Too cold for six years olds to be outside for PE for 45 minutes?

[Married2aWelshman]

I'm all for getting the kids outside, particularly mine, but it was 0 degrees in London today and my DD1 told me that they did PE outside and they were all freezing in their tracksuit bottoms and school t shirts, also allowed school cardigans but that's it. No gloves, majority of them already coughing and spluttering as is the January norm. Some of the, crying. It's not like they were playing rugby and sweating their arses off. AIBU to have a word with the teacher in the morning?

The good old days eh?

No such thing as bad weather just bad clothing. Its true. And children need to exercise more not get given excuses not to exercise. Outdoor Ed trainer here!

6year olds don't feel the cold if they are active enough. Age is nothing to do with it.

My issue is the clothes not being outside

My ds came home sobbing from his rugby after school club. My ds very rarely cries, he isn't a moaner and will play out in all weathers. However, he like me and his dad has low blood pressure so his hands turn white at the tips and he has a lot of pain in the cold.
His coach refused to allow gloves and so my poor ds sat and cried while his hands warmed up and the throbbing stopped.
What has he learnt from this? How has that helped him enjoy sport?

My ds was warm all over otherwise and happy to be in the cold, but his poor hands. I'm so mad, cos he really isn't one to moan or cry.

" You don't get coughs and cold from being cold. "

You're more susceptible to catching them when you're cold www.cardiff.ac.uk/common-cold-centre/the-common-cold

I think you'll find that cold air kills off viruses in the nose and pharynx and people catch illnesses when couped up inside rebreathing each other's warm virus laden air.

Wrong. When your body is too cold it is far, far more susceptible to cold and flu viruses. The cold itself won't make you ill, it's a virus that does that. But the likely reality is that we harbour various viruses a lot of the time but when our bodies aren't under other pressure we fight them off without noticing. But when we are too cold, too tired/run-down or too stressed our immune system is less able to cope and we succumb.

For context my 4 year old goes to a forest pre-school where he spends hours outside in all but the wettest/stormiest weather. Today he had no school but we went for a walk in the wind and rain together just to get outdoors for a bit. So I'm not opposed to children being outside in winter. But in this weather a warm coat, hat/fleece band and maybe gloves are essential.

Is there any health & safety restrictions that young children can't wear hats, gloves, coats outside whilst doing PE?
I was bloody freezing today whilst walking my dog, even he wanted to head indoors.
YANBU - some kids feel the cold more than others

Why don't they have proper outdoor pe kits? Ds has had to have tracky bottoms and top since year 1

You beat me to it Bettersleep. I was watching This Morning the other day and Dr Chris explained about cold noses and catching colds...

And now I've RTFT others have explained it more clearly

It builds character. And if they lose a digit to frostbite then it is a good story to tell when older

Our school doesn't have a specific outdoor PE kit but DGS's kit bag contains a black tracksuit (£8 in total from Asda) so with his vest and PE top &shorts plus tracksuit he's warm enough in PE.

Lol@Dierdre!!!

They need gloves and a fleece in this weather, yanbu.

And yes the fucking freezing cold hockey playing in a fucking mini skirt with blue legs put me off outdoor sports too. Pe teachers are always sadists in my experience. Bouncy healthy shouty bastards.

Took me about 2 hours to thaw DS out after his football practice this afternoon - hot bath, hot chocolate, duvet and hot water bottle on the sofa. (I've played football in the snow as an adult, but he's only 8 and skinny as a rake - the thing with children is they have such a high surface area to volume that when they start to get cold, it kicks in really fast.)

I wore 5 layers to do the school run today, so maybe I am not the best to comment...

This is perfect weather for doing cross country - and everyone needs to wear the school sports uniform , which means shorts, no poncy tights or leggings

My daughters high school does not allow them to wear trackies, hats or gloves when outside in freezing temperatures. They are only allowed to wear a jumper at the discretion of the pe teacher

Dierdre

Dd went on a walk today with reception - she is 5. They were all dressed up in warm coats etc but several of them were very cold and wanted to go back. The issue is we were walking very slowly so not warm enough to be comfortable. I do think it is too cold for pe outside. That's the kind of thing that makes some children grow up thinking they hate sport.

I dont object to them being outside (although Im not convinced small children need to do PE in the freezing cold) but they were unsuitably attired and not permitted to wear gloves. If I had sent my ds to school without gloves and a coat for playground time I would have (quite rightly) needed reminding that this was not OK.

Outside PE is fine as long as the children are dressed appropriately.

In this sort of weather, they should have been wearing more warm clothes. And gloves at the very least.

I did PT yesterday (Army) stretcher race followed by the assault course. We were dressed in boots, combat jackets trousers etc and it was still freezing. A good number of soldiers were wearing gloves. It was fucking cold and I wouldn't expect children to be out in it with out adequate warm kit (skins, gloves hats) yanbu at all.