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 school has relaxed the rules about ties for the rest of term. Blazers are already optional in the heat. Today was my day off but yesterday I had a y8 wearing his shirt, jumper and blazer, but he had taken his tie off. Outside I saw another lad in y10 in a black puffer jacket. Why???

I did find out that the Physics labs have air conditioning as they are only a few years old. As a menopausal teacher, this is amazing, especially because I did the Head of Physics a big favour and he told me I'm welcome in there any time. Not looking forward to Monday, even though it is only forecast to be around 30 degrees here. My main teaching room is cool in the morning, but by early afternoon the sun shines in and it's pretty warm. I think lots of YouTube might be watched next Monday.

Ahahahaha! Ha ha! (Deep breath) ahahaha! Teaching to the death! I got a stern look for playing a subject appropriate film today . (The cover work had been done already recently) Plus no way in this good earth would I take anything in from home. The damage they could do with a counter doesn’t bear thinking about.

Oh and we are having a full uniform inspection tomorrow.

That's ridiculous...full uniform inspection! Vast majority of secondaries are relaxing things with uniform. Nothing wrong with a subject appropriate video. Sounds tough there. They need to be flexible - it's so close to the end of term- as long as the kids are safe, settled, and doing something in the way of learning/productive activities then SLT should be happy with that and not giving you the evil eye for doing something a little less taxing!

Primary here, village school in old Victorian building. Luckily my room is in the recently converted loft space so it has air con, but the downstairs rooms really suffer. The Year 5 and 6 classrooms currently smell hideous, I can’t even begin to imagine what it’s like with fully fledged teenagers.

As the global temperature increases, we really as a nation need to look at buildings where lots of people are crammed into small rooms and invest in some air con units. The advice of open a window only works if you have proper sized ones that open fully, and the advice of get them outside in the shade only works if you have massive grounds with enough shade for each class.

Secondaries seem to be batty about archaic, 1980s businessmen uniforms. I hope they’ll reconsider. Which professions still insist on this in the real world?

Our school is having its enrichment week this week. One of the activities is learning to line dance. In a room up under the roof, where it's unbearably hot at the best of times. If I have to take part in that activity, I think I may refuse. Ridiculous.

If only there was some idea they could try. Like building new schools. Ones not for now but in time. Hmm. Im struggling to think of a name for it. Maybe… ‘building schools for the future’? That sounds totally doable and not at all like a short-lived vote winning nonsense scheme.

😂😂😂

Ah Year 9; never was melodrama so melodramatic. Amazing recovery at break to play football in the midday sun.

Sounds like a school I was very glad to get the hell out of progress from.

Parents' Evening in the gym. The gym with massive windows on the second floor, so got sunshine from sunrise to sunset. No curtains or blinds. Flat roof, steel beams. Directly above the boiler room producing hot water for the site, including the kitchen. With a knackered boiler that only produced hot water if THE FUCKING CENTRAL HEATING WAS ALSO ON. So if they switched it off, they might have to close because there was no hot water for the kitchen.

Email went around about 45 minutes before the much dreaded Parents' Evening started 'All Staff must wear Full Professional Clothing including Blazers as per the Handbook at all times. Please also remember that drinks are not to be taken into the Hall under any circumstances'.

According to that HT, it was all a fuss about nothing because 'In a couple of weeks, everybody's going to be in Africa and the Caribbean on holiday and nobody ever complains about the heat there'.

I teach science at the top of the school with a classroom with windows on 3 sides that gets the sun all day and had to use Bunsen's today. The downstairs classrooms for English and Hums have all been kitted out with air con and yet those teachers were still moaning about the heat, I'd have liked them to have taught in my room for a lesson.

I hear you. Windows don't open at all and the recirculated air is broken. 35+ in all rooms by 11am.

TEACHING UNTIL THE VERY END!

And good lord the smell of unwashed blazers. They've been told they don't have to wear them. Still insisting on it.

I'm cover too. You have my deepest sympathies. Our 11s are gone, 10 are on work experience and the usually over confident 9s are giddy with their new status. They're celebrating by spraying even more perfume all over their clothes. And brushing their hair which they won't tie up ever. And refusing to take off their jumpers whilst complaining they're hot. And crunching their water bottles or making holes in the bottom of them and sucking water from there instead of using them like a normal bottle. I secretly love the year 9s but they have the power to drive you slightly mad. They know everything except sense.

