Why don't they let the kids play out in the rain?

[mumnosbest]

I teach F1 and 2 and we have to provide outdoor activities whatever the weather. The kids all bring wellies and waterproofs and love playing out in the puddles (even though sometimes us teachers don't).
DS is in Y2 further up school and on rainy days comes out hyper after being kept in all day, jumps in every puddle on the way home and goes straight out to play in the garden.
If we have to allow our younger more delicate little darlings to play in the rain/snow/wind, then why can't the older kids. I'd happily provide waterproofs, Y2s can dress much more quickly than F! and 2s. Are the KS1&2 teachers just nesh? (ducks and hides)

I got soaking standing in the rain at breaktime. However, by some freak of nature, the rain seems to evaporate off children as they run around. They were certainly less wet than me!

Our cleaners are fantastic and always complain with a smile and we put much worse things than glitter on the floor

At our school, most senior teacher on duty makes the "wet play" or "dry" call - I do Monday duty so we ALWAYS go out [made of tough stuff emoticon]

Some days I swear they are kept in because of a black cloud

It would need a bit of a culture change - EYFS children are used to coming in with a full change of clothes, waterproofs and wellies everyday. It would be necessary for KS1&2 children to bring the same. Perfectly doable though.

In FS the children choose to go whether they want to play out in the rain or not, at KS1 you are saying you want to force them all out whether they like it or not! Us staff don't mind, but we have lots of wimpy children

Well, I have just taught an hour of Year 6 cricket which included every single possible weather type from bright sunshine (put on shades) to torrential downpour (scarf over head, umpiring from under climbing frame). I drew the line at the fielding team taking out umbrellas, though.

However, I admit that this could be because it was the last lesson of the day, and I wasn't going to have a classroom full of damp, slowly steaming 11 year olds.

My mum says 'No such thing as bad weather, only the wrong clothes.'

Children don't come to school appropriately dressed for the weather. I have had DCs crying with cold when we have all been out in the snow because they don't even have gloves!

You would also have parents complaining if they got wet!

Our children must be made of ruftier tuftier stuff! We always go out in the rain unless it's absolutely teeming down.
(I have to say KS1 is more rufty and tufty than KS2!)

As a TA and MDA I hate wet play. I have been known
To ignore the pleading looks of other MDA's and not
rung the bell to take them in.

I don't know. I always do duty in the rain until it is pouring. I am going to suggest that on rainy days two of us do duty so the children can choose if they are in or out but I don't think it will happen.

I would love to see threads on here if people's DCs got really wet! There was a serious thread recently where someone thought their nursery DC shouldn't go out in the cold!

As a KS2 teacher, we take the children outside if it is drizzling, but in heavy rain we bring them back inside. The school rules state that all children must have a waterproof jacket, at any one time around 25% will not have one. So they have to be stored elsewhere, which is a lot of children.
Also, as has been stated, the time pressure on the curriculum is huge, we simply cannot waste 10 minutes at a time for wellies and coats to be put on and off in a crowded cloakroom. Not unless we combined it with rapid mental maths in French.

And yes, parental whinging would hit the roof. These are children who are driven to school on a regular basis, and ferried everywhere in case of sudden melting.

They go from home to school in the car. They do not have proper waterproof coats and many parents wouldn't even provide them if asked because they wouldn't agree with them going out in the rain! The only way is to actually provide the clothing, the way they do in adventure centres and the budget wouldn't stretch. They also have inadequate footwear, especially girls and nothing for heads.

exoticfruits our children get seriously wet then seriously dried and we don't get complaints ... and we do provide clothing and wellies

My point mrz- you would have to provide clothing and Welles and it doesn't happen in general. Are you providing it throughout the school?

Only in KS1 but many children choose not to wear it

and when asked to provide wellies most of our parents said not to worry about mud or water ...so I don't

I hate wet play and so wish they could go out in all weathers, my Year 1's have been climbing the walls all week!

Sadly I know that lots of parents would not dress them appropriately. I had a girl coming in the snow in a summer dress, no tights and a thin jacket . It's hard enough getting them to bring in a PE kit (I have given up and just give them spares) let alone 'just in case waterproof clothes'.

It does infuriate me when they get kept on for a drizzle of rain though, they really do need to be outside!

I just can't see it working in schools that I have been in, parents would worry about it. When you can get a parent thinking below 15degrees is too cold for a nursery DC to play out, you have problems!!

Many DCs will get out of the car and not even have a coat of any description. I would be all for having them out all weathers.

It's in our brochure Your child will get wet and dirty so they know what to expect.

A pity all schools don't say it and make it plain they go out all weathers. It wouldn't go down well, an AIBU thread on here complaining the DCs were out in pouring rain would have huge support for people saying they stay in, why shouldn't their DCs. I think that there are many parents who would like them to have the choice to stay in on normal winter days.

Our main problem is unsuitable clothing and inadequate shoes. We know that a prortion of our parents genuinely struggle to afford to even the basics of school uniform, so however many reminders we might send home about warm, waterproof coats and strong shoes / wellies we know that for many the only option is for us to provide them. The PTA of our (small) school recently raised the money for full waterproofs for Forest School, but that's only 1 class at a time so they would need to raise 5x as much for the whole school to have waterproof tops and trousers, plus more for a full set of wellies.

We would then really struggle to get all those sets of clothing dry, as we have very limited space. The Forest School leader takes all the kit home to hose down and dry in her garage every week as there is nowhere at school where that can be done. To turn round a whole school's worth of wet coats, waterproof trousers and wellies on a daily or twice daily basis so that they are ready for the next break would, unfortunately, be logistically impossible.

(I mention waterproof trousers because even for those children who have decent coats, their bottom halves get soggy. As our children have been out in dryish periods between showers this week - we tend to flex break times a little if there's been a gleam of sunshine 10 minutes before the usual time - there have been several 'landed in puddle' incidents and at various points I have had up to half my class sitting in class in their PE shorts because of wet trousers / tights / skirts)