to think that many folk in the UK don't understand how dangerous extreme heat is?

[FunnysInLaJardin]

Seriously, telling a teacher to suck it up in a classroom with no aircon and 30 kids at 40 degrees.

I have many times experienced this kind of heat and you have to keep cool, otherwise it is truly dangerous

Well the main ppl i feel sorry for is chefs cooks hospital staff in full ppe carers in ppe police in full uniform not teachers they are way down on the scale they have option to where loose clothes drink when they want even sit with their feet in a bucket of cold water if they want

Guess what in the hospital there's no air con , there's a lot of very sick people and we still have to get on with it or people might die. Schools shut then staff can't get into look after sick people 🤔. There's many other jobs where staff just have to get on with it.

Moaning about the heat, isn't going to make the heat go away 🙄

Dhs ex colleagues, bus drivers are complaining. He's so pleased he quit (and this is one of the reasons) because a lot of drivers limit what they drink if they're on routes where the toilets are vandalised and know there's a chance they can't piss at a bus station, the company have altered routes slightly but that doesn't really help and passengers will just be abusive at having the timetable changed. The daily abuse and no toilet access a lot of the time is why he left. He's in outdoor manual work now and he's dreading it, no talks of closing site or any adjustments and they're all dreading wearing full safety gear but at least he can drinks as much water as needed and not worry about holding puss in for hours or pissing himself.

Cousin is a nurse and shes dreading her shift if it's on a certain side of the hospital, her midwife friend is worried about how some women will cope.

Refuse collecter inlaw also been complaining about it.

Dds driving instructer had rearranged all the pm peak heat lessons for Monday and Tuesday and I've heard of other local ones doing the same.

Nephew works at McDonald's and they've been moaning about how hot it'll be.

Quite a few people I know in real life have been concerned about the conditions in their work place and vocal about it.

Wait, what?! I'm all for focusing on the important bit, which is that dc in maladapted classrooms in >38 degrees will struggle.

I teach in a country where this temperature is fairly routine, & school buildings are designed for it (as are uniforms, transport & the shape of the school day). We do crack on, with the occasional student fainting. The teachers are fine, but I can quite see that it's tough for both students & teachers in UK school buildings, which are manifestly not fit for purpose at the best of times.

But now I am absolutely here for the approved bucket of cold water.

I am sure my UK colleagues can thoughtfully deploy it once they've finished soaking their feet in it.

There are lots of people in my local FB group shitposting about the snowflake generation wanting to close down schools because of a bit of hot weather and how they would never have survived The 1976...

Many of the same people were moaning last year about schools being Covid hubs and people being selfish.

Closing down schools it seems is only justified if it protects them personally.

I love this weather. I can move without pain.

I am working a physically demanding job and loving it.
I seize up on winter

YANBU. I live in a hot country where most business, houses and schools and all cars and most public transport have air conditioning. On a 40 degree day I would not be sending my kids to school unless we knew all their classrooms had air and the teachers would use it. People will still generally go about their usual business during the day but that’s because we HAVE air conditioning. We don’t do things like go out in the heat playing sport though and we limit exposure to direct sun especially from mid morning to evening. Heat like 40 degrees can and will kill many in the UK. From a lot of the posts I’ve read many don’t understand that at all.

That's correct. To keep cool in these temperatures, especially, without air-con:

• Keep curtains closed from the early hours of the morning

• Keep windows closed if there is a warm wind/breeze

• Limit outside activity in the middle of the day

• Have a fan running in the house. For extra cooling, wet a cloth, wring it out and hang it over the front of the fan for extra cooling action. In the evening, have a door to the outside ajar and the fan next the directing the air inside; this cools the fresh air down

• Also wet cloths, wring them out and drape them around your neck to cool you down

• Pro-tip: we often to go to shopping centres that are air-conditioned in really hot weather simply because we don't want to pay for ours. It can get costly.

• Stay hydrated!

"For extra cooling, wet a cloth, wring it out and hang it over the front of the fan for extra cooling action."

I don't recommend this. The raised humidity in the room will make you feel more sweaty because it will be more difficult for the sweat to evaporate from your skin.
You'd be better off just using a wet cloth directly on your body as the evaporation will take some of the heat off your body too.

@Frezia

I don't recommend this. The raised humidity in the room will make you feel more sweaty because it will be more difficult for the sweat to evaporate from your skin. You'd be better off just using a wet cloth directly on your body as the evaporation will take some of the heat off your body too.

