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!

I think the teachers should just all faint together. That'll sort the dilemma out, everyone home!

The issue is that whilst there’s a legal minimum temp, there’s no legal maximum, so no head is going to upset governors, trusts and d of e by unlawfully shutting a school “ just because” it’s extremely uncomfortable and a few children may get ill/ sick from the heat. You can by all means take it up with the school - but no school is magically finding money for air con, blinds, altering windows so children can climb out of third storey buildings!! Sadly!

Oh I have worked it out and it’s literally a few days/weeks here. The kids won’t melt, they can get water from a tap which is cold and clean. Keeping your kids off, unless they’re medically vulnerable, is a huge over reaction.

The extremes of weather are caused by climate change. It's not just people moaning.

The schools in the area of sub Saharan Africa that I'm familiar with have a school day that's apx 7am-1pm. They have solid walls with high 'windows' that aren't glazed, but just have bars across. The classrooms are dark, but they're cool.

My classroom in the UK, like many, had windows on two sides that were basically walls of glass from my waist level to the ceiling. And no openings. One of the other walls had small rectangular windows almost at ceiling level, that only opened (from the bottom) by three or four inches.

Surprised thats all you have to think about if you are a teacher!

A friend of mine said her neighbour's child is due to have their sports day on Wednesday, and there's been no mention of it being postponed. Crazy to have a sports day in 39 degrees heat. Just asking for trouble. When will people wake up the fact that extreme heat can be as dangerous as extreme cold?

Yes of course (and I have one who faints when they get too hot). I just hope there will be some sense shown and children are allowed to go in non-school uniform so they can wear shorts and t-shirts or at least they are allowed not to wear their blazers!

Thank goodness the exams are over 😵‍💫

I'm a teacher and I'll be working through it. However, my mum has very kindly offered to look after my 5 and 7 year old on Tuesday and Wednesday. My 7 year old is getting over tonsillitis at the moment anyway.

This. ^ Doesn't take much to make some people on here 'chuckle...' 🙄

Yes, that is bonkers!

We have sent a letter to parents reminding them to send a sunhat, wear suncream, wear pe kit etc. We've also promised to keep them inside if needed.
What the parents don't realise is that this will mean 60+ children spending their break / lunch in a cramped, already extremely hot classroom - we have minimum (legal) lunchtime supervision. Our playground & field has no shade whatsoever. I don't know what's worse. Neither is acceptable in my opinion.

If I am going to work the kids are going to school. Sure all these employers will be more than happy to give their staff time off to look after their kids as it's too hot.🙄

It seems DD's school has air con, she'd be better off there compared to home. They've already said to wear short-sleeved shirts and shorts/skirts (no ties either) so they'll probably be okay. I'll be at work in a workshop, it'll be incredibly hot with flamework etc, school will be way better.

Hmmm. Our school has a bit summer concert in a large hall planned when the temp is meant to be 39c. It was hot in the room last year so good knows what it’ll be like this year, I’m wondering if they’ll cancel.

Why won't the parents realise that? Are they unusually stupid?

I imagine most parents wouldn’t picture more than 30 or 35 children in a classroom as this is the usual class size. 60 in a room seems a lot, no?

Quite a few posters have posted it’s hot at home, it’s hot at school, obviously not realising that a 30 odd bodies room will be A LOT hotter.

The parents have been told they will stay inside. They will not consider the logistics of doing that.

I went to high school and college in the South of France. Did my exams in 35+ degree heat.

We did not have air con, fans, blackout blinds or anything other than some curtains and windows to open and we did not have bottles of water in class. The buildings were not designed to keep heat out.

We survived. They will live!

So, you lived there, then?
You were acclimatized to the weather.
35c temps are not the norm in Britain.

www.france24.com/en/france/20260619-new-timetables-longer-holidays-how-french-schools-adapt-heatwaves

Except.. they are. Or they’re certainly becoming the norm.

2021 - highs of 32°
2022 - highs of 40.3°
2023 - highs of 32°
2024 - highs of 34.8°
2025 - highs of 35.8°

How many more years of heatwave peaks in the 30s do we need before we become acclimatised?

Indeed, but part of the problem for acclimatisation is that we don't generally experience sustained high temperatures. We had the May heat spike followed immediately by below average temperatures for longer than we had the heat. That's not conducive to acclimatisation.

FWIW, I spent the summer in Greece once. There was a heatwave with temps around 40c and above. When it finally "cooled" to around 33c I had to wear a light sweater and jeans because it felt chilly. I was acclimatized to the weather there. When I came home temps were in the low 20's. I was freezing and needed winter clothes and my winter duvet for a good month.
I spent a summer in Australia - their winter.
Temps were low 20's. I was in summer clothes and bathing suit on a deserted beach.
Locals were in jeans, puffer coats and winter hats.
Tolerance to temps is relative.