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!

When it was 40 a few years back the rate of attendance was below 50% at my (secondary) school. The kids who were there mainly wanted to put their heads on the desks. So, it's not just a 'MN thing' - plenty of parents seemed to decide their children didn't need to go in.

There is no law that protects people from working in the heat and school classrooms are generally appallingly designed. I have a thermometer. My classroom was 28 yesterday - I'll probably be able to cook food in it on Wednesday!

Sorry i cant stop laughing here - such a typical British over reaction ! I

Hadnt even considered giving her the day off. I had considered half filling her water bottle and freezing it so she can have a cold drink with her, but that’s it.

What about Monday?

You know they actually shut schools in France in heatwaves right? Is that a 'French over reaction'?

Absolutely. More concerned about my younger one at nursery. But I have to work and my work has air con so hey ho in I go.

Both my kids going to school although predicted 36 degrees here. PE kit is allowed. School have sent email reassuring of frequent water breaks etc. However sports day Wednesday and predicted 33 degrees so I do think that should be cancelled. Waiting to see.....

I guarantee most schools in UK certainly do not have air con. They even have window safety latches so barely open.

I have to work, DH has to work and both of my kids schools have said no blazers/jumpers next week and shorts and hats are acceptable alternative uniform.

We walk two miles there and back, so I'm not jumping through hoops about it.

Not concerned about the actual being in school bit though as they'll be cooler than at home!

Yes, DH and I have to work so they’ll be going in. There air conditioning in parts of Dcs primary school like some classrooms and the hall, so they usually rotate kids round these areas when it’s very hot.

I don’t think we were even sent in with water bottles and hats in 1976 tbh.

Exactly. Have we really lost any concept of resilience as a society. I have no words. What are we teaching future generations. We have warped the last making them
unemployable let’s not continue it.

I sent my children to school in 40 degree weather in 2022.

Would it even be authorised absence to keep them off?

I thought every single day in school was important which is why I have had to pay school fines for some holidays taken..

Nope because we finished yesterday til end of Aug 👌

They also generally have employers who are far more tolerant to parents having to take time off to care for their children. I’d love to keep my kids at home instead of sending them in to sit in a boiling hot classroom, but I have to go to work. It would mean an entire culture change here.

Unfortunately my work place won't take me not going into work because my daughter might be a bit hot at school and need some extra water very well so we will be school and work as usual.

I come from a country where we have very very hot summers. Everything works fine and fully operational but people are used to it and the infrastructure is there to cope. And people are sensible and careful because it is actually quite possible to die of heat exhaustion/ stroke.
I don’t understand some posters here saying 39C is fine, carry on as normal. The UK is not set up for a fully functioning situation at 39C and people are not as careful and well informed as they should be. My only advice would be to just be sensible.

I'm not looking forward to dealing with 30 hot and bothered 6 year olds, but it hasn't even crossed my mind that anyone would be kept at home because it's hot.
Might buy some ice poles though.

Of course it is, but of course it is right that safety must always come first. I feel this is very different to getting behind everyone else if you go on holiday in term time.

It’s forecast to be 39 & 37 degrees here on Tues/Wed and I can’t imagine how horrific the classrooms will be - 30 kids, a teacher, 2 TA’s, no blinds and one floor fan - all that heat beaming into the classroom plus the heat generated from all those bodies. No one will be learning anything and pretty much everyone will be miserable.

I was 15 in 1976. As far as I remember, the heat wave started around 2 weeks before school closed for summer. We opened the classroom windows and took our cardigans off. Job done.
The glorious weather continued for weeks on end . No nanny state back then so we just enjoyed the heat, my sister and I and a couple of neighbourhood kids slept out in a tent in our back garden most nights.
What a fantastic and unforgettable year it was and I cant believe its 50 years ago 🥰

I remember the summer of 1976. That was weeks of heat & drought. Livestock so desperate for greenery they were eating unpalatable inappropriate fodder from hedges & were poisoned. It was hellish.
Britain will just have to weather it out & yes, that means kids too.

The weather goes hot, in the summer, and people completely lose their minds.