The humidity in the room wouldn't rise noticeably, but the benefit of the fan/cloth combination could be greater. It depends on the size on the room and the ambient temperature to begin with. What I describe is a very basic air conditioner for those who don't have one. People who live in hot climates - like I do - use these methods all the time as well as normal air-conditioners. For anyone interested in basic cooling methods, google 'swamp cooler'.

Laughable.
Schools closing because of a few days of sunny weather!
Imagine if the rest of the workers did the same?
House on fire? Sorry we can't attend due to all our firefighters sitting at home eating ice lollies.
Crime in progress? Sorry we can't attend due to all our police officers sitting at home eating ice lollies.
Patients needing treatment? Sorry we can't treat them, all our staff are sitting at home eating ice lollies.
Elderly and infirm relative needs help? Sorry all our care assistants are sat at home eating ice lollies.
Or are all those workers expected to carry on and sweat it out while teachers and office workers sit at home eating ice lollies?
Ridiculous!

The point people continually miss when moaning about teachers is that each teacher is responsible for 30 children. They have a duty of care towards those children. It is the children schools are thinking of when they make decisions.

If any schools are closed, staff will still be working, probably still in school. I would imagine they would be providing homelearning too.

I live in a hot country now and I think this stiff upper lip thing in UK may bite some
People in the arse. There's such a thing as heat exhaustion which leads to heatstroke which can lead to death. Even here, where everywhere is air conditioned, we are warned about it in 40c temps and told to not exert ourselves outside etc. how many will be doing that in UK tomorrow? Probably a lot! I hope everyone takes at least that part seriously

www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/heat-exhaustion/symptoms-causes/syc-20373250

The last school I worked in had a full wall of windows in each classroom with no blinds, which only opened a few inches. It regularly hit 35C in there in standard British weather.

My school is in a tiny Victorian building with tiny windows. The head is going in at 5am to open them and let in the last bit of cool air, and we’ve borrowed fans for each room. We have access to the woods/shaded fields across the road if needed.

Surely people can appreciate that, while most schools will be fine, adaptions may need to be made for others?

Can you imagine the outcry if the first school had children fall ill with heatstroke?

That's not inside the classroom though with a couple of adults & 30+ kids, poor ventilation etc

It pisses me off that the government is saying work from home and TFL is saying do not travel.
And then I have to go work for standard in a school.

I’ll agree that talking about temperatures doubling is ridiculous. It’s a physics thing. Temperature scales (apart from Kelvin) don’t start from a universally meaningful zero point, so doubling on one scale (Celsius) isn’t the same as doubling on another (Fahrenheit). There’s simply no physical meaning to describing doubling temperatures in that way.

Don't be such an idiot. Read all the posts on here about how dangerous weather this hot (the hottest weather the UK has seen in history, because y'know, the planet is on fire), and come up with sensible strategies for teachers to help keep 30 kids cool in Victorian classrooms with no air con and windows that barely open / no blinds or curtains. FFS

My chefs have not moaned once about cooking in 40 degree heat today and tomorrow. I'm probably going to close early but they haven't asked me to. obvs they're a different kind of person to some, the suck it up kind

You can also put a big bottle of frozen water in front of the fan. It really helps.

Our kids go to school in 40 degree heat but the classrooms are (reasonably) adapted. Inside play when it gets over about 37. People hate aircon here though, there's a strong belief it makes you sick.

It's worth remembering that even the worst equipped school is going to be cooler than some kids' homes, especially if they're overcrowded, on the top floor of a block, and their parents aren't going to make sure they cool down or might put them outside for the day.

My DD’s primary school is open and because the staff are great I trust that they’ve done a risk assessment and have a strategy for how to manage. If they said they had to close I would trust that the reasons were legitimate and wouldn’t have a problem with it. (Although it would make it impossible for many parents to work) I know that they would do their best to stay open as they did throughout COVID. I think I could do without this attitude of “it’s ok for the rest of you with your air conditioning” - there are plenty of occupations that are outside or have no air con available either. My friend will be outside in ballistic body armour guarding a palace with a gun. We all just have to be careful, follow advice and keep on keeping on. It will ease in 48 hours

I’ve not heard a single teacher whining. It’s all the parents who are whipping themselves up into a frenzy about the children not being safe.

It's also like Mumsnet had never heard of people who do MANUAL work outdoors for a living, saying it's either teacher or air conditioned office. What about bin lorries, tree surgeons, grass cutters, builders? Just zero fucks given by those going on about their air-conditioned offices and card saying 'eeeehhh get over it barbara'