Incidentally, I'm geography at the moment too. Today the y9s did competitive jigsaws (maps) without the lids for reference and we played capital cities hangman. The actual cover work had taken 10 minutes as we've finished the curriculum. I also stuck some quizzes up on the interactive board. It was surprisingly good fun.

Time to wheel in the television/video combo!

Year 6 for me, they were told weeks ago that they would be allowed to wear their leavers hoodies on the last week of term - next week. They’ve been pushing the boundaries on these for weeks, some wearing them in anyway and kicking off when asked to remove them.
I can already predict the chaos of next week 😫
Our head has said nothing on uniform but since they are allowed to wear either shorts or skirts all year round anyway along with a polo shirt or button down shirt, I think it’s flexible enough. To be honest, when it’s mid 30 degrees any clothes besides swimwear feels like too much!
It’s sweltering in the classroom at the moment, and they’re all hot and bothered and tired and fed up - we’re all in the same boat. This morning 6 of them came in with sweatshirts on and 3 of those had coats on 😳 a few of them needed a lot of persuading to remove a layer and a couple of them kept sweatshirts on all day - the same children who had come out of the swimming pool this morning and said it was too hot to get dressed again. Kids are illogical 😂
No fan in our room, they ordered 4 but were still 8 short! Windows open 3 inches for safety reasons - what about our safety for not passing out?! 7 more days… 7 more days… (let’s not focus on how FUCKING BOILING it’s going to be…)

I work as a primary 1 to 1 and have had to get creative in finding motivating activities that can only be done once the jumper is off! It has to be a proper bargaining chip - Jumper off, then painting!

Thankfully we've had the ok for PE kit for the rest of this week (and probably next). And implemented the water bottle challenge. And frequent reminders to drink. And shade based activities. And having the lights off in the (bright enough) room makes it feel cooler somehow.

It is definitely the school kitchen I feel sorry for though, they have a really tough job!

Ok - it was just a suggestion. No board games.

Sports day for us today, full school only out 1-3. Only year 10 had had a sports day at secondary before!
We’re pretty relaxed on uniform, it’s an inclusive, liberal kinda school. Kids in PE kit until the end of term anyway, on Monday we’re relocating classes on the second floor which get far too hot, we’re part way through an expansion so have some spare classrooms this year thankfully.

I’m in a crap room in the ROSLA block which hasn’t been renovated since the 70s, there always seems to be other priorities than department (SEN suite). I’ve got a window that won’t close properly! All single glazed, no insulation, obviously no aircon!

It’s forecast to be 37c next Tuesday in the midlands and south. An amber weather warning has been issued meaning that significant changes to working practices are required. Anyone heard anything from their school?

I've heard from DDs secondary school, just to say to make sure the children bring water bottles, wear sunscreen, etc. nothing yet from my other two's primary school.

I think they need to give the option of home learning that day. I haven't made my mind up yet but I am considering keeping them at home.

An update! Kids have been told pe kit, if not-uniform sans blazer and tie. But not own clothes. Oh nonono! So I can guess on Monday there’s going to be all variations on this. We’ve been told we can have “relaxed” gear too. Loads of kids (the more vociferous critics of all school after Easter, or if there’s a drop of rain, or snow or a y in the day) are saying “I’m not effing comin in like” Ok 👍.
Can you tell I’ve done three weeks of 5 lesson days?

Our secondary has been quite good - home clothes for the last two weeks of term and parents evenings have remained online post-Covid because most parents preferred it that way.

Apparently we will get an update tomorrow about plans for next week but if it only extends to “bring a hat and wear sunscreen” then my kids will be staying at home

I doubt anyone making the decision has ever had to work a full day in 40 degree heat. I have (Spain) and schools there used to finish at lunchtime in summer.

If you need an excuse some friends are planning on saying "X won't be in today as the heat and hayfever has given them a bad headache" If you do let them go in they might even be sent home mid-day so I wouldn't bother.