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

The inside, with all possible precautions of one my child’s classroom is over 40 degrees in the afternoon… it’s plainly unsafe and I support their decision to encourage all the families who can to pick up children at lunchtime. It’s very inconvenient for me as a FT working mum. But safety has to come first and no learning will be happening.

Have you been inside a primary school in an old building with zero air conditioning and no money to buy fans?

Thankfully most of our parents collected their kids at lunch time. The remaining 20 we were able to fit in the only marginally cooler room in the building. Where we mostly laid on the floor or played with ice and scavenged every fan we could find. Had all 200 kids stayed at school it would have been a total nightmare.

I'm sure there are some lovely cool schools out there, but ours would have been a danger to health

What a bizarre comment, of course YABU. School leaders know the conditions of their schools better than you do, including how hot it gets in various parts of the building and where they can feasibly put the number of students they will have. Obviously if they cannot house all of their students safely, some or all of them need to be sent home.

All schools will be different, depending on construction/layout and number of bodies so it make sense that some schools may keep students home and others may not.

I have just been sitting in my garden hearing a really distressed 6 year old absolutely beside herself because she has to go to school tomorrow and her friends don’t have to. Absolutely get the fact that many people including myself have no option but to work. If my children were school aged I would have tried to make contingency plans in advance. It’s too hot for children to be cooped up in a classroom with 30 other kids . Hopefully schools will get the children outside,preferably in the shade with lots of water fun ..

If only schools taught cooking, Oh hang on they do, and yes been there, done that, bought the fucking T-shirt.

I have a fairly standard medical problem that needs to be seen in a couple of weeks. When I AI’ed my symptoms I was told to go to A&E which is 90 mins away and it’s not an emergency. Phoned again for an appointment and they said they had a phone call mid July. I said fine but then she asked me what was wrong and said the gp will call you back in the next 8 hours. They didn’t. So I expect the heat is causing problems. My options are A&E or nothing. I am doing nothing.

Lets be sensible in the heat and not make it worse.

They'd be going home to those high rise flats, abusive parents and no food every weekend and holiday but people on here only ever give a fuck about them if schools close.

The "just a bit sweaty 😂" powering through hero parents will be front of the line to complain if their kids become unwell from the heat or they have to be picked up early because teachers do.

When you have kids you have to plan for taking care of them sometimes, unfortunately.

Schools unlike workplaces are full of children who haven't established the same regulation or have the same personal autonomy adults in workplaces have. Adults in workplaces also have access to things like fridges and can access things like cold water when then need it, children have access to warm water from a fountain.

A lot of of offices are letting their staff work from home and leave early due to the heat. Whilst ALL workplaces aren't shutting, ALL schools aren't either.

Have you ever been inside a care home, in an old building, with no air conditioning, and zero money to buy fans?

For 12 hours? Whilst cleaning up literal shit and being kicked and punched? for minimum wage?

Do we get time off?

Are our buildings not a danger to our extremely vulnerable residents?

I wish that local ones would co-ordinate. Now I have to go out in the midday heat to pick up one child from the secondary school and go back in the mid afternoon heat to collect her sister form the junior school that’s across the road from it.

Ive been to open afternoons in our school all throughout the year and even when it gets up to 17-20 degrees the classroom is unbearably hot so no I don’t think it’s being unreasonable

Not to mention there is actually a red weather warning in place

You do what you would do if your child was unwell and couldn't go to school.

Oh cos that's the same as being a chef in an industrial kitchen 😂😂😂

You could also just... not do food tech that day?

Not like a chef in a hospital kitchen can stop though, is it?

Of course they are. The company running them has responsibility for the residents safety.

Well my dgc has been absolutely fine with it. Never was an issue when my kids were at school either. Nobody was unwell etc

Do they? What about the headteachers spoken about on this thread who closed their air conditioned schools? 🤣 mine was one of them although admittedly you could leave the children there until normal pick up if needed

I would collect them both at midday or not sending them at all

Do you understand global warming?

After borderline interrogation DS confirmed his classroom was fine and he was “4/5 out of 10 too hot”.

Unless his school says otherwise I am happy for him to be in. I work from home and it’s hot in here.

some schools are going to be older, hotter buildings and others better equipped to deal with heat so arguing about it is futile.

So lose a days wages then.

Fridhes I'm places like factories and warehouses? Offices possibly

How is this helping.

I'm sure they are. But this shouldn't be a "I suffer, so the kids should too" scenario. It should be a "we all deserve to be safe" one. We can shut schools if inside reaches dangerous temperatures and keep children safe, so we should.

Plenty of support jobs going in schools.