Are you sending your children to school Tuesday and Wednesday?

[wonderouswelly]

I am a teacher and have heard lots of parents won’t be sending their children in during the heat wave next week.

Are you keeping yours off?

I am dreading it as a teacher; our classroom is so stuffy!

What I don't understand is why there's an amber heat alert for Mon/tues but not the rest of the week? Monday looks positively cool compared to the rest of the week!

Some cars dont work well in extreme heat in slow traffic he will be in the back of an 8 seater car I will send him in with extra drinks and a hand fan its still going to be miserable crawling through and on our narrow roads all it takes is one overheating car to stop everyone its not going to be a good time

My weather app seems to show alerts Mon-Thurs.

I noticed that, where I am in Northants which is in the alert bit it looks like we are forecast a bit of rain tomorrow and about 28.

I'm amazed you know so much about how schools are built in Africa! Because my experience was that ensuring they were designed to ensure the children were as cool as possible was very far down on the list of requirements for the schools..

Children are naturally a lot more resilient than many of their parents seem to think! Stop panicking!

No one seems to be panicking, some people are just taking the alert into consideration and making possible plans for extremely hot weather.

What about the teachers?

When YOU are at work next week, is it in similar conditions to schools?

Who’s panicking?

I have two children who both have the same lifelong health condition. Heat makes it horrendously worse so im.not sure what to do.

It is negligence, of course but it’s government making these decisions so not exactly an isolated issue. Please see also: government handling of the social care sector, COVID, Windrush, Grenfell etc etc etc.

You are highly naive if you think the health and well-being of children in schools is guaranteed or a priority. Schools are underfunded and not a priority for the people making the major decisions about conditions in schools. Most staff do often care about the children but they are at the mercy of the system.

Heat in the UK is different. I didn't say I knew how buildings in other countries were designed. What I said is buildings in the UK are designed to keep heat in. Perhaps try reading what I said before making ridiculous comments.

I have a condition that flares considerably with heat. You need to teach them that it is ok to change what they do in order to manage their condition

Because people are acclimatized. 🤦‍♀️

This sounds very sensible.

The UK is only going to get hotter and those measures need to start being put into place.

It's been updated now. Took them a while

Bizarrely Monday still has an amber warning at 26 but fri and sat still don't despite being warmer. Friday night looks horrific 😓 feel sorry those in areas warmer than us.

Why can’t you bring a fan?

Definitely bring in a battery one. My kid and her friends all have ones. They stand them on their desks

Four days of it here. I am considering keeping mine off Tuesday or weds. If it gets to 40c theyll likely shut the school anyway

I have family living in a country with a very hot climate. The buildings have air con and when the temperature gets to a certain level they have indoor PE and breaks, so it’s really not the same. There’s also no uniform so student go in t-shirts and shorts.

Just had a message from school, PE kit all week. Send plenty of water. They’ll have break earlier in the day. Stay out of the sun.

waiting to hear from the secondary, I suspect they’ll move to PE kit too, I think they did last time it was this hot.

I work in a school. It's a Victorian building with lots of windows. Since replacing the original windows several years ago, the new windows can only be opened a couple of inches. The school is built in the shape of a capital E, and the classes in one corridor are at the mercy of the sun all day. Closing the blinds traps heat in and makes the rooms so dark that the lights need to be on for any work to get done. All the original high ceilings have had artificial low ceilings fitted as a cost saving exercise, to save on the cost of heating in the winter. We have 1 12" fan in each class - pointless really, but we cannot afford more. Due to PAT test requirements we are not allowed to take in our own electrical appliances. We are also not allowed the personal battery fans since a child caught their hair in one a couple of years ago, and we had to cut the hair to release the fan. 30 children in a room that is already hot just raises the temperature further. The cost of adding air conditioning would be astronomical. A small unit that would cool my 50m3 living room effectively is anything from £450 to £999 ( I've been looking over the past couple of weeks). Our classrooms are much bigger so the cost of portable AC would be at least double. Across the school that is several thousand pounds simply don't have.
I was a teenager in 1976. Yes, it was hot, but not as consistent as now. The biggest issue I can remember was that it was so dry - we had a water standpipe in our road and had to go and collect whatever water we needed.

I just hope they will be washing the PE kit each night - horribly stinky otherwise.

If it's possible to keep them off do so.

Yes I've told my DD she is ok to stay off

I think some parents would be shocked if they saw the temperatures some classrooms reach ( old buildings, too much technology throwing out heat; windows that can’t be opened to circulate air; lack of blinds etc). Last week when it was 21 outside we hit 27. I have no idea what 33/34 will reach!!!