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

Is it? When my daughter was at pre-school in NSW there was definitely no air conditioning and she would be in pre-school when it was >40 degrees outside. We've been back in the UK a few years , so not currently in the Australian school system and I do know they have a cooler schools program ongoing, but that's to provide access to an "airconditioned space" within all schools, the guidance doesn't read like that equates to installing air conditioning in every classroom, maybe you know otherwise.

Yeah, no, it’s not. Also in NSW and it wasn’t in schools when my kids started their school journey, and over time, we as P&C had to pay for it and commit to paying the uplift in electricity ongoing, if we wanted it installed. In my State, it’s only installed by Educ dept in certain regions that get beyond hot as fuck (from memory back at the time mine were in primary, that had to be over 35deg for majority of year). I had a few that went private for high school and private schools seemed to have it as standard at that point, which is understandable given the fees!

I suspect the previous poster is someone young who has zero idea how/when air con went into our schools and that it wasn’t the kind Govnt dept that decided kids/teachers should have it in most places it exists🙄.

Irrespective, it didn’t exist when I was at school and for decades after. They just called it a day when temps went over 40, and we all managed to learn just fine, as did my kids when they went through when it was only starting to come in and they might have struck it lucky every now and again with a classroom where P&C had installed. So, while nice, it’s in no way essential to learning.

My dh is a primary school governor
he’d be laughed out the room if he suggested the school pay for air con, they haven’t got enough money to replace the leaky boiler or dodgy roof, any serious capital investment is a literal impossibility

The teacher was wrong about the fans. Movement of air has benefits, even if it's hot air.

I live in the Midwest US where we have weeks on end of temps over 30C and little or no cooling at night.

Lots of houses and apartments have ceiling fans to help move the air, and standing oscillating fans are a standard means of battling the heat too, especially at night. I attend a church that doesn't have central air, just big fans strategically placed, and they work well.

Fans in a hot classroom would definitely have had a good effect.

My year 6 DS has air con (village state primary) but this is due to year 6 being in a stand alone building, separate from the rest of the school that was built only 4/5 years ago. They don’t have it turned down too low but enough to be comfortable. Very lucky!

Why would the school pay for it? The Education Department would pay and arrange to have them installed in schools, surely. The school shouldn't have to do anything.

Unfortunately school budgets don't work like that. Most are part of academy trusts that would rather pay CEOs and other trust staff huge salaries than see the money spent on actual schools and children.

Hah, what would actually happen is that schools would have to assess their own sites and find classrooms that meet some strict threshold like ‘over 30 degrees with all windows open for more than 4 weeks of the year’ then they would have to put a bid in for some funding that may be rejected and if the funding comes through they would then have to buy some crappy standalone aircon unit from an approved government list instead of an actually good one. The approved government one will be too big, too noisy and not work properly and will end up stuck in a cupboard somewhere.

I teach in a relatively new secondary building. Only air con in the IT rooms. I have a vent that supposedly cools, but only works if there’s a breeze (never is on my side of the building) and the windows don’t open. So I have two massive cheap ineffective fans that the kids can’t hear me over.