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.

True. this is the main reason Classrooms here become ovens

Staff slowly melting 😂🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️ Try working in a restaurant kitchen. Bloody hell.

Restaurants should be thinking about the welfare of their staff too. I went to a pub earlier this week and the manager had closed the kitchen because it was too hot.

Why as parents do we allow anyone to dictate that our kid can't wear shorts and t-shirts or even that they can't hydrate themselves when it's f*£king boiling?! And we see it as they're doing our kids a favour because they're allowed to take their blazer off?! WTAF?! I'm really not a wimpy parent. I'm raising my daughter to be resilient and responsible for her own actions. However, no way would I be sending my kid to school in 35 degree heat unless school could guarantee that they can wear shorts and t-shirt and can drink water whenever they need it. There's no excuse for not allowing this especially for a handful of days a year.

Restaurants should be thinking about the welfare of their staff too. I went to a pub earlier this week and the manager had closed the kitchen because it was too hot.

Let's hope the ITU section of the hospital doesn't take the same stance, especially with staff in full PPE!

Stupid comment. The NHS wants people to be careful about the weather so the hospitals and ambulance service don’t have to deal with hundreds of heatstroke patients.

How hot is the ITU ward? Restaurant kitchens get up to 50 degrees (ours was bordering on 45 on Tuesday and that's without the weather outside being 30+) the chefs whites are thick and heavy and not designed for heat at all - one chef was sent home with heatstroke symptoms after vomiting. If ITUs are that hot then they aren't fit for purpose are they.

@TuftyMarmoset not a stupid comment at all, I think you'll find ITU is already full! Mostly covid patients, so they can just pack up and go home?

It's going to be hot Monday, sorry I won't be in, it'll be too hot for me.

Such drama over a bit of heat…

Have you heard of habituation? I.e. the more you live in certain conditions, the more accustomed you become? I once visited the great nation of Nigeria. Not by a pool side. Not by a beach. Nope, in “the village” - there was zero air con, no water. Because there wasn’t any electricity. The locals were fine, asked me how I was doing, how did I like the village? I could barely answer due to heat stroke. They looked at me very, very quizzically. To them, the heat was nothing. So perhaps you’d understand why British school kids would suffer in conditions they’re not habituated to? Also. European school kids have (most of them) been off school since mid June.

Yes, the NHS is already under extreme pressure. A black alert in fact, the highest level. So everyone else needs to take this heat seriously and not end up in ITU themselves because they went into school/work/park run unnecessarily. The wording of the weather warning for you again:
Population-wide adverse health effects are likely to be experienced, not limited to those most vulnerable to extreme heat, leading to potential serious illness or danger to life. Government advice is that 999 services should be used in emergencies only; seek advice from 111 if you need non-emergency health advice
Substantial changes in working practices and daily routines likely to be required
If you actually care about ITU workers, take the sodding heat seriously.

It’s 30c not 50c !! I think people just like to exaggerate to get a day off . Just allow kids to play and tell parents to send them with proper summer clothes not stupid uniforms from the dark ages and they’re I’ll be ok . The rest of the world is ok , I’m sure they will be too

Keep your child if you feel that he or she is not coping with the heat. I for one want my child in school where they should be.

It’s forecast to be 37 here on Monday and Tuesday (Midlands), and if it doesn’t drop I will keep DD15 home.

That’s not a little bit warm, that’s bloody hot.

Keep your child if you feel that he or she is not coping with the heat. I for one want my child in school where they should be.

I think most peoples children will get as much educationally from watching a U rated DVD at home as they would at school, which is fairly standard practice in the last week of term. Fair enough if you need them to be at school for childcare reasons, but lets not pretend they are living their best lives educationally during that last week. They are there and that's about it really !

"They are there and that's about it really !"

Exactly. That is pretty much what this whole thread is about. Some parents don't want their kids at home, regardless of how miserable and uncomfortable they are likely to be stuck in a classroom in temperatures exceeding anything we've experienced in this country before.

Toughen up buttercup. Gets way hotter than that here in NZ and most rural schools have no aircon.

Sorry but growing up in the North in the 80’s schools NEVER closed for extreme weather, we regularly walked home in the snow, they might shut early but wouldn’t close completely. Whilst I see your point, global warming means that we have to live with these scenarios and we can’t keep closing every time things get a little extreme, where does it end? The kids have also missed too much education already, my daughter is about to enter year 3 and has only had one full year of education so far. This has had a huge impact. I do there will be some places where it will feel much worse so I guess there will be some which should but generally no I don’t agree.

For years I taught in Papua New Guinea in rooms with tin roofs. In central Australia before that. I understand that schools are ill
equipped for heat. It is ridiculous that windows will not open. I do sympathise but close schools down? Where will the children go and should we close the country down? I have never heard such nonsense in my life! In my day we got on and did our job. Nobody died snd nobody complained.

DDs school has decided to close Monday and Tuesday. She's only just gone back after Covid. But the school needs to do what's best for kids and staff I guess.

We're fortunate that we mainly wfh and DD is 10 and can be left to her own devices (she'll have to be as we do actually work) but she'd rather be at school with her friends doing fun stuff in the last week of term.

Some kids actually like going to school.
From some of the posts on this thread you'd think school was a workhouse where callous parents dump their kids before swanning off to the pub.
It's important for kids to have consistent schooling - the more school kids miss, the more it becomes normal to them to miss school and that's not a good thing.

From some of the posts on this thread you'd think school was a workhouse

I think you mean greenhouse.

A lot of the children will be more at risk from the heat & sun if they are off school as parents will take the opportunity to take their dc out for the day to the beach, parks etc so definitely best indoors in a classroom. I'm pretty sure they didn't close the schools back in the hot summer of 1976.

literally millions of people across the globe cope with these temperatures without air conditioning.

Also, millions of kids across the globe are on summer holidays during the high summer. Unlike the UK where the summer ‘summer’ holidays are in early autumn. And in high summer the kids are at school.

it’s just one of those great British problems…

Growing up in Australia, the mythical temperature that schools would shut at was 40 degrees. We did have ceiling fans but no air conditioning. Sadly it never seemed to get above 40 so we were never sent home early. 30 is warm, particularly in a city centre, but is not hot enough to close a school over.