To say denying kids water is neglect

[YeahWhatevver]

www.eastlothiancourier.com/news/18649619.children-left-without-water-school-rules-confusion/

Kids back at school in Scotland. Local Authorities have left a lot of the COVID19 arrangements to individual schools.

Many pupils across the country describing how they weren't allowed to refill water bottles despite 20+ degree heat on the basis of some sort of concern over contamination. An arrangement that hasn't been communicated to parents!

Our DD7 took her usual 500ml bottle to school, drunk by midday, sat all afternoon thirsty, explicitly told by staff that no water was available and to bring 2 bottles tomorrow. She said there were a few who drank their water by break time.

Looks like its been sorted with a clarification from the LA to schools but AIBU to think that the kind of adult who thinks this is OK shouldn't be in charge of kids.

Exactly.

Not sure why the competitive under drinking is being touted on this thread, 500mls isn't that much, and not sure where everyone went to school, but we could use the water fountain (I know that's not possible at the moment) if needed rather than just drink at lunch . It's good that children are wanting to drink more water and keep hydrated. Not sure what the score is in Scotland, but here, the issue is that we haven't been given any money towards making the school covid safe. Luckily we have sinks in all of the classrooms, and provisions in place for the rest of the rooms we use, but if we didn't already have them, we wouldn't be able to do much beyond make sure it was clear that parents needed to pack extra drinks in when it's hot. Its a really tough position for teachers to be in, I know i would find it hard to be saying no to a child who is thirsty, but unfortunately that's the ridiculousness we are facing at the moment.

Lots of things were different when older generations were kids. Doesn't make it right. We need to drink water throughout the day for proper brain function and health. 3hrs without water on a hot summers day is not healthy or sufficient for learning.

@Nottherealslimshady

Lots of things were different when older generations were kids. Doesn't make it right. We need to drink water throughout the day for proper brain function and health. 3hrs without water on a hot summers day is not healthy or sufficient for learning.

20C isn't that hot. 3 hours really is not a big deal. Assuming the OPs child drunk the bottle of water and had an additional drink with lunch.

@Nottherealslimshady

Lots of things were different when older generations were kids. Doesn't make it right. We need to drink water throughout the day for proper brain function and health. 3hrs without water on a hot summers day is not healthy or sufficient for learning.

But many of us aren't saying that, we are saying that children will be able to drink adequate amounts of water by drinking before and after school, plus at break and lunchtime. 1200mls is very easy to drink, it's 5 cups, that's all.

Picked kids up from school today and it’s the same rule here.

I used to have constant headaches throughout school, nowadays I’m allowed to dictate my own water drinking and funnily enough no headaches anymore!

Yes, the school should be making sure children have access to water. When I give inductions to new staff at my work, one of the items on the checklist is to make sure they know where they can access drinking water. It should be no different for children. Some people really seem to enjoy enforcing petty and ridiculous restrictions on kids for no good reason...

Strange how most of those of us over the age of 45 managed to get through a school day with nothing to drink at all except a swig from a drinking fountain at break or a glass of water at lunchtime. I don't remember ever feeling thirsty at school.

The reason why children are encouraged to have water bottles in school is because it aids concentration and focus. There were several studies completed on this. I know because our school were the first to take part.

OP where does your daughter fill her water bottle from?
I imagine it might be from a water cooler. If children are touching it to let the water flow it would be a problem. This might not have been considered. Any sensible member of staff could have used a jug and filled the water bottles. It has been hot. An alternative which most schools have for trips and fundraisers are plastic cups which could have been filled once.
Staff will be finding it difficult with a whole new set of rules. You could politely point out about it being hot and ask what the rule is. It might be wise to send a second bottle. Some of our kids have ones which have been partly frozen so they stay cool.

But god forbid someone for daring to question the approach of our saintly untouchable teachers

This is not teachers' decision, but don't let an opportunity for teacher bashing pass you by.

Water fountains all switched off. Water available for all in lunch hall at lunch time. Parents all informed well in advance. Can't do much more.

I never had a drink from when I left home in the morning until I got home when I was at school, the toilets were grim so I didn't drink to avoid having to use them.

guzzling water all the time is new

Only on MN is needing to consume food to survive considered “guzzling”, and now the weird virtue signalling has extended to water?? Have people gone completely insane?

Going without water in a heatwave is very dangerous. The fact people are aware of the risks of dehydration and heat stroke is a good thing, not an example of millennials being speshul snowflakes. When I was a kid, children regularly had headaches, were drowsy or lethargic in the afternoons and on hot days, and it wasn’t uncommon for kids to faint on hot days. In hindsight loads of kids were suffering from chronic dehydration. The fact that we’re better educated now about chronic dehydration and links with educational performance is a good thing.

