to wish that parents would send their children with water bottles etc

[katydid02]

Children are hot and thirsty with this lovely weather and yet parents are sending them to school with no water bottles, no sun hats and without suncream. 2/30 had a sunhat today and only about 10 had water bottles.

[IThinkOfHappyWhenIThinkOfYou]

Lack of Vit D is a risk factor for MS which isn't fatal but is no picnic either.

DCs are supposed to have a water bottle in class which is sent home once a week. They are always missing by October half term. There must be hundreds of water bottles in school somewhere. They have drinks before and after school and at lunchtime.

[GoofyIsACow]

I used to send a water bottle, it used to either come home full or not come home at all.

There are water fountains and also OP... Schools have pipes an stuff that, like, carry water...

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

In this weather children absolutely need to drink more. Of course they do! They are sweating much much more than usual and that has to be replaced. We have one drinking fountain to 150 children. Even if they queued up all break they wouldn't have time to have a drink.

[GoofyIsACow]

Oh and i apply his suncream before he leaves... By the way YABU and judgy

[MrsOakenshield]

if you are concerned about vit D deficiency, give your DC supplements. I can't believe people are equating vit D deficiency with skin cancer. It's especially stupid given that children's main school break is exactly when we are all meant to be inside.

Let me ask directly - amongst those who aren't concerned about lack of water availability - do you have a drink when you are thirsty, whether at home or at work? Or is there someone stopping you from doing so? I have a large glass of water on the go all day, and the same at work (there's always a large glass of water on my desk). If this was removed from me I would feel headachy pretty quickly. I fail to understand how children are meant to learn if they are hot and thirsty.

[Hulababy]

I work in the classroom so if I have a water bottle I can drink as and when. If no water bottle, I have to wait til break times. Unless we are in the ICT room and then it is no water at all for that lesson as water and electrics don't mix.

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

nhs heatwave estimates that in the 2003 heatwave there was an extra 2000-3000 deaths in the UK.

[curlew]

Water fountains are completely impractical- it would take all day for everyone to get a drink. So water bottles from home are a good idea. But I do think that the problem is that children don't realise that you have to have a decent slug of water when you get the chance. You need to take in a decent amount of water over the day- you don't have to drink continuously. So a glass of juice for breakfast, a good drink at break and lunch and another at the end of school, and, obviously extra if they've been doing sport, covers it.

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

And for those who say it is not the Serengeti, well actually the average max temperature there in January is 32C. Which ironically is what many areas have been experiencing this week.

[marriedinwhiteagain]

Well when my ds started school (reception) 1999 the milk children, ie, those whose parents opted for them to have milk, weren't allowed to take a water bottle (because they had milk). Took several meetings to sort that one out - my DS was actually told off by an elderly teacher coming up to retire for taking a water bottle to school when he was a milk child - they were worried the milk might get wasted (the milk I paid for). When I suggested the staff could fiill a couple of jugs and use some paper cups they complained because it was extra work and who would set out the cups.

[youarewinning]

DS doesn't take his hat to school - he goes on minibus and doesn't go outside to play. He does have a waterbottle and wears factor 50 daily. (prescribed)

He is expected to wear a hat at all other times though - and I agree its about educating them. DS wears a hat or he stays inside.

[UpTheFRIGGinDuff]

DD's school are fricking nut jobs when it comes to water bottles....every day of term the child must have one,or you get disapproving looks and "where's your water bottle SmallFRIGG?

So during this weather they have gone crazy with letters home,posters out side class rooms etc.

Every day DD takes a bottle of water to school,and every day I empty it again...she never bloody touches it!

She is however covered in sun cream before school,I don't send it in anymore as the teachers refuse to help her with it and she gets more on her clothes and in her hair than on her skin.

As for hats ,they get 'lost' on a weekly basis.

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

you are right curlew they tend to sip rather than drink plenty and the design of many water bottles encourages that sort of drinking.

[WipsGlitter]

How much water (liquid) do you think we need? An eight year old needs 1.3l, so no need for this constant topping up. A good few drinks during the day is plenty.

[ontheotherside]

Well if you worked in retail, or on a production line, or picking fruit, or on a building site, you wouldn't have a nice glass of water on your desk to stop you getting a headache. You'd just drink a good amount each time you had the opportunity and probably be absolutely fine. I refuse to believe that the whole of the UK before the 1990s was perpetually dehydrated!

