School closure due to heat

My primary school didn’t close in 76, but some definitely did. I work in a secondary school and the pupils can come in wearing PE kits - but they’re nasty fabrics that are anything but cooling! It’s been deeply unpleasant in the areas without aircon. My daughter was really poorly a couple of years ago through overheating in school. Neither of our schools is closing.

Our GC (primary) will be here having a great time in our spa pool with DH on the BBQ.

Many parents haven’t got such backup.

Padstow13

Do the officials who make these decisions reckon the pupils will stay indoors at home, dutifully sipping tepid Vimto and responsibly staying out of the sun?

Not likely! They be out and about, very much IN the sun, having the time of their lives, playing, vandalising, starting grass fires "for fun", not to mention a little bit of light shoplifting.

And parents will be frantically trying to find emergency child care at very short notice.

Nope, I really think the powers-that-be don't think through the possible consequences of their snap decisions.

Gosh what a positive view of your fellow human beings you have . How sad to think so badly and negatively of others

Do the officials who make these decisions reckon the pupils will stay indoors at home, dutifully sipping tepid Vimto and responsibly staying out of the sun?

Not likely! They be out and about, very much IN the sun, having the time of their lives, playing, vandalising, starting grass fires "for fun", not to mention a little bit of light shoplifting.

And parents will be frantically trying to find emergency child care at very short notice.

Nope, I really think the powers-that-be don't think through the possible consequences of their snap decisions.

Jo140618 I resent that remark about staff wanting the day off, my daughter teaches in a primary, we are in S Hants, her school is not closing, but they must keep the children indoors! Sounds like he’ll.

She is the same person, along with many others when Covid was rampant, went in to look after children who were vulnerable, or had no other choice.

There's a red alert in my area of Berkshire. Can't stand this heat. It's still 31 degrees in the conservatory at 8.30 pm.
My grandchildren's school/preschool is closed for a couple of days. It says there could be temperatures in the mid 30s. Noooooo!!!!!

www.readingchronicle.co.uk/news/26215899.berkshire-bucks--met-office-red-warning-issued/

I think it most unjust to imply that schools are closing because staff want a day off. Teachers are hard working and conscientious, and it will mean extra work for them in the long run ensuring that the missed learning is made up.

Primary aged children are not noted for their ability to ‘just get on with it’ if they are hot and uncomfortable. Their well being would be the priority.

There are two primary schools in my road, I have GC at both.
One is giving parents the option to pick up early (lunchtime) the other is continuing as usual 🤷‍♀️

Everybody has to put up and manage with the heat. I'm working on the farm where is constant 31 degree. Loads of school are cooler than houses. Asking parents to take another days holidays to keep kids at home its not fair!!! Only because school staff wants it. They all will get pay for that day off. Government wont pay us parents for taking time off!!! There is no reason for schools closure. It can be a choice for people who want to keep their children off but not day off for teachers and school staff. Some parents cant take off. Its not fair. It is not an earthquake!!!

GrannyGravy13

If schools can close (with minimal notice) due to heat or snow, is it any wonder parents feel entitled to take their children out in term time for family holidays 🤦‍♀️

To my mind, these are two entirely different things.

When schools close due to weather conditions, the reason is primarily the well-being of the pupils.

When parents decide to take holidays during term-time, this may be very nice for their family, although the children will discover when they go back to school that something new has been taught while they were away. The rest of the class is often disrupted when something they have already learned has be gone through again for the benifit of the child, or children who have been away.

Ifheatwaves are not just a one every ten or sixteen years event, 1960 was and then was f ollowed by years or miserable summers. schools will have somehow to find money to have sun blinds put up, inside or outside the classrooms, shady areas created in the school's playground and give children permisson to drink water during lessons.

If too many days are cancelled, children will either have to learn less in the school year or have longer school days during the cooler months of the year. Either way, there w ill be problems.

PamelaJ1

Baggs I went to school in both Nigeria and HK.
I seem to remember it used to get a bit warm there too!

Didn't school start very early in the morning so that children would go home before the hottest part of the afternoon?

Sago

I wonder if staff have to go in?

Teachers who are parents will be at home looking after their own children who can't go to nursery or school because the buildings are too hot.

Dickens

Luckygirl3

I had a baby in the August of '76! I was like a beached sweaty male.

Luckygirl3 please tell us you were like a whale... 🐋

I had a baby in the August of ‘76

So did I!

Happy days though.

The statement ‘carry on and adapt’ should be adapt so we can carry on. For example in some Australian states, legislation has made air conditioning in schools mandatory. So this adaptation has allowed schools to carry on.

Cossy

Common sense needs to prevail, my daughter is teaching year 1. Her school is in Essex, it’s hot here atm. Her wife is a chef and still working and no air con in their busy city restaurant.

We cannot just stop because it’s too hot, too cold, too windy, wrong kind of leaves on the line (why my commuter was cancelled once)

We all have to adjust and be sensible.

Exactly 👍🏻

We have two primary schools in our road, one is letting children go home at 12 noon tomorrow and Thursday. So that’s me busy 🤦‍♀️

Greyduster

The school I was working in today was like a sauna and we only had a high of 33. No air moving at all. Grumpy staff, grumpy children, queues for the water cooler - I was glad to call it an afternoon.

I’m not suggesting it’s easy or nice for anyone, just that we need to carry on and adapt, and it’ll be hard.

Our little Grandson (5) has dreadful hay fever, he has apparently really struggled today despite medication.

Poor little thing he’s sleepy already my daughter said.

I was exactly the same, I remember how debilitating it was, I have great medication now but can remember feeling so tired and uncomfortable.

The school I was working in today was like a sauna and we only had a high of 33. No air moving at all. Grumpy staff, grumpy children, queues for the water cooler - I was glad to call it an afternoon.

Common sense needs to prevail, my daughter is teaching year 1. Her school is in Essex, it’s hot here atm. Her wife is a chef and still working and no air con in their busy city restaurant.

We cannot just stop because it’s too hot, too cold, too windy, wrong kind of leaves on the line (why my commuter was cancelled once)

We all have to adjust and be sensible.

watermeadow

It’s only a couple of days. Working parents are used to sudden collapse of their complicated childcare plans. They coped during a couple of years during Covid.
I don’t think children should be at school in a heatwave. Here, from age four, they have a long walk down steep hills then back up when they are tired at the end of the school day. The secondary school is further away up another steep hill. Not many adults are walking two miles to work.

Who’s walking with these children? We are only really discussing primary school
children, with mobile phones, most children at secondary school could stay alone during the day or possibly spend the day with a friend with a non working parent.

Most classrooms were built cheaply and have very big single glazed windows without solar insulation. Keeping children in these is akin to locking a child in a car during the red alert. Children will be safer at home, heat stroke can be avoided if parents act responsibly.

Luckygirl3

I had a baby in the August of '76! I was like a beached sweaty male.

I suppose this is the result of 'lessons being learned' from 1976.
Many schools will be like ovens. Little work will be done. Many children have bus and train journeys.

Certainly more notice of the likelihood of closures should have been given since this was talked about last week.

But I don't recall it being quite this hot across swathes of the country for days at a time in 1976. Predominant memory is no rain.

I was newly promoted to branch librarian in the mid 70s and my first posting was a two bus journey across the city. Not pleasant in hot weather. The library had huge glass windows and it was like a greenhouse. No aircon then. We just all went to work as normal.

Last time I checked the building was abandoned and awaiting demolition. So sad.