“They’ll survive” - children in schools deserve to actually learn

[noblegiraffe]

There have been so many responses to threads about the heat in schools of ‘we survived in 76, kids will be fine’.

It wasn’t even the hottest day yesterday and by mid-morning, very little learning was going on. Kids couldn’t concentrate, even A-level students were making silly mistakes and very, very little work was completed Everyone was extremely uncomfortable and it was more a test of endurance than a place of learning. My classroom was 28 degrees at 8:15am and only got hotter as the day progressed, despite me doing all the right stuff around blinds, windows, doors. The kids were in PE kits and had plenty of water, per government recommendations, but they were not well.

But they survived - so that’s all ok? That’s the best we can expect from schools? No learning and a lot of discomfort/actively feeling ill? And now schools are even having to close.

Bearing in mind that it was only just over 30 yesterday, and given the increasing global temperature, how many more hours of learning will be lost before ‘they survived’ isn’t accepted as the expectation for our kids in schools in the summer and something is actually done about it?

Whether that’s fitting air conditioning (hah), changing the timings of the school day to start earlier and finish earlier when the temperature rises, or changing the school year so the kids break up earlier and go back earlier, something should happen. The country cannot afford to lose all these learning hours and parents and children shouldn’t have to put up with this inadequacy in provision.

It’s not the odd day, it’s a whole week now. If May half term had been in school time that would have been another week lost. With climate change it is going to keep increasing.

What percentage of the school year is it acceptable to lose to unsuitable classroom temperatures before people pay attention, particularly when some kids are entirely unaffected?

Kitchens are always hot. He has to make money. And unlike teachers, most other people don’t get paid if they don’t work.its

This is just yet another one of the issues teachers moan constantly about. No other profession whinges so much.

If it’s that bad ask your union to back you for citing a breach of s44 of the employment rights act, same as they did during Covid

Because the UV index is 8-10 today, depending on where you are in the country, and heatstroke is fucking deadly.

Schools are literally closing because the conditions inside them are intolerable and people will still try to make this about 'moaning teachers',

And there are threads from parents worried that various outside activities haven't been cancelled because of the heat!

Christ how many more threads and hand wringing over this?! Yes we all know teachers have it worse than anyone in the entire country and of course schools should close to save them and all the kiddies from imminent death / ill health.

Loads of schools are closing for the rest of the week around here. Ours (state primary) is insisting on still holding sports day this week 🤯

None of my OP was about teachers, it was about children’s ability to learn.

Do you have anything to say about children being unable to learn due to conditions in schools?

Would love to have loads of paddling pools, sprinklers & ice lollies for my classes but my state school’s not going to pay for them. It was 30° in my classroom today with the blinds & windows closed, and they won’t even give us a fan! We’ve just got kids struggling to cope with the extreme heat, in no fit state to do anything and several being sick from becoming overheated.

Exactly why my children were ‘sick’ today and will be tomorrow and Thursday too.
We’ve got some great home learning done today. From worksheets to science kits! They’re warm, but not as hot as they were at school on Monday…..
I’m aiming for higher than ‘surviving’.

Yes, if we continue to have heatwaves like this (which we will) then something needs to change to make sure the children at school can learn in a comfortable environment
Not sure there’s much us on MN can do to make that happen though.

I seem to be in the only place in the country where it's not even that bloody hot! I'm in Leeds, it's warm and muggy but nothing exceptional! It's been horribly overcast as well the last few days. No changes to DC's school other than the teacher checking they've all got full water bottles with them and reminding them to drink. According to DC, it's much cooler in their classroom than at home.

Growing up in Australian, I'm the same. I do remember spending a lot of the hot summer days either side of the Summer holidays sweltering, spending a lot of the time at school just feeling hot and switched off. All we had was a big overhead fan in each room that sent your papers flying if turned up too high. Some weeks it was so hot we would all see how much sweat had pooled under us in each class, if we stuck to the seat etc - it was quite gross looking back on it, the backs of our summer dresses were drenched in sweat, I remember being so sweaty my knickers stuck to me. If we were lucky, one of the teachers had set up a sprinkler and we would run through it - this was before water restrictions.

I have to say we just had cotton summer dresses, or shirt and shorts for the boys with no blazers, ties or extras. Even at my private secondary school, blazers were only expected for Speech Day or other special occasions in Summer. I think English schools that don't have a summer uniform and make the children wear a blazer, regardless of the weather are quite ridiculous. I love uniforms, but there has to be logic and common sense about it.

Are the older generations more resilient? This is the kind of thing my mum would say, even though she’s been an alcoholic for most of her life. I don’t think living in a slightly kinder world to previous generations is necessarily a bad thing.

I love the ‘older generations are more resilient’ trope. There was a thread the other day about how a poster’s parents are negative and moan all the time and can’t cope with minor inconveniences and 100s of posters agreed that theirs were the same.
My mum is the least resilient person I’ve met. She once took 3 weeks off work with stress because her boiler broke and she couldn’t deal with it.

Interesting points. I've been trying to look back at what caused me to have issues later on in life and it was what people said to me, and how they said it than what I experienced in my childhood that affected me the most. Now I wasn't abused, let's make that very clear. I had some quite 'enriching' experiences for want of a better word that most children today wouldn't have to face just because of where and how I grew up in rural Australia and most of them have made me very resilient and resourceful. I compare what my children do for the Bronze Duke of Edinburgh and am horrified at how soft it is, we were doing Gold level activities at the same age.

Well if you are going to have to go in and try to teach tomorrow OP I do hope that you make the best of it for your pupils. Encourage a bit of the Dunkirk spirit 😀

I've been going around with a plant mister and spraying them with water when they wilt. Maybe I'll upgrade to a super-soaker.

The problem is, that Dunkirk spirit doesn't actually mean the brain can learn at high temperatures. The kids are being pretty good and (buzzword) resilient but even with being jollied along they can't actually focus.

First sensible suggestion I’ve seen

It's also in my OP!

I'm not a teacher. Hybrid worker and the temperature at both my home and my workplace is well controlled.

Well yes because INSET days tend to gave an agenda which means you can't just bung one in.

Our next one is in September. Having it now would be utterly pointless.

She sounded affronted that her suggestion was 'met with refusal by the school'.

Well yes, because it's a stupid suggestion. But schools aren't allowed to use those words even thought they'd have wanted to.

Just an FYI to posters,
Various governments stopped investing in school buildings beyond basic repair when they came up with the fucking stupid idea of free schools and academy sites.

Have you got any idea of what is done on most inset days?

And even if you did, the idea of sitting in an extremely hot hall all fucking day is nobodies idea of fun.