To think schools should shut in 30' heat

[dragonflyglaze]

I'm a TA in an Infant School in the South East, we break up next Thurs. This week has been tough, the little ones can't cope in the heat and as much as we try and keep them indoors, hydrated etc some of them are just not coping. Never mind the staff who are doing their best to support the children whilst slowly melting.
Next week we are forecast to hit 30' and there's an extreme weather warning. We have to close if its too cold e.g. heating not working, or too windy. I can't understand why there's no rule for extreme heat.

Build for heat - have sensible uniforms and adapt when very hot and in some have different school times ie start and finish earlier.

Plus you do acclimatise to the normal temp after a while - so extremes from usual lows are felt more.

I'm not wild about school closes - though some very poorly designed/old schools I do think HT should be able to make individual assessments - as with snow and ice.

Long term I do think schools need to be looked at especially if these temp do get much more frequent - and money spent to make adaptations and the heads more willing to make obvious adjustments - have shade put in - allow uniform changes much earlier or more extreme uniform adaptations or allow non uniform.

Where I live we have always had temps in the 30s in summer and schools most certainly do not close. YABU.

Who's paying for this air con? Our school struggles to afford basic resources, let alone the cost of installing air con.

No wonder that we have got young people starting in the work place who really have very little grit and resilience. It's a it snowflakey. Children pick up on their parents' anxieties but it's really important to teach them that when things are challenging (we are told global warming is here to stay and it WILL get worse) there are things we can do to deal with it rather than hiding away at home munching on ice lollies.

No my children never attended school, neither did I! Don't be so ridiculous!

The ones suggesting that the problem of 1000+ secondary kids in sweltering classrooms where the windows don’t open properly and the blinds may be missing can be solved by simply taking them out for lessons under a shady tree and giving them an ice pop certainly don’t seem to have any idea of the logistics.

Totally agree!

When I lived overseas in a hot country, the children started school at 6am (or maybe 7am) and finished (if I remember correctly) at 1pm, therefore not in school for the whole day in the heat. Unfortunately, the UK would have to do this as the norm so that child care etc could be organised and not on a ad hoc basis, but we don't get temperatures like that frequently enough to do this. But I really don't think children should miss school - its as hot at home as it is in school, so no benefit at all.

All that expense for a few days? Who will pay for it!

And who will pay the running costs?

Why can't schools install air con rather than sending children home for what could be weeks at a time if heatwaves last?!

AC contribute to global warming, surely?

I completely agree. If school isn't childcare then there should be no expectation for parents of young children to work. I bet most on here would agree that a child's primary care give can work once they are at school if not before.

Abso bloody lutely!!

We take on a few school leavers and students. They are fresh from school, still live at home and half of them struggle with the basics whilst the other half don't last the induction

Embarrassing really

Incidentally, if anyone is ignorant of just how dilapidated schools are, the DfE’s own figures on the cost required to just get them up to a safe standard is £11.4 billion.

schoolsweek.co.uk/repairing-englands-schools-will-cost-11-4-billion-dfe-admits/

@noblegiraffe I think your massive hyperbole is making you even more hot and flustered, not sure incidentally why you think you're opinion is the only one or the right one?

You, no matter what you think are not the authority on schools closing.

The fact is that schools don't close for hot weather, get over it! Secondary kids are sweltering, they will live, honestly they'll be fine!

Interesting that the OP says they are keeping the children in to keep them cool, but according to you that's worse! Maybe you should be telling OP how to deal with the impending heat?

Not surprising when you have "helicopter" parents, like some on here!

To everyone quoting this - haven't heard of the same in France, Italy, Spain (or Hungary, Romania) etc.
Also many of those countries get very cold in the winter too so it's not like their schools are built to expel heat either.

Surely schools should be adapting to make the weather conditions more bearable rather than wanting schools closed again. There will be something that can be done in any school. Tacking up fabric over windows that the sun is on, putting up gazebos (loaned by parents) in any outside space for shade and rotating the DC who go out to use them, being flexible on uniform, giving regular drinks breaks, letting little ones have quiet time in the day if they are more tired than normal. I don't understand why we go straight to closing schools when DC have missed so much already in the last couple of years.

The met office are just referring to a 'hot spell' on their website....over a few days

Meanwhile mumsnet are redesigning British schools when there's no money to buy enough paper or new sports equipment let alone install all singing and dancing air con!!

A 'hot spell' ... that's all

From reading some of these posts it seems that school uniforms need some changes. Here we have winter uniforms and summer uniforms, it's ridiculous to expect kids to wear the same clothes in summer as they do in winter!

Yes, you're right. Let's coat them in oil and stake them out. Little buggers need to learn resilience so they can be as demonstrably amazing as we are.

Question...when everyone around you upsets you by being a snowflake, who's the snowflake?

You, no matter what you think are not the authority on schools closing.

I haven’t said schools should close.

I have, however, pointed out the many, many errors those who insist they should stay open are making.

Open or closed, the argument should be a sensible one. “They should stay open and kids should sit under a tree eating ice lollies” isn’t one.

That uniforms should be relaxed/abandoned is a reasonable one.

Schools do have summer and winter uniforms though....

Home school, it's the only option for you. Then you can choose when to teach them, when it's not to hot or to cold or windy.

That’s not true. They have issued an extreme heat warning.

www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/press-office/news/weather-and-climate/2022/extreme-heat-warning-issued

@IGotItInTheSales The Met Office aren't calling it a "hot spell" but rather issuing an "extreme heat warning" with "likely adverse health effects for the public, not just limited to those most vulnerable to extreme heat"
www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/press-office/news/weather-and-climate/2022/extreme-heat-warning-issued
It's not scaremongering, it's there in black and white!

If you close schools then all other workplaces will be disrupted too

In reality, closing schools will mean people flock to water.....beaches,lakes etc....increased risk right there.....and the mumsnet favourite MET OFFICE say it themselves!