Children in our primary school have the following opportunities to drink, and there are 5 water fountains between 250:
On arrival at school 8.15
On way to class after assembly 8.55
Break 10.20-10.45 (jugs of water and cups provided as well as water fountains)
Lunch 12 - 1.15 (in the playground, and at lunch, of course)
Mid afternoon at around 2.30
Going home time 3.30
Teachers mostly allow kids to get water in between if they're really thirsty.

I really think that's absolutely fine. They are never going more than an hour without a chance to drink.

Water bottles are sent in by some parents. They are rarely used. They fester in bags, lockers etc. In this weather the water is warm and horrible by mid morning. In my DD's previous school this fanaticism about water meant that they had it on desks at all times and frequently it made a right old mess and was a constant distraction.

If your school is not providing enough drinking facilities for every kid to get a good drink at break and lunch, lobby them to do better. It's absolutely true that water is a basic right for kids in school but I just don't agree that it all requires this degree of fuss.

[Trigglesx]

In DCs schools, they give each child a water bottle to start with, then any additional can be purchased. All children are encourage to bring a filled water bottle every day, and they are encouraged to drink from them. I would think it would be easier and faster for teachers to have children get drinks from their water bottles here and there throughout the day than have to be monitoring a big queue at the water fountain between classes or having children asking to leave the classroom regularly to get drinks from the water fountain.

[katydid02]

We allow them to have water bottles (which we provided free of charge) on the tables. There are water fountains but they are not practical when children come in from play and all want a drink unless we are happy for them to miss lesson time.
Sunhats, we have large areas of shade but the children prefer to be in the sun. Suncream, ditto.

[chocoholic05]

When my dc school was rebuilt last year they didn't put in any water fountains. The children have to bring in water bottles or they don't get a drink. Every year we have a letters reminding us to bring in water bottles for our dc.

[woopsidaisy]

In DSs school, they are not allowed to bring in any water bottles or drinks of any kind.
They have a choice of water or milk at snack and lunch time. That is it. No water fountains, and no drinks for after school games.
First thing they do when they get in the car is ask for a drink. But I have hammered in to them that they must take the drinks in school when offered.

I should say that we are in NI, and they broke up just before this weather. If they were in school now I would definitely have asked about extra water.

[shufflehopstep]

WipsGlitter Couldn't agree with you more. Suncream is obvious in this weather as is a hat if they're going to be spending a lot of time outside, but you only need to drink when you're thirsty, and 3 hours sitting in a classroom is not going to build up that much thirst that you're going to keel over.

[curlew]

And since when have kids sat in a class room for 3 hours at a stretch anyway?

[MaybeBentley]

Schools can't win. If they ask for hats and suncream they are wrong, if the children get sunburnt/stroke due to lack of hat or cream they are wrong. If they keep them inside, out of the sun they are wrong as it is hot and stuffy and they aren't getting their VitD, but if they take them outside they are wrong for exposing them to the potential of sunburn. Maybe they should just all shut because it is too hot (oh no, then they'd be wrong as us working parents need them to have the children).

Through no fault of its own the school site itself offers no shade at my kids' school. They have several gazebos that the staff have to take down each night and put up each morning, but that's not enough for even 1/4 the school at lunchtime. The school's architectural design means it is an oven with no ventilation and huge amounts of fixed glass. As a governor I raised the issue, but the school has no budget for costly alterations for maybe only a few weeks a year, so what are they to do?

[olidusUrsus]

No idea why vit D always gets dragged up in these sorts of threads, if you're that worried then give your kid a supplement.

I know that various studies to do with drinking often are funded by drinks companies, but you can know that and also understand that water is important and hydration is important at school.

I don't live somewhere where branded drinks are being sent in every day, it's more common that kids take in a sports type bottle filled with tap water. Not sure how that's benefitting any company, research funding or not.

[IThinkOfHappyWhenIThinkOfYou]

I think Vit D gets dragged into it because of the health risks of both deficiency and dietary supplementation. It's not like popping a vit C tablet.

[olidusUrsus]

Surely thirst varies from child to child? Why slag off water bottles just because your sprog doesn't often ask for a drink.