Schools leaving windows open during winter

[Helenj1977]

I have 2 children at school and my eldest has been told that windows will be open during the winter, they can wear coats. My nephew is in reception and my sil has been told the same.

I get why but seriously how can that be good for them?? I can't imagine them learning much if they're sat shivering.

Schools are always ridiculously hot and stuffy. They'll be just fine.

@CallmeAngelina

Children will have to go out in a coat.

And yet, STILL, a large number of kids turn up to school without one throughout the Autumn and Spring terms. They know we brave all but the heaviest downpours outside.

I think that's a mixture of extremely poor, neglectful/chaotic and totally car dependent parents that do that.

After all, if you never go further than the front door to the car door and from the car door to the school doors, it's hard for some to understand that it's possible to get cold. Because they've not experienced it.

And then you get the kids who are determined not to wear one. Most get over that if they are allowed to get cold once, as they don't want to do it again.

@deflationexasperation

I'm not so sure about school being shut. They are the last chance saloons.

I wouldn't trust a single thing the Gov't says on the subject of schools.

Wow @ineedaholidaynow what a diagram and where schools fit in on that 😮

Just buy some thermals, no big deal.

My concern is that dd spends half the day in classrooms which have no windows, and therefore no ventilation.

Bacteria and viruses survive longer and can travel further in cold dry air. That's why there are more coughs and colds during the winter months. It has been scientifically proven that proper ventilation and a relative humidity of 40 - 60% reduces the spread and transmission of viruses. In cooler conditions the waxy coating covering the virus hardens and protects it. This is the coating which you can break down by washing with soap. A higher relative humidity helps as the water molecules in the air attach to the virus causing chemical reactions which degrade it. Further, the virus becomes heavier and falls to the ground so does not stay suspended in the air to be breathed in. The weight means that the virus cannot travel as far either. Our bodies own immune responses, such as the mucus lining the nose to catch and trap bacteria entering the body, also work more efficiently at higher levels of humidity. Everyone knows how air conditioned offices can give you dry skin and a sore throat, and that your hands crack when it's cold and dry. This is a basic explanation, but yes, having the windows open will help with the air flow and in many cases the humidity too.

Our school did it because of gas heating so it may have been due to carbon monoxide? (I was a kid so don't remember the full details)

Can people please stop saying all schools are warm? They aren't. Mine is very cold!

Children are complaining about being cold because they are cold. Our school is leaving all the fire doors open. There are no security fences, so anyone could walk in. Nightmare.

It's easy to put the coat on if cold, and my dc always complain classroom being too hot in the winter. Fresh air makes way more productive environment than stuffy room full of virus.

norovirus likes cold temps too. Fun & Games.

If he is going to cycle to school in the rain then perhaps either wear waterproofs or take spare clothes, rather than expect the whole class and teacher to have no ventilation?

Be real, they have ventilation in ordinary times, just not a full breezy constant draft. Not supposed to change clothes when he arrives. Nowhere to keep wet waterproofs during the day or hope they won't still be soaking when leave. School don't want arrival visits to the toilets. But yes he can carry 2 full panniers. I'm trying to persuade him to cycle in lycra & just pull on his uniform over it all when he arrives. Lycra still insulates even when wet. This is not cool according to teens/preteens.

My 6th form kid is chucked out of the building much of the day between lessons, too, that's how that building is 'ventilated'. Wandering around the city centre with no where to go unless we want the library full of other teens like himself.

I hope DC aren't prone to RSI. It has plagued me & started due to doing fine motor things in cold temps.

In the Times today they said that in colder winter weather windows only need opening a little as colder external air temperature will create greater airflow. So we’re not talking wide open.

@ineedaholidaynow

Where do you think classrooms fit?

That's an interesting graphic @ineedaholidaynow, where's it from? Ax

Many school windows don’t open very wide!

@Etinox
www.bmj.com/content/370/bmj.m3223

That graphic is open to any interpretation that you wish to put on it. A more accurate list of risk is available here:
www.independent.co.uk/news/health/coronavirus-risk-doctors-texas-medical-association-covid-19-a9610371.html
School is moderate risk.

@LeaveHomeSavePret

That graphic is open to any interpretation that you wish to put on it. A more accurate list of risk is available here: www.independent.co.uk/news/health/coronavirus-risk-doctors-texas-medical-association-covid-19-a9610371.html School is moderate risk.

That depends on the variables in a particular country though.

Somewhere with small classes, good ventilation and mask wearing might be moderate risk.

The UK with large class numbers/high occupancy, poor ventilation and no mask wearing is going to be high risk.

And it also depends on whether you are in an area with high or low numbers. If you are in an area with low virus numbers, it will be low risk anyway.

MIL had to spend a winter out-of-doors (eating meals in the garden, doing school-work and household chores in the garden... sleeping indoors but with all windows wide open) because it was feared that she might have TB and this was all the treatment they had available.

She lived in the north of England - and coped with the usual winter snow/rain/frost by wearing thermals and coats and scarves - and running about.

We thought that the cure sounded as bad as the disease but she said that she was healthier that winter than she has ever been.

Colds and stomach bugs come from contact with other people (usually indoors) and not from cold air.

Some of the schools I work in have said this now we know the weather is turning. But honestly there are a lot of people in classrooms and it gets hot quickly. I have my windows open a lot in winter anyway as it's so warm inside the windows start steaming up! And that's been the case in most classrooms I've taught in. I wouldn't worry about getting cold...

@LeaveHomeSavePret

That graphic is open to any interpretation that you wish to put on it. A more accurate list of risk is available here: www.independent.co.uk/news/health/coronavirus-risk-doctors-texas-medical-association-covid-19-a9610371.html School is moderate risk.

Each setting is different so that is a gross over-simplification. However, it's also what not what your graphic claims. What your graphic says is that sending a single child in to school is moderate risk to the parent sending them. It doesn't address the risks within school at all.

www.marksandspencer.com/heatgen-thermal-vest-6-16-years-/p/clp60125282?extid=ps_ps-gpla_ggl_kw_ch__-UK---&gclsrc=aw.ds&&gclid=CjwKCAjwh7H7BRBBEiwAPXjadsHPixTdFhpuLinWzqlvzB9c0tSco4WgyD5I8FtPA3x44pBAcVfzkxoCnQEQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

www.amazon.co.uk/PairsKidsTeens-Fingerless-Mittens-Kniteed-7-14years/dp/B077C78QN6/ref=sr_1_7?hvlocphy=1007030&hvnetw=g&keywords=childrens+fingerless+gloves&hvadid=259066879599&qid=1600965094&dchild=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwh7H7BRBBEiwAPXjadrppxh8FASWqFiNIFBiHlOjg1yfEQw_DE4wRB9mdVPyIaSGJPk4UaxoC3NoQAvD_BwE&hydadcr=28183_1821137&hvdev=c&hvqmt=e&tag=mumsnetforu03-21&hvtargid=kwd-314536192031&adgrpid=53268568276&hvrand=5192059589101399542&sr=8-7

its far healthier to have ventilation and wrap up warm

My son is thrilled with the open windows. He hates being hot and in his bedroom his windows are always open, the radiator is permanently off and he sleeps with a fan.

Thermals. C’mon now, it’s not that big a deal. Just make sure they’re dressed for it.

My daughter's school has decided that they can't be inside at break under any circumstances. Suggesting they take waterproof coats and brolly. So they'll be wet and cold some days I guess. Sounds miserable.