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

Some of us have surgeries closed to booking from 9 anyway.

Maybe it’s time teachers and TAs started striking like doctors do.

Unfortunately, it's also an expensive solution.
I can't see the Government being willing to fund it, and most schools can barely afford to carry out essential repairs and maintenance these days.

GPs haven't been on strike.

I'm already studying for a social work degree, but thank you for the suggestion.

The only key workers clapped for were nhs staff ,even those with zero face to face care. Teachers and TAs got nothing, just berating and a huge amount of expectation that staff and children put themselves at risk when everybody else were safely tucked up at home baking banana bread.

So everyone has to go along with what working parents want? Even when it puts out children at risk? Working parents are not the centre of everyone else's world. Schools do what works best for the children and their safety, not working parents. You are the parent, sort childcare. My priority is my kids and their health, not your job

Someone has got to keep the world running, and someone has got to pay into the economy while you're sat at home

Authorities are warning of risk to life even for the healthy- but hey who cares if you work in a school or are a child. It causes extra admissions to A&E putting extra pressure on the nhs but hey it’s ok if it’s school staff or children.

And GPs have been striking.
Resident doctors, which include GP registrars in training, have staged multiple rounds of strikes over pay disputes with the government.

If schools don’t have better conditions for staff and kids in the heat staff should start to strike.

Who said Im at home? Not me. Some of us have plans in place for when children are sick, use these plans during heatwaves and snow days. My children are not going to suffer in school on a hot day because SOME working parents carnt sort themselves out.

Er I'm a teacher who has been working in 40+ today so no need for the snark.

Spent last night sleeping at school to make sure the chemical cupboard didn't combust. What a fun week it's been.

This! Parents sort sick days so it’s perfectly possible to sort health risk days.

The world does not revolve around working parents, they are your kids, sort it. The health care system is not going to collapse because primary schools closed, working primary school parents don't run health care alone, but by the way people are acting in here you would think they do 😂🙄

Nobody ever said your kids had to go in, so you didn’t ever have to risk anything, for anyone’s sake.

You could always have kept them off should you have wished?

It’s only going to be getting hotter! What do you think they do in Australia ffs?

I can't answer for what every workforce should do in this situation. Of course not all places are adaptable, teaching being one of them, I had to send my child in because my school was open.

But the responsibility shouldn't only lie with schools to adapt and accommodate, businesses need to as well and many can, yet they are never part of the dialogue.

Schools can’t fund expensive air conditioning or the running of it without the money to do so. They are struggling to fund things from glue sticks to TAs as it is.

The Tories made it very clear they don’t care about school buildings.RAAC and the cancelling of investment made that very clear. The electorate won’t want to pay more in taxes so….

Everything is built for combating the heat in Australia. The UK isn't. That's the difference.

Going the the OPs title it's absolutely guilt tripping people who agree the schools should close or have the option to stay at home saying it's putting pressure on working parents and us a bit silly. Prioritising the children's health and welfare is not being silly. When you become a working parent you should know you will have to accommodate sick day, school closures, it shouldn't be a surprise, they are your kids not the schools

I don't think it's unreasonable to be surprised that the school is closing because it's summer.

It's not summer though is it? It's a heatwave with a danger to life warning. Off course schools are going to look at what's best for the children and make adjustments when needed, including closures. I'm sure some parents walk into parenting without realising they are the parents and they are the ones responsible.

I would love to watch the people who say it’s ridiculous try and teach a class of hot, miserable children. It’s not rocket science to understand that sticking 30 humans in a confined space where it’s measuring 30+ degrees for extended periods of time is dangerous. They are not just a bit warm, it makes lots of children and teachers feel really unwell. How much learning do you think is possible in these conditions? We closed at 1 (some classrooms measuring at 35 degrees in our Victorian brick oven) and parents were very supportive; we are trying to keep the children and the staff safe. We gave parents the choice and of 360 children only 29 remained in school. Luckily we do have two or three air conditioned spaces.

That happening to you doesn't make it right, and also kids in the UK are not adapted to the heat.

I'm pleased so many parents showed up. It's the health and safety of the kids and staff that matters regardless of what some working parents think.it astounds me that some of these posters are parents seeing as their child's needs don't come first in a heat wave with a danger to life warning

If id been picked up that day I'd have missed the school fete so hardly unlucky.

Wrong by your experience maybe, not my own