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).

Are you ok?

Of course there's a decent chance of rain. It's very humid.

You dont really understand how weather works, do you?

Do you always take people talking about extremes of weather this personally?

I’m not taking it personally at all, or anywhere near as seriously as those who are discussing the “extreme heat”. In fact, I’m having a good laugh at how absurdly polarised it all is. Like so many “heated” (pun intended) discussions on Mumsnet, there’s no middle ground.

Ha ha-these replies remind me of the brilliant ones over lockdown.

Can’t you just take the rest of the school into a church hall?
Get demountable classrooms and install them on the field and then you can have the whole school in.
Children don’t share their food.
Just leave if you don’t like it.

etc etc

Very sensible, just like the French.

aaarghh why does England constantly have to be so backward!! It's just plain stubborn'ness and also people just can't stand the thought of people in non-emergency jobs having a day off.

The thing is, unpaid days off will cause a lot of hardship in some families. So not to be undertaken lightly, especially if this is likely to become a regular occurrence.

I teach in a glass room that has no opening windows, it is inside another classroom that also has no windows!
Can’t wait 😂

If this is going to become regular (well scientists have been warning about this for 30 years or more), then infrastructure needs to change.

But right now, most schools are nowhere near adequate spaces for hundreds of people to spend whole days at 39/40 degrees.

I agree
Although whether they are here to stay depends a bit on the AMOC. Either it sticks around and we have increasingly hot summers. Or it goes bye bye and then it will get substantially colder (possibly quite rapidly). So any planning/building for the future happening now really needs to be suitable for hotter and colder weather extremes than we are used to. Which complicates matters.

Thats insane! I have experience of around 36.5°C and that is absolutely unbearable for me, dizzines, almost fainting, despite repeatedly cooling of by wet cloths or feet in bucket of water.

In countries that close schools when they reach a certain temperature, is there an uproar about ‘childcare’? Are employers supportive about parents needing to look after them? Do they still have to do X number of teaching days (and have to be caught up in the summer holidays? What happens if staff/pupils have holidays booked)?

dc's school has just announced it's closing at midday on Wed and Thurs as parts of the old building (Victorian) are unbearably hot. They're setting work in Teams and have AC rooms for kids that can't get home. Also letting them wear PE kits all week. Seems very sensible.

I wouldn't bother sending them in at all for three hours 😕

No 9 week summer holidays in your US childhood then?

We got 8 to be precise, not trying to catch me out i hope,it may have been 43 years ago,but I don't forget details!

But a lot of us can’t just have days off. I don’t have spare annual leave as I use it for the current school holidays.

I can’t afford unpaid. The odd day I could probably manage. But days at a time with multiple heatwaves just won’t work.

we need to look at coping better as a country with better fitted out buildings/air con etc

don't you think, therefore, that the problem that should really be addressed is that many residents of this country are in such financial hardship that they consider sacrificing their kid's comfort, and sometimes safety, rather than take a day off work? This should demonstrate that things need to change, not be a reason to keep sending kids into horrid conditions, or into school when they have the flu.

Yes, exactly. During the high heat months.

A US 8 week summer holiday is quite short so not one of the high heat states, Im guessing. Even in NY it tends to be 9 or 10 weeks.

Yes fine. And when that's resolved, and when the issues with housing are solved (no point sending kids home to superheated homes), then let's start cancelling school.

The odd day is all you'd need at the moment. If you could finish at lunchtime on Wed and Thurs that would be just one whole day and would improve your quality of life immensely.

But yes, I completely agree, employers, schools and building contractors need to seriously begin work on upgrading our inadequate infrastructure.
Its totally rubbish at the moment.

My dcs school have just announced 12pm collect tomorrow and closed Wed / Thurs , re evaluating for Friday.

I bet you particularly enjoyed the DfEs social media today telling teachers to open their windows early in the morning and close them when it gets hotter

I’m a teacher. And I wish they would build in aircon in atleast the top floors. The last time we had a heatwave I had two girls in my lesson faint and frankly no one was learning just surviving.

Unfortunately our buildings are built to retain heat ( insulation) that is the issue rather than fitting blinds

Thanks for the advice, unfortunately in my work it doesn’t quite work like that!!