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).

SLT go round the school and pop in to observe the lessons. They call it learning walks. I guess if you are the subject of such walks then you are ‘learning walked’.
With regards to the topic of the thread, yes children go to school in hot countries, but in many hot countries holidays start in June and don’t end till September. So they would be winding down now and have fun end of the year activities such as school trips. All the assessments will be finished while in my school for example we have all KS3 end of the year exams scheduled for the coming week.
I don’t know if the schools should close as many disadvantaged children are not going home to nice cool houses and at school they at least get a meal. Also if primary schools closed then the parents would have to take time off to look after them.
However, maybe in future we should get rid of some of the half term holidays and have longer summer break as the hot weather is likely to be more common than in the past.

We had standpipes in the street where we had to get our water in buckets.

I'm on the fence as schools never closed when I was at school in the 1970s/early 1980s. I do feel like it wasn't quite as hot then though, and when it actually was hot, it was in the school summer holidays.

In some cases the children may not have anywhere to go if their parents are at work (primary age especially.) Not everyone will be able to/be allowed to have time off! My DH is working Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday - midday to 10pm. The thought of it is making him feel nauseous! 😬 If he rings in 'sick' it will be obvious, and he'll get a bollocking - and a warning! I have the good fortune of working from home, and am only doing 2 days this week.

My village (primary) school that has just over 40 pupils announced on our village Facebook page yesterday afternoon at around 3pm, that it will be closed all week. Because it's late June, it's not affecting any of their education, and it won't go against the children (like recording them as absent.)

They have said to contact them via the Facebook post if there are any issues/if someone has no-one to look after them, and so far, out of 33 sets of parents (a few have more than one child there,) not ONE has come forward to say it will be an issue. Just lots of very excited comments and relief for the children (and from the children too!)

I'm not sure what they will do if one or two do come forward and say 'I can't get time off work/I have no-one to look after little Lucy' but so far, no-one has. Never known the school be closed for a full week before, in 14 years of living here. I have known them close for one or two days, a couple of times (due to the heat) and there was no issue there either. I think a few parents struggled with childcare, as some of the parents work... (most mums work part time) but they worked around it as several of the other parents looked after a few other children til their parents could get them.

Most of the children ended up just staying with their schoolmates til the mum came home at 2.45pm (the normal finishing time.) A few parents were able to get the time off quickly. Several of them were sent home early from work (like 11am-midday) and some of them work from home.

Get plenty of bottles of mineral water in the fridge, get the fans out, and your shorts and vest tops on, and slather yourself in sunblock.

IT'S GONNA BE A SCORCHER! 🥵

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Same, but at least we had large classrooms and windows that opened to the outside world.

DS 1 has gone to work today in a kitchen that regularly gets in the mid 30s, if not much higher.

Anyone going out for a Father's day lunch today? Spare a thought for the chefs.

Yes but if they're not full or if they don't have them they can't leave the room.

Not all students are prepared. Shock!

Honestly I’d be at least requesting that the school relaxes its water filling restrictions. It’s not right to restrict water during extreme heat.

The highest temperature during the 1976 heatwave was 35.9 °C according to Wikipedia. It's going to be hotter than that this week in many places.

What's blindingly obvious from this thread is that some people have literally no idea what goes on in a school.

Here's what's happening in mine and several others locally next week:

Y10s are sitting back to back mocks with 200 students divided across two exam rooms. Everything is already organised, including the employment of invigilators. Unfortunately, this means we can't 'adapt' and 'let them watch films'.

Each school/ class room is going to be different.

for example at my work , we have the main Victorian building that holds three classes , that actually don’t do to bad in the heat.

then there is an 30 yo extension that houses two classes , it’s like a green house it’s absolutely awful (winter and summer) you can tell how bad it is because it was actually bought a fan one year 😱😱 makes little difference but shows that even slt knew it was bad

then we have two classes in portacabins , and they actually have air con so the kids in those are probably better off then at home

🤷‍♂️

Yes, they do, but adaptations are made. In Italy, most schools finish after first week of June, precisely to avoid the summer heat. They’ll reopen mid September.

We’re in France, and all state schools are closed this Monday, where we’re expecting 40 degrees plus. The rest of the week our children start earlier, and finish at lunchtime.

Sorry I hate this mentality “we survived xyz, so should they” It’s stupid.

Why would you want children to be learning in poor conditions, just because you had to?

I have worked in schools abroad that couldn’t afford AC and it was miserable for everyone. I ended up buying fans out of pocket, just to make my lessons bearable. This shouldn’t be happening here where there is the funds to fix it.

Schools are places of education, not childcare. If childcare is an issue in a heatwave, then employers need to release their staff (and it won't be all of them) under the conditions of reasonable adjustments. This is an employer / employee issue, not an education issue.

In hot countries, they plan their school years and days to avoid really hot weather. I worked in Egypt and even the government schools had fans. The private and international schools had air conditioning. Our schools have nothing.

you are of course aware that councils DO have snow ploughs? Right? They just bolt to the front of the Gritters.

I was at school in the 70s and 80s too. Heatwaves like we have these days were rare and were often in August anyway. It's different nowadays. We need to change with the times and have adaptations in schools.

Why is there only a 20 minute lunch break? This is stupidly short.
Modern schools do not take account of weather - old, Victorian buildings stayed cool in hot weather because of the high ceilings and huge, but very openable, windows.

Your school should have a hot weather policy OP, mine does and have put certain things in place this week. It’s still far too hot but at least they are trying! I work in Food Science so you can imagine what it’s like when a class is cooking. I would speak to your site team/ business manager/ H&S officer re. a policy for hot weather, they should definitely have one

Of course not. Life goes on with sensible precautions.
Parents have work.
Kids need to learn
My work doesn't stop in the heat

The highest temperature record in 76 was 35 on a Saturday it hits 36 here Wednesday. So I think it was bad in 76 but it's certainly worse now especially when you take into account the amount of insulation in buildings these days. Double glazing alone retains so much more heat that single glazed which is one of its main selling points.
These aren't the summers of your childhoods, the world is burning, we do need to adjust our way of life in the summer.

She's not aware of that. (Most of us are not unless we put our minds to thinking about it, at which point, 'oh, yes, of course').

From past experience, I assure little learning will take place this week.

No, schools shouldn't be closing.

They should be:

• relaxing uniform codes or having sensible summer uniforms
• providing plenty of access to water fountains etc so kids can refill bottles
• getting aircon/fans
• putting solar films on windows
• adding insulation

The answer is never to close schools, that's simply denying children and education. Those kids will be just as hot at home, but if they are all sent home all the people who work delivering food, in medical services etc, emergency services have to be off with them too and that only makes it worse for everyone.

This varies by school.

It is but I didn’t have a choice of where to go as I was placed by my training provider. I do agree that we shouldn’t allow the children to run rampant and 30+ kids can’t be out in the corridors filling up bottles in lesson time but we need better provisions to keep the classrooms cool to prevent them needing to go.

Another side of this coin is that they drink too much and keep needing the bathroom!