Primary school lunchtimes in very hot weather

[littlebithot]

My son is in year 6. The school has a big playground and a huge field with lots of very big trees. Today, it was in the high 20s at lunchtime.

Son said he was playing some sports game in the sunny bit of the field at lunch. They had to have two 5 min breaks in the shade and drink water, plus about 10-15 mins inside actually eating, over the lunch hour. There's also plenty of places to be in the shade for anyone not wanting to be in direct sun.

A mum friend whose son is in the same class as mine is on facebook bitching about school, saying it's far too hot, they shouldn't be out in the 'blaring heat', that school staff are putting the kids 'at risk of death'. She thinks they should have forced all kids into the tree area for the whole of lunch.

AIBU to think she's overreacting massively?

YABU- facebook mum has a good point
YANBU- sounds like the school was fine

Ridiculous. They are inside nearly all day. They should be enjoying their lunch break getting some sun and exercise. Children are not going to melt in a single hour when they have shade and water available

Humans have evolved to be outdoors

Overreacting

Our school has decided as long as the kids are wearing hats or sunscreen they can play out. If they don't have hats or sunscreen they can only play indoors or in the shade. Seems sensible to me!

I was volunteering in a school over playtime and lunchtime today. I don't know about sunscreen, but all the children playing out had sun hats.

I raised my son in a country where this was a typical spring day 😂

We decided to have a shorter lunch play and added in an afternoon quick playtime for the pupils this week to help them have movement and downtime - plus they can't focus on this heat as well.

Also plenty of shade for those who wanted it and we had a classroom with colouring/ reading / board games for those who didn't want to go out in the heat.

This is the norm now. We need to teach them responsibility in the sun. Which it sounds like your ds school did.

I bet if they’ve been kept inside, she’d have complained about that too.

Not just that but the whole hysteria surrounding the sunny weather these last couple of days is unreasonable.
It has always been like this every single summer for the whole 40 odd years I've been on earth.... Sometimes for a month or two non stop, sometimes is just the odd couple of days like this year. As a kid we would run about and play all day in it (I'm sure it was sunnier more often then!!) The news are acting like it never happens and everyone is going to drop dead from heat. All the health warnings etc... It's just.....summer....

I think it would be more.cruel to impose any kid of rules regarding where they play..just a reminder to put sun cream on would do...surely?

Pathetic. We were out playing in all sorts and we were just fine. We never had water bottles either! People need to stop wrapping children up in cotton wool - creating generations of people who lack resilience.