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).

Air con, blinds, new opening windows. Lovely idea but pie in the sky.Our school budget can't even afford teachers. We've TAs running lessons for three classes primary level. The pre COVID building work was delayed and six years later it's still not done.

It's a matter of time where someone will die of heat stroke because their school refuses to relax the rules of wearing blazers, jumpers and ties in hot weather. Heat exhaustion can turn into heat stroke pretty quickly.

There will be a national outcry and disgust.

We should not wait for that someone to die. Schools should be acting quickly

Yes then we will have Joe Bloggs Law in the same way we now have Awaabs Law for housing

Any Head Teacher who insists their pupils wear jumpers, ties and blazers in these predicted temperatures should, frankly, be struck off.
But I'm not sure I believe they are saying it, however.

My year 9 students were fanning themselves like mad today but refused to take off their sweatshirts because "you'll see my bra". I suggested that it didn't matter but what do I know?!

I don’t think any headteacher is enforcing ties, blazers, jumpers, tights etc this week. I work in a pretty strict school uniform-wise, and they’ve completely relaxed the rules. As a pp teacher said tho, this week it will be about surviving, not learning. Sadly. Roll on Friday.

It got to over 40C when I was a kid (not in the UK, but not a hot country), we just got on with it. I don't remember all this drama.

How often did it get to 40? What was the average summer high temp?

My son worked in Abu Dhabi for a couple of years the imported labour were at high risk of death certain times of the year from the heat he said.

It gets to 40C rarely, but when it does happen we don't have all this drama.

I can't be bothered looking up the average summer high temp, but I do know that we have been hearing on our news for well over a decade about how "hot" it is in the UK and how they aren't coping. I suggest it's about time you learned how to cope and deal with hot weather!

I don't disagree; it will take our infrastructure a lot of time and money to catch up unfortunately.

Bodies aren't quite so good at that. As long as the UK has a wildly spiky summer weather profile, acclimatisation is unlikely.

In the meantime - 40 degrees is wildly unusual for the UK. You don't need a second hand to count the number of times it's happened - even if it hits 40 this week. People will learn practical skills over time to deal with this, but I don't expect them to have at their fingertips the things I do instinctively when it's unusually hot.

People being sniffy and pretending that this isn't quite extraordinary for the UK, and that people are naturally unaccustomed to dealing with temperatures so far above the norm, just makes them look a bit silly.

Good for your stoical mythical country that they're so very superior to the UK, France, Germany... I hope that smugness has a cooling effect.

Very high 30s

I think your country's news outlet probably enjoys poking fun at the uk not coping giving a greater sense of drama than there actually is in reality.

I cant imagine why any other country would report in our weather otherwise, maybe as part of a piece about changing climates world wide and using it as an example amongst others but there are better examples i think.

Schools cant afford buying glue sticks this time of year and you want what? air cons?

Dealing with hot weather starts by acknowledging the problem which is climate change. This is only the beginning. Dealing with it means doing everything we could to go be greener and produce less Carbon emissions. However- No one is interested as apparently it’s not our problem, it’s China’s. Where’s the popcorn?

We had a heat fone in summer '21. It was 40c+ for 6 days. 619 people died.

i don't know all of the safety neasures that followed, but mow those on lower incomes can get a free a/c installed. I also see cooling stations around where you can mist yourself with a cold tap. Not nearly enough done, though.

The issue with AC is that it contributes to the issue causing the heatwaves in the first place.

So maybe we should prioritise which buildings have AC - schools? Hospitals? Kitchens? Maybe not an office where someone is sitting down all day.

As does heating, but we're used to thinking of it quite differently because of our prevailing weather conditions.

I don’t think schools should close initially. I think they should do whatever they can to make the kids feel comfortable. For example, not force them to go outside, relax the uniform rules and have regular water top ups. If after they’ve done this the kids are still struggling then I think it would be appropriate to send them home.

Most firms have issued guidance/advice - mine has said, 'consider travelling off peak or wfh'.

Yet we're sending kids as young as 4yrs into school.

When my DC was at nursery in 2022 we were asked if we could keep our children at home if we were able too - so that they could reduce numbers and the children who had to go in could be in the coolest room downstairs with all the fans that opened up onto the garden. They would then have all the staff present to care for these kids.

I think primary schools could do something similar. There will be doctors, nurses, police officers, teachers, and generally people who don't have flexibility that have to go to work but if parents were offered the choice then many parents would keep their kids home, and teachers then could relocate kids to the coolest classrooms etc and just have these next couple of days as play based learning.

I don't think it has to be an all or nothing approach.

@Pinkie89

Well, yeah filling a water bottle up still isn’t enough is it? Being crammed in all day with no ventilation and no fresh air. Gotta laugh at the “adjustments” aka, lip service!

Not if it’s coupled with solar energy on everybody’s rooftops. I am speaking from experience. You can go completely off grid on days like this whilst having every single appliance running in your house.

Schools here have no blazers and ties when over a set temperature. Where are you tgat they don't make this simple adjustment

Yet in winter i had parents complaining that my room was too cold. When I suggested that wearing a short sleeved shirt, no jumper and not bringing a coat was a poor choice I was told they didn't like wearing them and I should turn the heat up to maximum for them.