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

Oh so sod the children in an unsafe environment then, they dont matter 😡

Yes it sounds like your buildings absolutely are a danger to to vulnerable residents. But your building being a danger has no bearing on whether schools should shut. You are aware that the teachers are not getting time off when the schools shut aren't you? It's to keep children safe in temperatures of nearly 40 degrees. Not all the kids go home and none of the teachers go home they are still working.

And yes your care home sounds awful.

Don't you need a degree? Not everyone has them you know

Why was I unlucky because my parents worked??

Around 50% of working age adults have a degree so theres no reason to assume she doesn’t.

And if she doesn’t, she can also get a bursary to train as a teacher on some undergraduate degrees.

Really? That does depend on age group When I was 18 in 1989 it was about 1 in 5 school leavers went to uni.

Might be 50% of younger ones. But are you sure it's actually degrees and not other qualifications you are speaking about.

Yes, degrees.

Figures from 2017 - so practically a decade ago and the numbers have increased since then because some jobs which didn’t require a degree in the past now do, such as police officers which you can do either at university or on police degree apprenticeship.

• 29.8% of 20 to 24-year-olds
• 46.1% of 25 to 29-year-olds
• 48.7% of 30 to 39-year-olds.

https://luminate.prospects.ac.uk/labour-market-myths-everyone-has-a-degree-nowadays

Yes they did all the things you said but they also call home to ask for pick up if a child is ill, has an accident, it snows, it's hot, is suspended etc etc. yes they care for kids during the school day but it needs the parents to pick up as soon as they are asked which means parents always need a plan b.

Yes, that's how childcare works. This is the same with nurseries, childminders, nannies, all childcare. They are still our kids, we have ultimate responsibility. We all know this and it doesn't mean that school isn't childcare.

Canceling it without good reason and without adequate notice isn't acceptable. Parents rely on it. Parents are expected to rely on it. It is their children's education and their childcare.

You where unlucky because you weren't picked up. Your argument is that children weren't picked up in the 70s and 80s and that it's a new thing. 🙄 and spent all day in the sick bay. I'm telling you that that wasn't true for the majority of kids in that era and you don't like being proved wrong

I’d go further than that. Building standards need to be updated so that all new builds are of sufficient quality to be safe in these temperatures. Insulate Britain were on the money.

Cancelling school for the health of the kids is a good reason. You would be insane to think otherwise

My child attends a school in an old building. There is no air conditioning. The classroom temperature was over 30 degrees yesterday and kids were fainting amd being taken ill.

In my house right now (more modern than the school building but still quite old), I've had windows and curtains shut all day and fans running. It's just cooled down to 29 degrees .

Where buildings are new and cool, then once pupils and staff are on the premises it'll be comfortable. Otherwise its a risk to health.

A school would not be closed without good reason. They are accountable to the council and have to justify closure. They also can't always give adequate notice. They don't have a magic ball to know weeks in advance just how hot things are going to be.

I find it strange that school are getting a lot of grief for nti thinking of employers, when it should try other way around. We should be questioning why workplaces in this country are so inconsiderate of these things and cannot be more flexible.

During events like this discussion always focus on failure of schools to recognise the strain they put on parents whe ln they know all too well. Teachers are, believe it or not, parents to. And face the same problems everyone else does when schools close.

I would love for the conversation to shift as to why companies are allowed to be so unsupportive of family needs? Why do they not have plans for events like this? Why do they put pressure on employees to put their childrens wellbeing second to work?

I'm not going to be quilt tripped by working parents that it's not fair on working parents. Not everything is about what's best for working parents. My concern is for my children who in this heat are better off at home where they can be kept cool. If working parents don't like this to bad. Giving the option for parents to keep children at home is the best option, it fits everyone's needs. But I'm not going to be guilty tripped by working parents when it comes to my children's health and safety. Who the hell do you think you are?

Not every workplace can manage without staff, and just shut up for the day so parents can look after kids that should be in school. Masses of them, not the odd kid off sick, but a whole school. What do you want an A&E department to do exactly when it's staff can't come in?? It's not unsupportive to not let people stay off work. We need the workforce in order to survive.

The rest of us have to work too.
We don’t all have air con either.

Let's see how safe your kids are when there's no doctors working at GPs surgeries, the hospitals are understaffed, there's not enough police or ambulance staff etc. We need a workforce.
And yes it happens, I've had my surgery shut for an entire day because there were no doctors.

So give the choice as mentioned by the OP. My kids are best to be at home to prevent illness, heatstroke, dehydration. My kids come first with me. If you are happy to send your kids in when given the choice go for it. Just don't expect other parents to agree with you

Yes, exactly. The lady describing a 12 hour shift in a nursing home said she would happily take a teacher's day at work, including their wages.
And I don't blame her.
She's not getting a day off though.

Schools need air con. It’s ridiculous.

I mean to be fair, that's probably the obvious solution.

Who is to blame for that? We are now experiencing the cost cutting drip feed measures of government after government. Even today Bridget Phillipson came out and said schools can keep their pupils cool. I'm in the West Mids, it should be 33 according to BBC but our SLT recorded 43. I thought lessons would be leaned after Covid, but once again we educators become a sticking plaster until its intolerable.

And you know the worst thing? It'll be forgotten until until the next closure due to weather.

Not all GPS, hospital staff, police, fire sevices have children in primary school, because at high school they can look after themselves. I know people in all these services and none of them have kids in primary. The world of healthcare etc is not going to stop because primary kids are sent home for their own health and safety. In fact sending kids to school in this heat will increase the need to emergency services, do you want that?

Just because you know people in all these services and they don't have primary aged kids, doesn't mean there aren't any in these services that have primary aged kids.

I also know people in all these services. Guess where I met them? The nursery queue and the school gates!

I’d rather have her job. Nursing homes will have fewer people in rooms and better temperatures. Many school staff are on minimum wages and massively underpaid compared to others doing similar roles in other sectors.

So so sick of schools being berated every time there is some kind of crisis with a presumption that staff and kids should put themselves at risk because some parents can’t be bothered to work out contingency plans they manage to do on the occasions their kids are ill.