School closure due to heat

butterandjam

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?

Yes it did.
To be fair if you were an expat back in the day it usually meant that mums didn’t work so childcare wasn’t a problem.
I do remember that we had covered walkways outside the classrooms, presumably to keep the rooms cooler. No air con though.

I have got a GC here whose school closed at lunchtime.

He had his lunch in the shade, since then I have been in and out of the pool with him, played tennis and he is now back playing in the pool waiting for his brother to finish school and join him.

Well sil worked from home whilst dd had to go to Cornwall with her work so gc were ok. WFH has its uses. I do wonder though if schools do need to all shut? It’s 30C at DD’s house and gc go to an older built school so possibly it’s cooler there than at home.

BlueBelle

How did we ever manage as kids !!! I don’t think my school ever closed come heat, snow, ice or illnesses

Totally agree Bellasnana we are a country of moaners nothings ever right we can’t seem to handle anything without moaning
Tuliptree you are very curt Bellasnana was giving her opinion which she’s entitled to

Opinions can be factually wrong. Those based on error and ignorance deserve to be corrected, if only to save its owner future embarrassment.

Deliberate misinformation deserves to be refuted, if only for the benefit of gullible or uneducated readers.

My school (on a hill) in England often closed because of floods or flood warnings; so that pupils and staff at school could get home to lower ground before access was cut off.

In my childrens school days in Scotland, their schools were sometimes closed by snow , or warnings of heavy snow, for the same reason.

<https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/jan/06/uk-weather-snow-and-ice-warnings-schools-closed-in-scotland>

Unless anyone on here was at the same schools as other posters or know the schools they attended, you cannot know that any of their posts contain deliberate misinformation

42° by lunchtime in DGC’s school. School remains open, but parents had option to take children home at lunchtime. Evidently only 15% of KS1 children and 25% of KS2 children were still in for the afternoon session.

GrannyGravy13

Unless anyone on here was at the same schools as other posters or know the schools they attended, you cannot know that any of their posts contain ^deliberate misinformation^

Butterjams reference to ‘deliberate misinformation’ is not, I believe referencing specific schools. But there’s certainly plenty of misinformation flying around on GN today on this and other threads.

Information here ...
France is experiencing its first strike due to the high temperature. Any excuse pour faire la grève!

We're at 44° this afternoon.

TV discussion for evidence.

Restaurants closed and Greggs in Southampton.

MartavTaurus

Information here ...
France is experiencing its first strike due to the high temperature. Any excuse pour faire la grève!

We're at 44° this afternoon.

TV discussion for evidence.

Let’s hope your emergency services do not strike, as they will be needed with those temperatures.

GrannyGravy13

MartavTaurus

Information here ...
France is experiencing its first strike due to the high temperature. Any excuse pour faire la grève!

We're at 44° this afternoon.

TV discussion for evidence.

Let’s hope your emergency services do not strike, as they will be needed with those temperatures.

And the worry now is the electricity substations blowing up with the heat. We're ready to drive round in the air-conditioned car all night!

I drove home from the gym very slowly this morning for that reason.

We have turned the temperature down on the Spa Pool, spent a couple of hours in there with The Imp this afternoon.

Doing everything slowly (apart from drinking 😹)

No Gilets Jeunes?

Jaxjacky

No Gilets Jeunes?

No too hot for them. 🥵
Their jackets might melt! 😆

Water cannons for cooling 🙂

Jaxjacky

Water cannons for cooling 🙂

I threatened two of the GC with turning the hose on them earlier, they were all for it.

BlueBelle

How did we ever manage as kids !!! I don’t think my school ever closed come heat, snow, ice or illnesses

Totally agree Bellasnana we are a country of moaners nothings ever right we can’t seem to handle anything without moaning
Tuliptree you are very curt Bellasnana was giving her opinion which she’s entitled to

I look at it a bit differently and would question what you and others call "moaning".

Taking heat warnings seriously isn't moaning; it's physics and biology. Our UK buildings and infrastructure are designed to retain heat, not deflect it, meaning indoor temperatures can quickly become dangerous.

Furthermore, young children can't regulate their body temperature like adults do, making them highly vulnerable to heat exhaustion.

When schools close, it is usually because the physical building has become unsafe, not because people can't handle a bit of sunshine.

Mechanical objects, electronics, and building materials expand and fail when they exceed the temperatures they were engineered to withstand. It's about risk management, not a lack of backbone.

... the last para is from AI.

I listened to an interview with the head of a 25 school academy this morning on You and Yours...I think.
He said only one of the schools had been built to resist heat.
All the schools had closed even the heat resistant one. The reason that one had closed was because the staff had to stay home to look after their own children.

I don't think he heard me shout at the radio...Why couldnt the staff take their own children to work for the day???

I don’t understand 25 school academy?

Jaxjacky

I don’t understand 25 school academy?

I guess it means that there are 25 schools within his academy trust. My DD2 is Headteacher at a large primary school which is part of a four school academy trust. She is reponsible for most decisions regarding the day to day running of the school but has the back up of the trust. if necessary.

Ah, thanks Ashcombe I wasn’t familiar with the hierarchy.

I have one of my minded children (10y) coming tomorrow as her school is closed.
She can help entertain my grandson (1y)!

The last unexpected day closure I can remember before I retired was obviously for ice and snow, both for the safety of pupils, but also to make sure there was an appropriate number of staff on site for that number of pupils. A proportion of staff lived in the nearest city which is very, very hilly. Bad weather often meant they couldn't drive to work because of road closures, or their own road was impassable, and could get to the train station.
Anyway as far as the physical state of the school was concerned, at 6am, the site manager/caretaker would report to the Head, who'd then liaise with the Chair of Governors to reach a decision about safety of 1200 people. A broken leg would be a disaster for pupil and school, possibly a court case and bad PR. Shortly afterwards the school became an Academy, and that chain would have become longer and a little different.
I can't imagine the problems of a pupil having a heat-related seizure, particularly if there was already a health issue.

Diplomat

I took my O levels in that heat of '76. I'll always remember a girl near me who had a hot water bottle because of period pain!

I too took my “O” levels.

I’ve always find it daft to schedule so many exams in the summer! I get it fits with current school terms!

Oh dear. 'could get to the train station.' should be 'couldn't get to the train station.'