Any other cold school staff out there?

[Flatwhite32]

First world problem, but I'm a primary teacher and my god school is freezing with all the windows open (which I know is necessary) and no heating. I'm wearing lots of layers, but I just feel so so cold during the day, and I've got a 30 weeks old baby inside me for some internal warmth! Anyone feeling the same?! Brrrrr.

My son has said the same thing. He also finds he can’t teach in a mask all day

Freeeeeezing (loads of layers). Bones are cold. Hot bath is the only thing that works. The cold makes me very, very, grumpy!!

I can't stand it windows and doors open and it's awful.... I'm pretty close to handing my notice in I really can't do this all winter

Sorry to be that person, but we have had lots of threads on this already! (Some in Staffroom, some in Style & Beauty asking for thermal recommendations 😂)

Yes, it is utterly freezing.

I teach nursery and we pretty much have our door open all day everyday so not much difference for us!

I'm a paramedic and "bare below the elbows" is getting rather chilly now when we are doing outside jobs or going to and from the ambulance to patients property. It looks rather daft and is entirely pointless wearing a plastic apron over a long sleeve jacket!!

Yes I'm in reception and our external door to the courtyard has to be open all day too! I don't usually feel the cold but I'm really struggling to stay warm!

Why no heating? I understand about ventilation but you need some background heat!

Must be miserable for you all.

Agreed - want slt to relax rules and let staff and students come dressed in home clothes so we can be as warm as possible

The heating should be on. It will still be cold but more bearable. It’s ventilation you need, not cold temperatures.

We have heating on but it goes straight out of the window (blow heaters sited under the windows!) It's 12-13 degrees max in my classroom.

It has been baltic for the past few days! We have kids in coats and 6th formers bringing in scarves the size of blankets to wrap up in.

I'm wearing wool tights under trousers with bed socks and it is helping a little. Might end up in a hat soon too to reduce what I presume is a cold induced headache.

And the heating is on; it's just cold in Manchester and rather windy!

Fuckin' freezin'!!!

I do wonder how long it’s sustainable for. We had to de ice the car this morning and the temp was -1 when we got to school, dd is in reception and came out of school yesterday with hands cold as ice. Surely they cant expect pupils or teachers to deal with this all winter?

Also how much more than normal is the heating going to cost for schools, many who are already financially on a knife edge as we are always being told?

I work in a warehouse with no heating - you can see your breath! Thermals are essential

My kids school do have the windows open, but do have heating on... surely they should still have heating?

We've been told that there's no point in putting the heating on because the windows are open. We can't control it ourselves, so no hope of it coming on! @Danglingmod sorry should have searched for threads! In my cold state I didn't think to do it haha!

I am freezing away from my desk - I have moved my desk next to the radiator and go and ask my deputy head every morning to put the heating on. They seem to forget it’s freezing.

@EgonSpengler2020 oh that sounds chilly, you poor thing! Hope you can have your heaters on in the ambulance, although I can imagine you don't spend lots of time actually in it as you're mainly on jobs!

I was in a school yesterday, so cold the kids couldn't hold their pencils...so much for learning! Monitoring of handwriting would not be a success🤣

This is crazy, surely. No point reducing the spread of covid if we end up with a rise in pneumonia. The poor kids must be freezing as well especially as kids cool down faster than adults.

@Castlecliff

I teach nursery and we pretty much have our door open all day everyday so not much difference for us!

I was going to say this, in Early Years the door is almost always open. I worked like this for over 30 years. I wore warm clothes and recommend Doc Martins for warm feet.

Our heatings off too, slt are in offices with windows closed and plug in heaters while we have all windows and doors open.

They remind us every morning in briefing about the windows though.

I no longer thankfully, work in schools.
As for heating, this can be dismal in many classrooms in winter with the windows open. Many schools have heating systems that really aren't fit for purpose.

Last school I worked in was a new build, so you would think things like heating wouldn't be an issue. Every year part of the building used plug in heaters in addition to the heating system just to try and keep the rooms above 16C.

There's no specific max/min room temperature legally just an advised min of 16C.

Sympathies. My yr8 son wore lycra leggings all day today under school trousers & reckon's that's his new outfit until March or April, now.