Should schools be closed at 35°C?

[DancingThroughLife02]

Not really an AIBU but looking ahead at the forecast for next week and it’s looking like a scorcher.

I work in a secondary school in a science classroom (which seems to get extra hot during practicals) and we have no fans or AC or anything at all to keep the children cool. Open windows don’t seem to help much. The thermostat in the classroom got above 30°C in the afternoon.

The children need to have their water bottles filled at break times and lunch times only and are not allowed to fill them during lessons - which I disagree with as so many come to me saying that they didn’t get a chance to fill theirs up in the 20 minute lunch break.

Last week I had children saying they were dizzy and feeling sick, and they’re made to go outside during breaks. I’m also not sure that anything I taught them during the extra hot days actually stuck in anyway as they all seemed melted onto the desks.

I know there is a legal lower temperature limit for classrooms/workplaces but maybe with the increasing summer temperatures over the last few years we need to start considering investing in ACs as the heat in summer seems to be more prolonged than a couple hot days and in the meantime consider health and safety of the students (and teachers as even I was beginning to feel a bit dizzy).

I think this would be better tbh

But in the absence of this YANBU

Why are you framing this as closing to suit teachers? I don't want the children in my class to get heat stroke! It is not so I can have a jolly...

Suggest changing the school timetable to fit in with the hot weather like in hot countries - would be all for this but not sure it is feasible by Wednesday.

Probably! I just did a quick google search because the statement - 'no one died' was obviously ridiculously.

I remember it, we allowed parents to collect children at 12. About a third of my class stayed. We filled trays with water and put them under the desks, the kids sat drawings with their feet in water. It wasn’t pleasant but we got through because we could spread out and we abandoned the usual timetable.

Vomiting, feeling faint and bleeding noses everywhere for me... and I tried my very hardest.

I took loads of freezer blocks from home and was putting them in front of one of the two fans in school (which I managed to snaffle). Lots of wet play under the two trees - I would literally soak them at break and they would be dry minutes later.

This would work if other work places followed the new school schedule. The problem at the moment is work is often 9-5 and school now won't be. People can't organise life that quickly. Long term we do need to consider what we do as a country regarding heat.

One thing this week

Schools should not force their students into wearing blazers and/or jumpers. What do these schools want to achieve from doing this???

There are much more environmentally friendly a/c systems available now and it’s not like schools would have it on every day all day with the doors open wide like some shops do.

I meant no one died having just a water fountain for the whole school to use. Even at work, I was nursing, the hospitals were unbearably hot, windows only opened a couple of inches. We were told one break in our night shift,no tea breaks. You had to sneak off for water.

You're definitely not being unreasonable, OP. Trying to learn in these temps while wearing school uniform and not having fans is insane. But it will probably take some kids getting really unwell from heatstroke for any action to be taken.

Also, in most hot countries, schools have longer summers and get out sometime in June. They don't have to sweat through most of July in hot classrooms.

And you want this for your children because I certainly don’t?

1959 heatwave lasted may to September. 1911 heatwave lasted from 17/7 to September, highest recorded temperature 36.7 ,it appears to be a pattern every 40 years.

1976...

Extremely warm temperatures and sunny conditions during the summer of 76’ caused further depletion of surface and groundwater supplies over much of England and Wales. Thousands of standpipes were installed and agricultural production was also affected as the countryside turned from green to brown. In East Anglia the topsoil dried out so much that it started to turn to dust and was then being blown away. Eventually, a Drought Bill was pushed through with water restrictions put in place, forcing schools and businesses to close early at times due to the water rationing.

https://www.rmets.org/metmatters/heatwaves-and-drought-uk

So it is not ridiculous to at least discuss when it makes sense for schools to close. And note that the above was not to suit teachers!

@DancingThroughLife02
Are you on a training placement rather then in a permanent job?

Note science rooms are supposed to have specific ventilation, CLAPSS has this information on their website. In assuming you'll have access as teaching in science. New builds do have it as they have to be upto new building regulations, old schools often only have the ability to open windows. But there still should be a requirement for the right amount of ventilation especially when using bunsen burners in lessons. Even our air handling struggle last week when it was 30C so hopefully it won't break this week.

Secondly go speak very nicely to your science technician, we normally have fans for some physics experiments. We even had a full class set in my last school. You maybe able to borrow one if the other teachers haven't stollen them already.

And the running out of money for glue sticks is totally normal unfortunately at this time of year. We can't even get pens at the moment and good luck to the teacher who asks for a practical that needs us to buy in free resources as that isn't happening.

Our kids don't have blazers anyway but I can guarantee you that some of them will still be trying to wear their hoodies even when it's boiling,

But for a lot of people it's no cooler at home than school. Although it's ridiculous to tell children they can't fill their bottles up apart from lunch and break.. What's the reason?
At least you aren't sat outside in the blazing heat, DH works outside all yes, all weather. They struggled in May and it's even hotter this week.
I think they should have longer for lunch and more chances to fill their bottles up, maybe they need to ask the reason for such strict rules.

1976 was a 16 month drought,there was no spare water.. people don't respect it,you see people on here, having 3 showers a day, huge amounts of washing, dishwasher on 3 times a day, goodness only knows how they would cope.

Well, I work on a floor with several classes and one very slow drinking fountain. Luckily we have it this year, last summer it did not work at all.

If I say no, it is probably because there is already a queue down the hall.

At home, you have maybe 1 - 3 children and presumably several possible taps. Plus a fridge to keep things nice and cold. Maybe a garden or a park where you can sit under a tree. Or you can go and stand by the freezers at Morrisons.

I will take some large empty bottles from home that I will fill in the staffroom to speed things up / make it possible. But if they all get used or spilt I will then be stuck in my room till lunchtime before I can refill them.

Hopefully parents send their kids with decently large bottles.

What do you mean no one died? Lots of people died. Maybe not school kids, but having school kids with heat stroke puts pressure on emergency services which means vulnerable people could die.
It was also nowhere near as hot then as it is going to be next week.

Also, what a world to live in that nothing changes or no allowances are made unless people are actively dying. I thought we were better than this.

Oh, length of lunch is due to staggered lunch times.

So basically by the time every year group has had a morning break, we start cycling through lunch times, and by the time lunch time has finished for all year groups, we start cycling through afternoon breaks...

So "lunch time" runs for two hours, but each year group only gets 45 minutes.

Have schools actually announced they are closing? Where are these?

Solar panels on the roof to power the air con. Would save on energy bills too.

I think that’s difficult to implement without planning. An earlier start (and finish) could mean transport and childcare issues for a lot of people.

It could and should be planned for future summer terms though as well as finishing end of June (as Scotland and NI already do).

Because if you give a kid a free pass to leave lessons ("I need to fill up my bottle"), then they all bloody leave lessons. Because no one wants to be in lessons when it's boiling hot. And they will chug the water in front of you and then say they need to leave to fill it up.

And then all the kids who have left the lesson to 'fill their bottle' meet up and cause chaos.

If you are worried that your kid is going to run out of water in the middle of a lesson and then die of thirst because they're not organised enough to fill it up before the lesson then PLEASE send them in with more than one bottle.

And please don't put it in the freezer. The kids can't bloody drink it because it's all ice so they're constantly scrunching it to try to get it to melt so they can get a drip on their tongue and the noise is intolerable.

Or chug it then demand to go to the toilet!