Has your child’s school closed because of the heat?

[Comeondoreen]

Unless I’ve missed it (quite possible), I’ve not seen any talk on here about this, and I’m curious so I thought I’d ask.

My child’s primary school has closed early at 12pm for two weeks in total over June and July, one of those days being closed all day. I strongly suspect next week will be similar. Most of these closures have been relatively last minute, some being emailed out the morning of.

Personally this isn’t a problem for me, as I work for myself and can be extremely flexible. I also know my child can be a horror in extreme heat so I’m very happy to have them home where they won’t cause problems! But I can imagine it’s been a total nightmare for other parents regarding work.

My child’s school is quite newly built and they say the building has been about 35 degrees most days during the heatwaves, even with fans on, blinds drawn, etc, they say it’s been unbearable. I’m told behaviour has been awful, and very little learning has been happening.

I’m just wondering how normal our experience is? We’re in the midlands/north-ish, I think the highest temperature we’ve had has been 34 degrees which was during that first hot spell in June. It surely must be much worse for people down south.

I suppose I’m thinking this is surely not a sustainable situation going forward if this is what our summers will be like from now on? Surely it’s now necessary to install aircon - though, of course, I know the school will have no money for this. I imagine it will take years of the situation getting a whole lot worse before any action is taken…

We are in the south, they closed for a few half days when we had the red warning, didn't want to close fully as yr10, my daughter's year, were doing mocks 🙄
No closures since then. It's a new school, completed in 2020, just had a large extension finished last year, no aircon.
Older daughters college closed during the red warning week as a lot access by train and they were on reduced service, opened the following week but they finished that Thursday anyway.
They need to do something as school kids are like the walking dead by the time they finish they can't be learning anything much.

DD's (secondary) has had early closures both hot weeks, but they don't get overly concerned about attendance anyway (probably because it's very high). I haven't heard anyone complaining about the short days.

DC school has been open throughout, as has mine. We are South East so had some of the worst of the heat.

My school has moved lessons from the hottest classrooms to coolest ones where possible, we are lucky to have some with air con (but not all). It’s been helped by the fact that Year 11 and 13 were gone so more available room to use. We swapped to no ties and blazers then PE kit, back to no ties and blazers when it dropped a bit and then back to PE kit.

DC school has a couple of air con spaces (DS classroom has air con) and have given each class session in those and swapped them around to give all classes a cooler room for a while. Changed to PE kit but primary school so have summer uniform and DD has been cooler in her summer dress than she would have been in polo and shorts. They’ve changed to cold lunches only on the hottest days. We’re lucky and live in a village so lots of green spaces, especially around the school and not just a load of concrete holding the heat.

We need to get legislation in place quickly. It's not acceptable for children or adults to be sitting in classrooms in 30 degrees heat or more - I spent this week in rooms of 32 degrees plus but even so was shocked at the poster whose kids were in rooms of 37 degrees.
We need maximum temperature limits and funding to install adequate aircon and shading mechanisms.

Most of the schools round here have been shut at lunchtime/1ish om the very very hot days. Our school gave us the option so I (like you can be flexible) decided to bring them home, our house stays cool and they won't miss any learning. I do think the forecasts have been very clear for a while so it'd be better if they could plan a bit more, they must know if the weather is over 32 degrees it'll equal 35 in the classroom etc. Our old primary school was still planning sports day for Friday during the heatwave and only cancelled it Thursday night - people had booked the day off and couldn't then get the day back/swap the leave out and it was blatantly obvious that nobody should be running around in 32 degree heat....

no, I was surprised to find our state primary in Sheffield has aircon!

I work in a school, the first time round they had an optional finish at 1, this time round they’ve had no optional finish. Teachers have had to bring fans from home if they have them (can’t find any around here! ) We have no air con- they’ve said the cost of running them and maintenance is the reason rather than installation cost. No staff have left early, rooms are about 32 degrees. Lots of water breaks, pe kit and lots of colouring activities, films etc. My own two children have had optional finishes first time round, and one full closure day this week. They’re old enough to make their own way home (and live near enough) to look after themselves. So my fan has been left at home for them and the dogs. The optional finishes were helpful as some kids really haven’t coped well, less bodies in the room have made it less uncomfortable. It’s a catch 22 and damned if you do, damned if you don’t. I don’t know a school that doesn't have a problem with being underfunded, so air con is not always viable, especially when they spend so much in heating for all the winter months.Cold weather is always guaranteed where as these heatwaves aren’t. I do feel though that schools have a responsibility though to provide a decent fan for each space and make sensible decisions with both parents/children and staff in mind. The optional finishes seemed to tick that box - if you can pick your child up great!, if not we’re still here. Meaningful education is out of the window when people can’t see because of sweat in their eyes but school is more than education, it’s a safe place for some that won’t be looked after as well at home in the heat.

I’ll just add this heatwave has been cooler than the last one (classrooms were 35/36 the other week). ‘Most’ parents have been better at sending sunscreen, hats, water bottles etc this time around. But we’ve had a lot of frozen drinks that only give out dribbles - lovely and melted by 3pm but not useful in the day! My best hack has been freezing 1/3 of a bottle of water on its side (ish) and then refilling the rest before we leave - best of both worlds! As a school though we do have plenty of spares so no one goes without but sunscreen is the one we can’t do.

4 days of closures at lunch no option but to collect them. I work full time as a lone parent no village and it’s been incredibly stressful managing it all. I complained to the school as half the classrooms do actually have air con!!! The PTA also raises about £30k per year out of us parents so I suggested they invest this in air con even if it’s portable units. It really pisses me off. I emailed school to say it would be easier if I could just keep the kids home for those days and would it be authorised leave (rather than stop/starting work) they said no it would be unauthorised ! (The closure time of the school was after afternoon register therefore maintaining their bloody attendance record! So clear what their main priority was!) as I said on another thread I don’t consider school childcare but if I get in trouble for removing them on statutory designated school days then I expect at the very least that school remains open on those days in return!

Not in the last 2 weeks, but when we had 40°c temperatures it closed mid-day.