COVID/ school and uniform has shown what a clunky outdated system we have.

Children freezing in classrooms, fine! Fresh air but why not allow them to wear what they want??
Same wiry hot weather.

I don't think it's the uniform that has been shown to be the issue, rather the outdated and unfit for purpose school buildings.

Freezing in the winter and boiling in the summer isn't good for learning, regardless of attire.

And despite covid, the government did fuck-all to address any of it.

Petition to get them to come in in PE Kit, they did it in covid and wld be much cooler and relaxed for kids.

Think of some teaching points with water and let them get a bit wet

Bribe an ice cream van to come over or get a sains delivery of lollies lol

You can really tell some people have never taught Year 9! You can't take them outside, you can't hand out lollies, you can't get an ice cream van outside your classroom or play water games! These are 13 year olds. SLT won't relax learning expectations and class teachers cannot do slack-off lessons: for one thing, it's not allowed and for another the chaos would be horrific. Schools have changed a lot in the past 15 years. Secondary teachers are not providing entertainment and childcare - they're trying to keep students safe and orderly while delivering a challenging curriculum under intense pressure and high expectations, evidencing progress for every pupil in every lesson.

It's not safe for students to be out in the sun in the forecast temperatures - which are extreme! - even if there was space and provision for outside learning in secondary which there absolutely is not. The teacher needs a computer, registers are electronic and schools do not have large outdoor shaded spaces for 1000+ students.

There are multiple complex needs in every class - learning, emotional and behavioural. The idea that you could chuck lollies at a class or play board games for a week is so wildly out of touch with what secondary schools are actually like and what the expectations are.

Completely agree that uniform restrictions should be lifted but it's absolutely the case that our school buildings are unfit for purpose in every single way.

Urgh....that fake collapse when someone complains it is hot tictok shite was pulled on me by my year 6s....once!
It's unbearable. Our building is dark brick so absorbs the heat, loads of windows to let the heat in but they only open 10cm wide at the very bottom so let no breeze in or heat out.
Loud fans help a little but are loud. No money for air con.

But then I've caught covid - again - definitely from the 2 kids on my front row who had it last week so I'm not there for the last few days of the year and hopefully get to go back in for the last day if I get a negative! Who knew covid would have a silver lining?

The forecast yesterday for Sunday here was 25.

I have a thermometer in our garden. It hit 40 in the sunshine.

It is not broken. Its a mercury thermometer. I've tested against my electronic one in the green house.

I’d like a word with the architect that put a wall of glass on a south facing classroom. Looks pretty but it’s a greenhouse- boiling now and freezing in winter. How many years at uni????

@RB68 Ok and then after that morning, what next?

Also @RB68 this is secondary...each teacher has up to 5 (or possibly even 6) different classes of children a day...that would get very expensive!
Sadly not practical when teaching 100+ different kids each day and in schools of 1000+ teenagers.

Agree with @Summerwhereareyou and @noblegiraffe Children are very often taught in inferior buildings that need to be replaced, are not environmentally friendly and possibly wouldn’t make the cut for an adequate workplace.

@GreenGreenWasTheColour exactly! Felt like I'd fallen into a parallel universe reading some of these posts! The best you can do at my school is try to book an IT room which all have air conditioning. They usually are all booked up at least a month in advance though even at the best of times, so you'd be out of luck at this point in the term. I'm glad I'm on mat leave at the moment!

Also, I spend a great deal of the day telling the y6s they would be less hot if they took off their much prized leavers hoodies....

This used to be me!
My mum - aren't you hot?
No! with grumpy face.
I was bloody sweltering.

The synchronised collapsing has gone round DD's year 7s classes too 🙄

I think they need to close schools on Monday. Not fair on staff or kids. In any case my lot will be "ill" on Monday, we shan't be leaving the house!

My DD goes to a girls school - so most if not all of them wear bras. And they still don't want to take their jumpers off! 😵‍💫

Schools really arent built to the standards of most workplaces these days.

I think some posters are imagining a form of 8 kids Mallory Towers style who can be taken outside for a dip!

I haven't read the whole thread, but those cool towels you can drape around your neck are really good

Your thermometer measured the surface temperature, not the air temperature, which is what weather forecasts predict. Surface temperature is often a LOT higher than air temperature, particularly if the thermometer is in the sun.

The 40C possible scenario - not forecast - is for air temperature.

Well at least teachers don’t have to keep thier blazers on this ridiculous heat like my dds school insist they do.

God that is absolutely batshit

The World Health Organisation recommends not working in temps above 24c. Need to take my thermometer in!