The posters going “well in MY day we just got severely dehydrated and got on with it!” are the same people who think seat belts and infant car seats are a load of twaddle. There’s tons of dangerous stuff that was the norm in the olden days.

boltzmannbrains, again 500ml is almost half of the recommended amount of a child of that age. Nobody is going to collapse from dehydration drinking half their intake in a 6 hour period. And 20 degrees is not a heatwave either.

Strange how most of those of us over the age of 45 managed to get through a school day with nothing to drink at all except a swig from a drinking fountain at break or a glass of water at lunchtime.

You also survived lead paint, asbestos, seat belts being optional, everyone smoking indoors, and about a billion other things no one today would consider acceptable or safe to expose a child to.

It was once considered completely acceptable to send children up chimneys and down mines and hey most of them didn’t die so what’s the problem?

User563420011

It’s 32c here, not 20c, and I’m not talking about 500ml, I’m talking about the bizarre “competitive under-drinking” claptrap some of the older MNers engage in (which has been the subject of many previous threads) were drinking water at all is sneered at and people brag that they used to run marathons and survive 10 hour shifts without a single drop of water touching their lips.

Children should have free access to water. Period. There’s no point being pedantic and quibbling over the exact amount of water one child had access to, in a thread where idiots act like being able to survive on fresh air alone (though I’m amazed the virtue signallers haven’t latched on to that yet - “young people today guzzling oxygen! In my day we held our breath!”) is something to be proud of, rather than an acknowledgment that we know more about health and safety now.

@boltzmannbrains

User563420011

It’s 32c here, not 20c, and I’m not talking about 500ml, I’m talking about the bizarre “competitive under-drinking” claptrap some of the older MNers engage in (which has been the subject of many previous threads) were drinking water at all is sneered at and people brag that they used to run marathons and survive 10 hour shifts without a single drop of water touching their lips.

Children should have free access to water. Period. There’s no point being pedantic and quibbling over the exact amount of water one child had access to, in a thread where idiots act like being able to survive on fresh air alone (though I’m amazed the virtue signallers haven’t latched on to that yet - “young people today guzzling oxygen! In my day we held our breath!”) is something to be proud of, rather than an acknowledgment that we know more about health and safety now.

The thread was started by someone who said the temperature was 20C where they were and the child had 500ml of water. That's the information people were replying to.

If the OPs child was in London, in 33C heat with zero access to water, I suspect the replies might have been different.

Pp that said "I tell my children water is their right & no one should deny them that." Is probably a trump supporter 😂

Lol! Excellent satire. Being aware of youth rights, being aware of health and safety, and listening to things like current scientific knowledge on educational outcomes, are traits associated with being left-leaning. That’s why we’re always pooh poohed as namby special snowflakes.

The grumpy elderly people shouting at clouds and banging on about how when they were kids they got the cane, had to walk ten miles uphill both ways, go up chimneys etc AND IT DIDN’T KILL ME SO SHUT UP YOUNG PEOPLE are the Trump supporters.

That's the information people were replying to. If the OPs child was in London, in 33C heat with zero access to water, I suspect the replies might have been different.

Nah, competitive under-drinking/I drank one single bottle of Panda Pop between the years 1962-1975 and it didn’t kill me” is a known trend on MN. Some posters are just weirdly triggered by water, of all things.

If MN had been around in the 80s there would have been dozens of angry threads about the new legislation to make seat belts mandatory banging on about how no one ever wore seatbelts when they were kids and no one died, ‘ealth and safety gorn mad, kids today, grumble grumble.

Today.s kids are wrapped in cotton wool and over indulged. They need to toughen up a bit.

Send your kid with a bigger bottle or 2 bottles then- simple. They're only actually at school for approx 6hrs!

I work in a Primary School & when we were open fully again just before the Summer holidays, our Risk Assessment explicitly said that we were unable to provide drinking water - although I think it was more referring to cases of children with no drink at all who would have had to use a cup which would then need sterilising. Also, as the tanks of water had been standing for some time due to closure & the weather was warm, our buildings manager was concerned about the risk of legionnaires.
It's never just the school adults being deliberately neglectful!!

Bringing water bottles into primary schools is a relatively new thing. Kids can manage without.

What a big fuss about nothing

Strange how most of those of us over the age of 45 managed to get through a school day with nothing to drink at all except a swig from a drinking fountain at break
They didn’t have access to a drinking fountain. THAT’S THE POINT OF THE THREAD.

We never had water bottles etc at school. You visited water fountains at break time or when changing lessons/classrooms. IIRC noone died of dehydration or complained of excessive thirst.