Secondary School can’t afford to turn the heating on so students are told to bring blankets…

[LetMeSpeak]

AIBU to think this tweet surely can’t be true, and if it is then it it’s a disgrace! What has this country become?

I'm surprised people think it's fake news. We don't run the heating in our school unless it's extremely cold, simply can't afford it.

Most kids have t-shirts under shirts, school jumpers and gilets under blazers but not unusual to have kids just refuse to remove coats and, especially, gloves.

It's not too bad now but in a month it's not fun.

My daughter is at a secondary school in the North West. We have been told they expect their fuel cost to rise to approx £300,000 this year, which they simply cannot afford. They have asked that children wear extra layers and they will heat the most important areas of the school to 19 degrees max.

The primary school I work at have decided not to turn their heating on before November. It’s already a bit chilly and a few kids have mentioned feeling cold. Even in November, it will be on for limited hours.

I wonder which areas they will deem to be most important? The offices? Definitely won’t be the staffroom!

My DS took a blanket into school during covid as he was so cold ( unknown to me) ..I told him he couldn't again as it was in the days all clothes from school were washed daily... So not that big a leap..

^^

Why would a school say to bring a bloody blanket 😆. They'd say you are allowed to wear dark fleeces or something before blankets.

😂😂😂 Touché.

This is a great opportunity for them to show the rest of the world them doing their bit. I'm sure they'd be happy to layer up to keep warm to help save the planet.

As a former secondary school teacher, schools are almost always absolutely boiling hot. We had the windows open all winter to try and make it bearable in my last lab I had fans throughout the winter too. For some unknown reason, schools insist on destroying the environment with exceptionally high heating.

Dd came home yesterday also saying school will not be putting heating this winter

However legally under H&S there is a minimum temp so I expect they will

We have already decided to allow hoodies/additional sweatshirts under blazers and then also coats. We had to during covid and windows open. Hats, scarves and gloves also allowed in the coldest rooms; North facing on a busy main road and the wind rips through it.

I agree that blankets would be a daft idea but our 6th formers have done it for the last 2 years with the windows open and I don't blame them.

I believe that they can't have the heating on all the time and not as warm as it usually is. I very much doubt the blankets! They seem like a hazard risk.
They'll be told they can wear their coats, hats etc. Uniform Possibly being relaxed to today allow for thicker jumpers. But this seems like things they'd announce whenever needed, not late September when I doubt they're sat shaking in the regular school uniform

Saw a tweet about this earlier, purely anecdotal though so no source to verify - if it is true, surely a link or more information would be good?
As otherwise it just looks like fake news does.

Absolutely this. The heating for the entire building was set by the coldest area, the foyer. We used to have all the windows opened throughout the building because it was so hot. No thermostats on the radiators because then the students might turn the heating up. 🤦

I went into a school today where I used to work. I was chatting to the receptionist about how things are. She remarked that the Head said that heating would not be going on this winter due to the cost.

So whilst the tweet might not be true, it is a valid sentiment in the mind of at least one Head.

There is no legal minimum anymore.

Until October 2012, legal requirements which specified the minimum temperatures which had to be maintained in school classrooms were set out in the Education (School Premises) Regulations 1999.

These regulations provided that, in areas where there was a normal level of physical activity associated with teaching, the appropriate minimum temperature was 18ºC (64.4ºF). In areas where there was a lower than normal level of activity (eg sick rooms) or higher than normal level of activity (eg gymnasia and also washrooms), the appropriate minimum temperatures were 21ºC and 15ºC respectively.

These regulations were replaced on 31 October 2012 by the School Premises (England) Regulations 2012. These regulations do not specify minimum temperatures for any parts of a school.

neu.org.uk/advice/cold-weather-and-classroom-temperature-england

Quite. We KNOW kids in school will all be cold and the school will be unable to pay the heating bill, but TAKING BLANKETS?! Fake news.

I call bullshit. That being said we quite often wore coats and gloves during class in the 70s and 80s cos our schools were freezing in winter…

I doubt that any school would get the pupils to bring in blankets for many reasons. As posters have said it is more likely that pupils will end up wearing many layers and coats etc.

The only rumour that we have heard is that the school won't be putting the heating on at half term and will wait for a month or more depending on the weather.

Old buildings… shit heating… power cuts
it won’t kill kids…

Yep, I have no idea why secondary schools have this stupid rule. It was never quite explained to me when I worked in one yet they expected me to enforce it. Literally the minute a pupil walked in from the outside to walk upstairs to their classroom you'd get SLT barking "Take your coat off!" Ridiculous. Let them get to their classroom first and hang it on the back of their chair to dry. Like normal human beings do.

I'm glad primary schools don't have such silly arbitrary rules like that.

Nope. Now that IS fake news.

I work in a school, it's been freezing this week and we're not allowed to put the heating on until after half term at the end of October. I've been wearing fingerless gloves in class and have a usb hand warmer.
After that it will be limited to a couple of hours in the morning (an hour before the children arrive and an hour after) because we can't afford it.
It's an absolute disgrace.

Piggy

what do you mean?

there is a minimum temp under H&S- schools like all workplaces have to be comfortable and this is widely accepted to be minimum 16-18 degrees

the rules for schools only were scrapped but schools still have to apply by general workplace rules

There is a war on with Russia!

Madame Zelensky-as well as many others including Starmer, Boris and Truss, have reminded us that we are facing higher bills and Ukraine is facing far worse including death. So you shiver, so what, it's worth it to defeat Russia and free Ukraine.

Madame Zelensky actually said that our rising fuel bills are a small price to pay and compared to what Ukrainians are paying, it's nothing. AND she is right
Did people really not think that effectively declaring war on Russia wouldn't result in energy problems? That cutting Europe off from Russia's energy wouldn't mean depleted resources for us too as we all now buy from a much smaller pool.
Or is only support for Ukraine as long as we can keep the fires burning. FFS.

www.gov.uk/workplace-temperatures

we all know from covid that schools love to follow the guidance to the letter so 16 will have the unions out