To be outraged most schools in Queensland Australia have no airconditioning.

[Mammasmitten]

I live in Queensland, Australia and for most of the year it is an average temperature of 30 degrees celsius or higher. Summer is insanely hot. My DD is due to start school next year and I am seriously researching homeschool options as I just can't make her sit all day in a stinking hot classroom risking heatstroke and other heat related illnesses. AIBU to be angry that despite a decade of petitioning, teachers and students are denied cooling for their classrooms and are expected to work in extreme heat. Our prisons are air-conditioned, why the hell aren't our schools.

I know a lot of the schools have been fundraising for years to pay for airconditioners. The poor design doesn't help now either. The large, open, airy classrooms of my primary schools were ideal but these dongas they use are like little ovens (I went to school in Queensland).

Id would continue to contact your MP and maybe get your P&C or P&F on board to fundraise.

Has it passed you by that the reason we have hotter summers is because of the proliferation of air conditioners etc...?

You're just adding to the problem.

Public schools across Australia are chronically underfunded. That must be known to you. Air conditioning must not be high on their priorities list.

That being said, I have two cousins at schools just outside of Brisbane and both have air conditioning. They are newer schools though.

I went to a private school in NSW and we had no air conditioning. We survived. I don't think children are as sensitive to the heat and cold as adults are. They certainly don't seem as concerned about it as we do.

I think it's dreadful

It's much cooler here in NZ but lots of state schools have aircon

In NSW P&Cs fund air con. Schools just don't get the budget for it. Plenty of people live without air con. NSW has had plenty of days over 30 degress to, and we don't have the queensland architecture built for heat.

It's not pleasant, but we all grew up at school. without air con and survived.

It was a massive effort fundraising by P&C but we've just done it for our school. I second PP who suggested getting someone savvy to look into local and community grants that might be available and make sure you hit up local council for grants and local businesses for contributions in exchange for ads in school newsletter etc.

No air con in school in NSW either or Spain where we lived before or even Italy before that and kids still alive.

A lot of things outrage me, but lack of aircon? seriously?

I should add that I live in Central Queensland. It is mid April and the weather is quite nice today. Its 30'c.
The schools here have aircon because they applied for government grants and did fundraising years ago.
I don't think it is necessary. I went to high school in Toowoomba and it gets bloody freezing in winter and we didnt have heating in the classrooms and some of the dorm rooms (I was a boarder) didn't have heaters. You just dealt with it.
I think if you want them to have aircon then start a fundraiser.

How many QLD kids or teachers a year do actually suffer heatstroke or heat-related health problems? It's one thing to say 'it places them at higher risk' but unless children are actually fainting or showing signs of heatstroke then that's not a strong argument.

I think it's more relevant that being very hot and uncomfortable makes it harder for children to learn effectively and impacts their educational outcomes.

Saying that children in Africa study with no aircon is also a bit silly! You could also say little children in Cameroon only eat one meal a day so why should we send Australian kids to school with a packed lunch.

Air con has been gradually making an appearance in J schools. They recently added it to our children's school.

I’m not really sure what you were hoping to achieve here, OP. You live in an area that is hot in summer. The kids will be going to a school that doesn’t have air-conditioning? Either find one that does (private?) or look into assisting the school raise money for the air-con.

I grew up in a very hot part of Australia. Summer was intense, and winter was heavy. We had neither air-con or heating. We either had wore light clothes and spent the day in front of fans or at the pool, or rugged up well, depending on the season. Kids are adaptable.

But at least you have laundry rooms goes back to uk boxroom thread

Try growing up in Arizona in 1950s-1960s.

Maybe Queensland should come in line with NSW and introduce day light saving.

I've noticed over the past few years that the hottest part of the day is after 3pm. Not sure what time schools finish these days. They seem to be staggered, starting from about 2.30 pm. Most finish by at least 3 pm.

In NSW 3 pm is 2 pm in Queensland during the summer months.

Apart from some private schools, children are usually appropriately dressed for the weather. They are educated from a young age in health and safety i.e. "No hat, no play". They all carry enormous water bottles everywhere they go.

Thirty degrees is warm enough but in Qld during the summer the humidity is very high, so it feels so much hotter. Not my favourite place to be at that time of the year, though many people say the hotter the better.

It doesn't appear to be that hot to me. Where I am the daily temprature range, year round, is something like 23 to 33 Celsius.

Apparently the daily high in December was 32. www.timeanddate.com/weather/australia/ipswich/historic?month=12&year=2017 In January it only exceeded 30 on one weekend www.timeanddate.com/weather/australia/ipswich/historic?month=1&year=2018

So fundamentally it's not that hot. A comfortable temperature for working, with fans, is 28 C. A well-designed building in those conditions would not exceed that temperature with the typical daily temperature ranges.

Air con uses grotesque amounts of power and it shouldn't be the default. If there are a few days when it gets to 40 C or whatever, well the schools can close just as they do in England when it gets a bit snowy.

Sorry just to add, I neither want, nor need, air con.

Maybe Queensland should come in line with NSW and introduce day light saving.

Word to the wise. Never ever suggest this in QLD to a Queenslander. I did once, am still recovering.

I am in WA and its not compulsory over here for aircon either. My sons school has it purely because of the p&C. We can have days of 37+ in a row and the kids aren't even allowed outside to play when its that hot so I can't imagine how hot it would be in the classrooms without aircon.

If you’re seriously considering home schooling over this, maybe better to consider moving to a nicer state? Gets very cold and very hot down south - they DO have air conditioning.

I'll always remembering walking into Geography one day (the class was made up of 15 and 16 year olds) and as we sat down, the first thing the teacher said was "Right, coats off, blazers off, ties off, top button undone."

memay
Saying that children in Africa study with no aircon is also a bit silly! You could also say little children in Cameroon only eat one meal a day so why should we send Australian kids to school with a packed lunch.

You hear Africa and think poverty. Not everyone in Africa is poor. Even prestigious fee-paying schools (yes, they do exist) are unlikely to have air-conditioning. Not because Africa is poor but because it is not deemed necessary. That was the point I was trying to make.

Have a look at health and safety requirements.

In the UK there is no 'maximum working temp' for people but there is for computers. A worker cannot complain about the heat but can complain it is too hot for the computer.

Have you seen the copper coil 'ac' - maybe not suitable for a small child but a high schooler should be able to make one.

Africa/prisons/not that hot

Never read such a weird bunch of replies!

OP I feel sorry for you. I'm in London where it rains a lot (though currently sunny) and I would hate to send my children to school in such heat without air conditioning.

I am in rural queensland,.the nearest school isnt air conditioned but there are lots of fans, ice cold water coolers and the building design means its pretty cool 99 percent of the time， so I would see it as pointless for my dcs school to have， But some buildings are like furnaces. Closed windows and cold water wont suffice then. so on balance yanbu. I do think kids should be sent home if its more than 36 degrees inside ， I would be sent home in that heat

Astonished by the number of posts that talk about "surviving" high temperatures as if all that anyone aims for when they send their children to school is that they should survive. Most parents want their children to get more out of school than that. Children can't concentrate in such high temperatures.