AIBU to be a bit miffed they have closed school "because it's hot"?

[Aethelfleda]

My DC go to a fairly large primary school.
At lunchtime today the parent alert system texted everyone to say school was closed due to the heat, and everyone to pick up their DC asap. Oh and it will be closed tomorrow too. Currently trying to sort out emergency cover with relatives for my three.

Last week we were given standard "hot weather" email/written info about hats, suncream, water bottles etc. Sports day was also cancelled "due to the heat".

Fair enough that they don't want to give the kids heatstroke by doing outside sports day if it's steaming.
But AIBU in expecting a school to have sensible contingency planning for hot weather? Ok, it's 31 degrees today (we live in the SouthEast). It is hot.
But surely all the schools in London/Surrey/Kent/Berkshire/Bucks aren't closed til it cools down, are they?

Greenwich nursery isn't shut. I'd be peed off if they said it was to be honest!

I think it's up to you as the parent to have a contingency plan. Not the school.

It's up to the parent to have a contingency plan for genuine emergencies that close schools. It's up to the school not to close for minor deviances from the norm that they ought to be able to cope with!

It's ridiculous shutting a school because it's hot!
No it's not pleasant for anyone, but really with sensible planning they should be able to cope.
Bet they wouldn't have done it during SATs week.

My DD's year 2 class is in a container ( one of those things that builders use on building sites) and it is like a fucking furnace in there. They had several children pass out from the heat, so personally I think that closing the school would be quite sensible giving the circumstances.

Oh I wish the school would shut. The walk back and forth is not nice. However they have aircon in parts of the school so it won't.

It really depends on the school building. My DDs school is a Victorian building that is like an oven and they don't have green fields or any shade on the tarmac playground. They have taken professional ad ice and added solar shading, ceiling fans, etc but it is still too hot inside on days like this and as the days pass the solar gain increases and the interior temps just increase. I have zero problems with them closing the school.

YANBU

The forecast for tomorrow is hotter by the way.

They're trying to protect your children and their staff. It isn't unreasonable. We don't have a system in the UK, as in many US and Australian states whereby Air Con is part of the original build because we've never needed it. That may change in the future.

Schools can't win. They get folk moaning when the kids are hot, overheated, thirsty, a tiny bit red, doing sports day, yadda yadda yadda when it's the Summer. Then they send the kids home because they deem it's too hot and that's wrong too.

Who'd be a teacher?

YANBU. Presumably it's just as hot at home as it is in school. DS (7) ran a competitive aquathlon yesterday (swim followed by 1km run), he was a bit hot at the finish but otherwise fine. There's much over reaction going on IMHO.

I wish our school would shut. I went in for reading this afternoon and could have done with a towel to mop myself down with. The poor kids were lolling about all lethargic, it was unbearably hot inside.

schools in oz dont close unless the temperature in the playground is 40 degrees or above. Realistically though, not a lot of learning gets done once the temp reaches about 35. Schools are also set up for high temps with UV resistant sail cloth over the playground, water bubblers through out and uniforms designed to keep the sun off.

I can assure you that air con is most definitely not part of the building in the vast vast majority of Australian schools.

That said, there is no low temp closing procedure because it is such a rare occurrence it has never been formalised. As a child i envied the mythical snow day.

Depends totally on the school buildings. Many schools have temporary buildings and aren't built for the very hot weather. Surely it's better for kids and staff to be at home if temperatures are reaching dangerous levels. PITA maybe but imagine the alternative threads. "Bloody school forced my child to remain in a hit classroom until they suffered heatstroke!"

YANBU.

It's a bit warm. Inconveniencing hundreds of people, halfway through the day? Just no.

Surely, we know for a few days a years it's likely to be very warm, and for a few days a year it's likely to snow, and/or by very cold? Can't staff think of ways around the problems those things create? I can think of many, many different ideas to offset the very, very few times a year when our climate does something other than be tediously temperate.

Im not sure it depends on the type of school building either. I can't quite understand why it would (I went to a primary school with a victorian stone original, a 50s extension and temporary outbuildings or 'huts' as we termed them, so basically most construction types) and my DCs school is a 1950s original, with a nursery building made out of temporary builders huts clad with fake bricks - I know how that building is constructed as I watched them crane the huts into place. Never, ever known either of the primary schools I'm closely acquainted with close due to weather of any description. Not once.

I would be very pissed off OP

What?! How ridiculous. Honestly, the UK makes me laugh sometimes when it comes to weather.
Too cold with snow, shut the schools down.
Too hot, shut the schools down.
I'd be miffed too!

It's quite an unusual measure. I could see a school in mainly temporary container type buildings like the new free school up the road making that choice, or a school where SEN children who struggle with the heat. It does seem a bit OTT for a normal school

Tequila. ..you have snow days all wrong. The weather means you can't get to the school as you don't even have snow tyres at the police closed your road so you simply have to have a fab day sledging with kids and can't possibly go to work.

Ours is open. Sports day is tomorrow too.

The weather means you can't get to the school as you don't even have snow tyres at the police closed your road so you simply have to have a fab day sledging with kids and can't possibly go to work

Very true. I may roll my eyes and say it's stupid that the schools's shut when we have a snow day, but secretly I love 'em as it means we can go home and build a snowman.

I spent time at school in Australia in my teens. It was in a city known for notoriously hot and dry summers, we didn't have air conditioning (though we did have ceiling fans!) and never ever had a day off school even when temperatures were consistently above 30C. We all survived.

That's ridiculous. Yes it's hot but seriously, we need to get a bit of a grip

Last year a kid passed out in the playground due to the heat and a parent called the newspapers. It was 40° inside the building. You could barely breathe and the children were feeling faint, hot and unwell. Dining room was unbearable. Cooping the children up was awful for them, with no shade outside we had to close. A lot of our infastructure is built very differently to that of other hot countries who think we're stupid and we just can't cope with it. I'd rather that than kids be ill!

It's not correct though to say it's just as got at home as at school. When you cram 30 hot, sweaty bodies together in 1 room it does build up. The kids are to hot to learn. A kid in my dd's class puked today from heat exhaustion.

Mind you, we have a good system. When it gets too hot we notify the parents that they can come and get their kids. About 30% of parents come. The remaining kids stay in school, but just with a significant chunk of kids gone means there is more flexibility and less bodies means less heat.

It's also more family friendly and flexible. Seems like the ideal solution.