To think closing schools or making them "optional" during the heatwave is putting pressure on working parents and is just a bit silly?

[Suchevilforebodings]

This doesn't actually effect me directly as neither of my children's schools have closed.
But some of the schools iny area are either closing or are making school optional IE: it won't be marked as absence.
I mean.... Really? Do kids actually need tome off because it's hot?
And is it fair on working parents to send out an email the day before to say school is closed? This heatwave was forecast last week.
Even making it "optional" puts the pressure on as the kids will want to stay off and many of their friends will be.
I just think it's bullshit tbh

YANBU. I’m a SAHM and I think it’s ridiculous how much people are overreacting to the heat.

It depends on the area and how cool they can keep it inside. Have you been inside a school when its 35 degree? It’s dangerous.
Giving the option is great as it also means fewer bodies in class. You do realise theyre not actually doing proper lessons in this heat? Mine spent the whole day being hosed off and eating ice creams and playing wirh water in the hall. My little one‘s nursery is closing midday because toddlers collapsing with heatstroke isnt fun.

Yes as a country we need to adapt our building with air con and potentially start ‘tropical hours’ like other schools. It’s not the 80s anymore where the maximum is one day of 30 degrees. 40 is very different.

People who think it's unreasonable generally have zero experience of what's happening in schools this week and yet still think they can spout off about it.

My kids’ school has said we can pick up early. My expectation is that some parents will (I suspect they’ve said people can pick up early because some parents have emailed in asking!), so at least the school will have less hot and bothered children to teach which might be a bit easier.

I will not be picking mine up because I’m at work. I do generally think the school is a bit shit for working parents but I’m not too fussed about this, more worried about not attending trips and shows because they only give a week’s notice!

Our schools said the younger ones in classrooms with no AC can stay home authorised tomorrow and Thursday if we want.

We need to work so they will go to school. I have no guilt! They will survive, albeit a bit sweaty and grouchy 😂

You clearly have no idea how unbearable it is in schools atm.

I work in a school. It is ridiculously hot.

I do think there needs to be a clear decision though and schools either need to be fully open or fully closed, not an option as that's where it becomes tricky and just a day of babysitting as you can't teach anything properly if half the class aren't there.

It’s optional and people are still complaining. If they closed people would complain and if they remained open they would complain.

No winning is there?

My room is completely in the shade and in an old building with thick walls. We had 4 very large fans going. By 3 pm it was 32 degrees. In the main building it was 37 in some classrooms. Pregnant staff vomiting. Most staff having taught from 8am - most with migraines. There is no air con. None. No breeze. It is unwise and not fair on anyone and not safe. Unions say you should be able to keep your room at 26 degrees. The reality is most classrooms are greenhouses.

There's already a thread on this; https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5545964-aibu-to-think-school-closures-ignore-parents-work-commitments

Are you in a red area?

This.
And younger children are very vulnerable to heatstroke. It makes me angry its seen as a joke.

Oh and with no notice. I have to plan 10 hours of online lessons (mine is a practical subject) for my pupils and register them. When would you like me to prepare those lessons - I didn’t have any non contact time.

My son’s class was in and they werent doing proper lessons anyway.

Hard disagree. It's 38 degrees in London tomorrow. Today my son's school was 5 degrees warmer inside than out (ie: 39 inside). If it's the same tomorrow it will be 43 degrees indoors. Those are temperatures that will severely harm young children, not to mention the responsibility of a school towards the teachers who are their employees and should not be working in those conditions.

I work. I've arranged a babysitter for the day and set up a paddling pool in the garden. Yes, my kids probably 'wouldn't die' but I aspire to a slightly higher standard of wellbeing than non-death for my kids.

Across Europe schools are closed when temperatures are this high.

For parts of the UK that are 30 and under - yeah they just need to get over it.

If schools have to provide 190 days of education will they add some extra time at the end of term due to the closures ? At least the teachers will have time to prepare their reports .

Take 30 kids who are all hot and sweating, add in their teacher, maybe 1 or 2 TA’s, an enclosed classroom with probably no blinds, no air con, they are lucky if they have a fan, and windows that only open a couple of centimetres = hideous conditions to ‘work’ in. The temperature of that classroom is likely to be hotter than outside.

These heatwaves are going to get more frequent due to climate change and UK buildings - both old and new builds - are simply not designed for this kind of weather.

Future building regs need to be urgently changed to take into account that housing and buildings need to be able to release heat; existing buildings need air con retro-fitted (which no one wants to pay for/the government won’t fund) and at the very least blinds and industrial fans.

People also need to remember that because they are ‘fine’ in extreme heat, doesn’t mean everyone else is. And wittering on about the summer of ‘76 is just tedious now.

Right?! How dare people be given a choice so that they can make the most appropriate decision based on their child's needs and their home arrangements?

Shocking.

Damned if they do, damned if they don't. And this is no difference to closures when it snows. No weather prediction is 100% accurate (1987 hurricane anyone?) so the schools leave it until there is as much certainty as there can be - as I say, they do it with snow too.

No, school closures for extreme weather events do not need to be made up at another time.

Children are far more vulnerable to heat. Loads of schools are old buildings with in adequate ventilation no shade in the playground and no air con. Yes it’s hot in my home but at home my DC have access to cold drinks, ice, cool showers, paddling pools, fans, shade in the garden. If schools can’t adequately control the temp then I think it’s fine if they make adjustments.

Maybe that's what fuels the debate then. Apart from PE and sports clubs being cancelled everything is normal for us. I am primary and they did maths, phonics and English as normal this morning and then the usual topic subjects in the afternoon. The class are stopped as a whole for drinks breaks, we aren't outside for lunch for as long but the work has not been adapted so it's a normal school day.

It’s dangerous to be in temperatures above natural body temperature in a climate like ours, as the body stops being able to cool itself by sweating if the air temp is higher than 37 degrees, due to the humidity we experience in our temperate rainforest climate.

With temps approaching 40 degrees outside, it requires careful management like staying still, drinking loads and keeping out of the sun to avoid heatstroke, which is a medical emergency and can kill. Thousands of people will die in this heatwave across Europe. Under 5s and over 65s are particularly vulnerable, but it can happen to anyone.

Imagine trying to keep 30 boisterous primary school children cool, hydrated and still in classrooms built in the 1960s and 70s, with huge single-glazed windows, no blinds and little ventilation.

Then imagine how you’d respond if your child was the one being blue lighted to hospital.

The extremes of temperature we are getting aren’t just ‘a bit hot’. The red warning is because very specific and dangerous things can happen when the high 30s and 40 degrees are reached,

I grew up in a country with weather far far worse than this and somehow I’m struggling a lot. I have been taking my dc out earlier from school and all after school clubs have been cancelled at school. I have 2 portable aircons at home and my dc are much happier. But yanbu for the people that can’t offer this option.

But where you are in the UK is key. If you're up in Dumfries where it's 26 you're in a whole different ballgame