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 went to school in the 1980s, and never ever remember the school shutting because it was hot. OR because it was cold, and we had no central heating then.

Back in the summer of 1976 most people I knew slathered themselves in cooking oil to get a good tan 😆😆. It was a wonderful hot summer that seemed to go on for ever, but no-one kept their children home from school or stayed off work because of the heat😆

Different people have different experiences. Different modes of transport. We walk - some get oppressive trains, tubes, metros, buses. Some have lovely air-conditioned cars.

This country is not set up for hot weather. Buildings are different. Older ones are traditionally designed to retain heat. Windows don't open more than a crack - not that that does anything to cool. Air con is a pipe-dream. So yes. Very British a reaction. Minus the "over" bit.

It’s going to 38 on Tues and Wed. … it’s extreme for UK not built for it.
Obvs not extreme for you or those who live in hot climates who hide inside with air con

It’s easier to cool 1 child at home than it is a class of 30 in one room. You may have no choice one day if school choose to close.

Lol no. We lived somewhere where the temperature was routinely over 40 and they went to school (no Aircon either). Sports day was A Lot.

Of course.

1976 was cooler than this. The hottest it ever got was 35.9 which isn’t even in the top 10 hottest days now.

I’ll be going to work, I work for the nhs but in a schools team. So yes. However, I may be incapable of work due to chronic illness so I’m unsure how I’ll be coping. If ny children are struggling health wise they’ll be off. But actually school will be a good distraction and potentially cooler than our houae. I’ll be alternating between cool baths and the car so I don’t end up very poorly.

I have to say I have never understood why people bang on about the Summer of 1976! Yes, it was a long hot summer, but we have had a number of long hot summers since. Including last year (2025) and 2018. There have been quite a few more. The obsession with talking about Summer of 1976 is bizarre.

Open the windows and let 35 degree air in? How will that help exactly?

1976 was not as hot as this.

Yes his classroom has air con. I’m a teacher and so does mine.

And honestly id be fine with that, as long as the culture changes in the UK to make it acceptable for parents to take time off work to care for their kids in these circumstances, and the population as a whole accepts that many other services would also close down in the heat because many workers would be at home with their children. I just can’t see that happening.

How really bizarre

Yes if you are about 80 but I doubt they will be at school anyway

So this was somewhere with a hot climate, temperatures routinely over 40 degrees - not like the UK then. Different buildings, different clothes, different tolerances.

Yep. Classic Mumsnet total hysteria.

We had a hot mobile in primary school and we would just do a lesson or two on the field.

Your children attend Prep School!

On the tv weather today it said it was 35 in 1976

I have sympathy for teachers and children stuck in hot classrooms, but on what planet are schools going to authorise the absence of healthy children for a heatwave when the current trend is to pressure parents to send even quite unwell children in, often when they're still infectious or not clear of vomiting and not infrequently are just sent home again after contaminating their classmates?

As we're not a family who are ok with unauthorised absences (though we don't judge others who are more relaxed), we have no choice but to send DS in and hope for the best unless the school decides to close for safety reasons.

are you saying that sending the child to school is an unsafe decision?

The thing is, the reason for the fines are because of an unauthorised absence - is the heat classified as such? I am unsure so would appreciate some clarification.

But getting behind in class as a justification for the fine is an entirely separate issue. For example, that suggests if your child is smart, technically they shouldn't be fined. And if a child didn't miss one school day, but still fails or in bottom set or whatever ....well I don't know.

As the absence would presumably be unauthorised, we don’t have a huge amount of choice do we? Even if we could manage to get the day off work to care for them. If school is open and they’re not unwell, they’re expected to be there.

Certainly not. I am saying that if school decides it isn't safe then I respect that and don't consider it akin to missing school for a holiday.

Yes indeed. And I think we survived it on a small bottle of unrefrigerated milk in the mornings & a glass of water at lunch!😄
We were tough in the 1970s...