Aircon in primary school

[littegi08]

Hi, my daughter came back home saying how hot it was in the classroom. The teacher did not allow fans and turned the lights off. As a result my daughter was hot and was unable to read because it was so dark. Does your school have aircon and do you believe it is a necessity? Thanks

As someone who went school in the 70s snd 80s we coped in demountable classrooms which were really like glasshouses, we coped without fans 🤭😳 and didn’t know what air conditioning was 🤷🏼‍♀️ Yep and we survived 🙌🏼

Why was the teacher opposed to fans?

What sort of lights were there in the classroom if turning them off was going to make such a difference?

This sounds like a teacher who needed to use a lot more common sense than he or she exhibited.

My DCs went to school in the US, where they enjoyed AC in all their classrooms. In their (private) elementary school they had window AC units, and in high school they had central air.

We live in an area of the US that has brutal winters and hot, humid summers. Kids get out for the summer at the end of May and return to school around the third week of August, when the heat is truly oppressive. Not having AC just isn't an option. It's not considered humane to expect either teachers or students to function in either extreme heat or cold.

Extreme heat events are going to happen more frequently. The UK stands pretty much alone among developed countries in inflicting a summer term on students and teachers, and will have to take the finger out and think carefully about the reality of the working environment if school is to go on as it is now.

It's really stunning and very saddening to see the acceptance among British posters that there is no money for heat or cooling, that everyone in schools should suck it up and soldier on. This is acceptance of second best or even worse as normal.

I went to one year of school (in Ireland) in prefabs while a new school was built.

I would never expect that sort of school environment to be more than an emergency stopgap, and would never use that experience as an argument for others to accept a permanent state of discomfort.

The UK needs to look forward, not backward. Britons need to expect more, not less than or the same as they had to put up with in the past.

And 'in your day' they walked 6 miles to school barefoot, right?

No we just walked to school in our shoes not 6 miles but without our parents 🤭 because we could - happy to help 😆

Kids aren't meant to just be 'coping' and 'surviving' though, they're meant to be learning.

What's the point of even sending kids to school if they can't learn there due to the conditions?

That’s a stretch. I’m in Australia and many (not all) schools have air con. Different States have different rules but in mine the government only provides air con in areas where it’s going to be over 35 most of the year, otherwise it’s up to the Parents/Citizen association to fund it for the schools and commit to chucking in for electricity with them.

However, there was no such thing as air con when I went to school, in fact, no residential homes had air con either and it wasn’t particularly widespread. It was hot a lot of the time (and schools/houses were not built like they are now with heat in mind, they were traditionally ‘British build’), but we all just got on fine. It certainly wasn’t a waste of time being at school in the heat, we learnt what was needed, there were not several generations of complete non-schooled morons in Australia because air con didn’t exist, or wasn’t in schools/homes🤣. Places like hospitals were only starting to get this ‘new magic’ air con when I was a child, and then it wasn’t widespread in such places for a further decade. Doctors and nurses managed, they didn’t bunk off home because it was all a waste of time in the heat 🤔.

Heat in Australia tends to be a drier heat than the UK so it feels more comfortable than the horrible humid heat we get. Kids in the UK will struggle at lower temperatures than elsewhere.

And I know how kids learn in a normal temperature classroom, and how they learn in a boiling hot classroom where they are all sluggish and sweaty and can barely make it through the day.

Heat in Australia tends to be a drier heat than the UK so it feels more comfortable than the horrible humid heat we get. Kids in the UK will struggle at lower temperatures than elsewhere

@noblegiraffe You do know how big Aus is right, and that we experience vastly different conditions. I’ve spent time in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia etc where it’s very humid and quite a lot of the north here is not that different at times. I’ve also lived in the UK for many years and really don’t believe the heat there is more uncomfortable than in many areas in Aus. How much of Aus have you traversed and in what seasons?

DS used to come out of primary school with the hair stuck to his head with sweat on a normal summer day. The newer school buildings seem to be built to retain heat.

our primary has aircon in most classrooms. It’s an academy in a not very affluent area.

I’m a teacher and my new build school has air con, but the old building didn’t. I wouldn’t expect schools to put it into existing buildings but I wouldn’t expect it to be part of the design for any new schools/ buildings.

You mean you WOULD expect it to be part of new build designs.

Yes I do!

Hi, my daughter told me that the teacher said fans just move around hot air and do not work. Blinds were pulled down and lights were off. It was just a challenging environment to learn in. Thanks

You do realise though that most kids in the uk are still in the same schools that you were (and I was) in the 70/80s, but temps are actually getting hotter? I was in a primary school a few years ago when it reached 39 degrees. Kids were fainting left right and centre. We didn’t close (the local secondary did) as basically schools are considered childcare. It was unbearable.

That's probably why they can afford it, because they get extra funding through things like Pupil Premium for all the kids that are low income/FSM etc.

Well, teacher wasn't wrong about that. Don't understand turning off the lights though, unless teacher was hoping for everyone to have a nap.

Yeah, and you had to go to school uphill and back home was uphill as well, and a freezing wing was always blowing in your face, and the wind used to be colder than these days and the hills were steeper.
Bore off with that 'we survived' bs.

It as also challenging to teach and 30 little fans making noise would not have improved it.
I teach in a school and the hatwaves make thinks so hard for everyone. It's hot, disgusting, no one can focus. Kids drink a lot and then everyone goes to the toilet all the time. Even with blinds down lights off etc it's diabolically hot in some buildings. There shoud be a max temp and shcools should close when classrooms go over it. It's not a productive environment.
It wont do much but Id email the headteacher to let them know. If parents say nothing, school will be like "oh no one finds it a problem" (as they like to ignore staff complaints").

I used to work in a school that had ceiling to floor glass windows and thankfully when a new headteacher took over they did install air con, as otherwise it was like being in a greenhouse. I don't know if it would happen nowadays though as this was back when schools were slightly less financially ruined.

I remember being taken out to sit under the trees to have lessons in the summer.

My classroom is unbearable in the heat. I have 2 walls of full windows so the sun comes in from 10am. I keep the blinds down, lights off when practical and then smart board use to a minimum. I have one fan that rotates a little.
There is not enough shade outside to take lessons out and the curriculum really doesn't lend itself to sitting under a tree all day, much as I'd love to. Aircon would be lovely.

New schools are built with better passive cooling (not air con generallY. Unfortunately we are stuck with older building that were not designed for the heat waves we are getting with climate change.

The council sold our school playing field off so we don’t have any trees to sit under!