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

I’ve kept my two off today with no regrets. They are teenagers though.

Just not worth sending them when it’s this boiling. I’ll send them tomorrow when it cools slightly.

Well they obviously didn't contact your parents because you weren't that ill if you could go to the school fate😂 In the 70s and 80s kids were sent home sick, deal with it because it's the truth it's not a new thing.

So if they are your kids and not the schools then why are parents fined when they decide to take them out.?

I had a bad headache but felt better after sleeping in the afternoon.

And they wouldn't have called parents in like my DDs school did when she had a bloody stitch

Where are you where its to be predicted cooler? Today was 33 in West Mids (SLT recorded 43), tomorrow is 34, Friday is 35. I dread to think what the humidity temps will mean by then.

Because a holiday is different to a life threatening heatwave. Do I need to explain everything?

I don’t think it is guilt tripping you for keeping your kids off, if you’d chosen to.

They’re your kids, send them or don’t.

I’m not really interested what other people choose to do with their kids. Mine has gone in, and will do so as long as the school remains open. Not because it’s convenient, I could take the day off, but because it’s better for him to be there during this weather.

You can keep yours off, I’ll send mine in, nobody needs to care what the other parent thinks.

The kids being off randomly in June does put pressure on working parents, I agree it’s a pressure they’d have to deal with, but not everyone can take adhoc days off without there being an impact.

I have been a teacher, I have encountered a sweaty stifling classroom. Lots of jobs are sweaty and overbearing this week.

Not doing proper lessons?

I can assure you we definitely are, in my secondary school at least.

Have you done a 40+ degree classroom ? I never have before. And it's a whole new world of shit.

Generally secondary school pupils shouldn't need parents to take time off work if the school is closed though. Different from primary

I taught in 2022, so I will have.

My mum is currently working a 12 hour shift in a factory without aircon, fans or windows on the line. She’s 64.

Like I said, it isn’t pleasant, but many, many people do jobs that aren’t pleasant in this weather.

If it isn’t safe to have the kids in, shut the school. Otherwise, surely teachers are just joining chefs, factory staff, cleaners, care staff, nurses, in working in unpleasant conditions.

Another OP who mistakes education for childcare. Your working life is not the school's concern, the health and welfare of children and staff are. Schools are there to teach children, not be substitute childminders. Irritable and very hot teacher here.

When in 2022 was it this hot ? I too worked in 2022 and hottest we got was 37. Since then some idiot has put cladding on our building which traps even more heat.

But yes, it's totally safe to have 30+ people in a non ventilated room over 49 degrees. And we haven't shut because our CEO is a total knob who works in an air con office.

As a society we need to decide what we want going forward as this will become more common. Schools have humans in them and they can't function at this heat.

Other work places are tough too and they can fight their own battles. The race to the bottom is not needed.

Our peak was 38, the classroom temp will have been higher.

The BBC claims that today’s peak was 36.1 in Glossop. So as much as I appreciate the school’s temperature was higher, it can’t have been over 40 outside of that school, as otherwise the BBC have been mislead. By the weather.

You were hotter than 4 years ago, the weather was actually cooler.

I just honestly think it’s interesting, genuinely, that there aren’t any/as many threads about nurses wanting hospitals closed, chefs demanding they don’t have to work.

I get completely that the presence of the kids changes that conversation, but if parents are concerned, they’d keep them off, and there wouldn’t be 30 kids in there.

Rather than looking at whole scale reform, do you not need to take up with the union and your employer the fact you work in a fabricated sweat box that they’re not interested in closing? Nobody else can change that.

Unbelievable, but call me a liar if it makes you feel better. Yes, it was hotter today than 2022. Was 38 outside, felt 42 according to weather app. And inside a badly built building meant to hold heat in it felt much hotter.

What on earth can a union do ? There is no legal max temp to work.

The lack of reality of what is actually going on in schools is staggering. Reminds me of Covid - all
those single kids on desks and social distancing 😂😂. Maybe we just need some magic temp tape for on the floors.

Genuinely, please tell the BBC’s weather team, they’ve given that accolade to Glossop.

We remember Covid differently. I had a whole cohort of vulnerable kids in a deprived area that I knew were better off at school than at home.

I didn’t begrudge going in to teach them, at any point in the pandemic, because I’d have rather that than them being out in the community.

Those same kids would be better off in school this week too.

Schools are absolutely not pleasant places, most of the time. If it isn’t the weather, it’s the bureaucracy and overall bullshit. Let’s not pretend it’s a walk in the park the rest of the time.

But my job was to teach kids, and to safeguard the ones who needed it, and whilst it’s absolutely more difficult to teach through pandemics and heatwaves, that doesn’t change that responsibility.

My son has been kept in a classroom that’s as hot as hell today as it was too hot to go outside. They’ve abandoned teaching and have been colouring and watching films. Two of his friends were sent home vomiting. It’s like a sweat box in the school hall where they have dinners. The menu today included chicken mash, Yorkshire pudding and gravy ! Our schools are simply not equipped for these temperatures.

You can not work in a more deprived area than me. And I see you've left teaching so ......

May I suggest t everyone. Do not poke a teacher tonight. We are v v angry about what we have had to deal with today. Irritable teens who were too hot, too angry and v fighty.

But hey, the BBC said it wasn't really that hot and everyone was skipping in the sunshine.

PS the chemical cupboard is currently at 35. But tonight I frankly can't give any more shit.

I have left, and I don’t regret it for a single second.

For an assortment of reasons, the fact that schools are ran like businesses, by people who’ve basically never encountered a child, being one of them.

What can I say, I got sick of not being able to find glue sticks while our CEO was refilling his private pool.

May I suggest if you’re feeling prodded, that may be because after a tough day, you came onto a thread about hot schools. Presumably to remember how shit that day was. For some reason.

And maybe you could remember that schools are tough places to work. And not bash teachers.

What’s silly is government owned and operated buildings not being fit for purpose; heating, ventilation, lead free pipes, wheel chair access.

can teachers and unions not petition for money for air con in schools? It would improve conditions for staff and pupils. Wouldn’t that be more beneficial than the talk of petitioning for max temps. (Which obviously wont be approved before air con is, because otherwise we’d have hospitals and care homes closing en masse in heat waves and that’s vital)
I know there’s ’no Money for glue sticks’ but it’s sickening how little is given for buildings like schools and hospitals. Wonder what burnams thoughts are. Worth pointing out that govt grants for public building decarbonisation were also quietlyremoved recently.

The thing about the government (any flavour) is that they really don't pay much attention to teachers or the teaching unions.

Perhaps one good thing to come out of this is people will start to begin to realise just what a joke funding is in most state schools.
Once again I'm so grateful to be out of teaching after 21 years in.
I bet the DfE's offices are lovely and cool.

It reached 43 degrees inside my daughters classroom yesterday and if she had been in school today i dread to think what it would be as we are 8 degrees higher than yesterday and forecast 39 outside tomorrow, I wouldn't want to sit in it so why should she? As for work, i work to live and not live to work, just unfortunately one of those things. Sure you wouldn't say the same if you couldn't get to school or work because of snow.