Anyone think they’ll close schools next week?

[StroppyTop]

Heard someone today say schools might be ordered to close from Monday because of the heat. How likely do you think that is?

Absolutely ridiculous @Wigeon.

The unions simply need to be told that DC have missed enough education as it is and that schools will be remaining open.

The teachers and DC in countries like Spain cope perfectly well with slightly increased temperatures.

Jesus ! Calm down people getting stressed just makes you hotter !
I'm coming at this from a very hot country no I don't have air conditioning my husband works outside all day life goes on.
If you don't want to send your kids to school next week because you are worried then don't.
Just looked on the weather it looks hot for two days and then back to normal

There are a lot of people frothing in delight at the notion of "socking it" to the "lazy teachers wanting yet more holiday" by closing, yet failing to remember that it is THEIR CHILDREN who will be the ones suffering in school next week.

Mine won’t, it would take a huge amount as the HT is always business as usual with everything. I like that it’s not a School that shits easily & nor should it be.

As we are so keen to close schools for 2 days, lets also close Hospitals, Peisons and all Retail outlets - so no ice cream, sun hats and last minute BBQ supplies.

Sounds ridiculous? That's because it is!

🤷🏽‍♀️ shuld read Prisons.

For all those saying they don't shut down in other countries; I grew up in the US. Our school had 5 days added on to the end of the school year to allow for closure days. These were a mixture of snow days (if the roads were too bad for the buses to get through, usually a good foot or more of snow for that to happen) and heat closures - if it got to 90F (about 32 C) before 11am 2 days in a row we were sent home. If there were more than 5 closure days in the school year we had days added on to the end of the school year. I think we only had the added days once or twice but we definitely had snow closures and heat closures.

As a teacher, my first responsibility is to ensure that the children I teach are safe. That’s why we close when our water supply is cut off, because it us not safe to have 400 people in a building with no functioning toilets and no drinking water.

if schools can safely educate their pupils - remembering that many classrooms will be hotter than the air temperature due to crowding and solar gain - then they should and will stay open. If the risk to health and welfare from the temperature is too high, including in eg school transport and communal facilities, then they will close.

That will be a local decision - based on buildings, sites, facilities, numbers, local weather, shade, absence of air conditioning etc. It may even be on a class by class basis - my North facing classroom overshadowed by a tree only reached low 30s thus week, while a colleague’s unshaded South facing classroom with many fewer windows was a good 5-7 degrees higher.

Meant to add - it will also depend what alternatives are available. In some schools, while taking work out under a tree will be babysitting not learning, it will be safer than the classrooms. In others, that option won’t exist.

Schools that fail to make adjustments for classroom temperatures that could well be over 40 degrees, often well over due to solar gain, will be failing their Health and Safety responsibilities . It will come to something if the need to provide childcare or the wish for a smart uniform supersede what we all know is the main responsibility of anyone working with children - to keep them safe.

My son's school have sent email letter out telling parents they have acquired some air conditioning units for some classrooms. PE will not be outdoors and children will be encouraged to drink plenty of water.

Everyone knows that no useful education will be delivered except in those small number of schools with air conditioning. The question is whether safe childcare is possible. If not, then school sites should close but education be provided online - it’s one of the scenarios where in fact the limited education that can be delivered online will be more that that which can be provided in person in 40+ degree classrooms..

We live in NW London and my sons school (primary) is closed on Monday and Tuesday because of no shade in the playground, overheating kitchen staff, no AC in the classrooms etc
They will have Google classroom work to do and will stay open for key workers.
Maybe all schools will do that 🤷🏽‍♀️

@JustFrustrated that's bad. Can't they make an exception without the blazers in this heat?

@cookiecreammpie mine breaks up on Friday 12pm but they have closed the school on Monday and Tuesday

My ds is going to Spain with school next week. It's going to be hotter up here in Yorkshire! He's going by coach: hope the air con is working well ...

A text literally just arrived saying they don't have to wear them tomorrow and next week....but THEY MUST HAVE THEM WITH THEM.

Why?

It was all over our local news yesterday. Two kids suspended because of not having their blazers today, after being put in isolation yesterday for not having them.

Fucking academy schools.

What an odd thing to accuse someone of lying about. The state secondary where my brother’s children go is closed Monday afternoon and all day Tuesday.

I think they will close

I think the old schools will be fine. Thick walls. smaller windows.
Its the 90’s glass and metal buildings that cook you.

It was proper hot late afternoon but we had a nice breeze in the SE this morning.

Think my dcs secondary school are waiting for advice as to what to do. Its the breaks in the sun, nowhere to sit in the shade and not allowed to stay indoors usually. The walk home in the heat is going to be particularly gruelling and teens don't usually like to be seen being given a lift.
I'll give mine the option to stay off. They won't miss much anyway, real shortage of teachers and loads of lessons have been cancelled or have supply teachers who don't seem to know what the pupils should be doing.

When do English schools break up for the summer?

From the thread, it seems schools are breaking up next week. I wouldn't send my children in. You do fuck all on the last days of school anyway.

I hope so!

Realise this is a tangent but if school is only childcare then how come parents get fined for taking them out? So it forced childcare?

Your confusion relates to the 'only' you have added to this statement.