School closure due to heat

No, there's a list of all the schools that have a half day, 8.30 to 12.30 for the whole of June. Seems that's what they do!

I've worked in a number of schools, and in some of those schools, I worked in a couple of different buildings. A while before I retired, we were given money for a new build, very exciting, one of the last schools to get money before Gove shut down the building programme.
Sadly, the architects were only interested in getting an award for the exterior of the building. They had no interest in education or kids or looking to the future. The airflow was awful, rooms poorly ventilated. Staircases were in the wrong place, maximising foot traffic between lessons, not minimising it. Classrooms were cramped for 30x16 yr olds. The design was a lot of wasted space. And when a good friend from a different county, a senior leader i/c buildings in another secondary school, walked round before we moved in, she picked up on a dozen or so issues that would be a problem. The one I remember vividly was domestic paint being used in the corridor outside my room. It needed repainting within a week from kids' backpacks marking the wall, just wear and tear.
No, I'm not surprised that schools are not able to cope. Gavin Williamson promised an air purifier in every classroom over Covid. That, like this, was to keep pupils healthy.
Do any of these things happen?

MT62

You would think that newer, more modern schools would have air con, tinted windows, or heat repellent window treatment.
Or older schools have the school windows tinted.

Sorry, my post was in reply to MT62's post

Vintagewhine

No, there's a list of all the schools that have a half day, 8.30 to 12.30 for the whole of June. Seems that's what they do!

Many years ago, I was a pupil in a German school. We had something called "hitzefrei" (heat free), which meant the school was open from 7-10.15am only. We spent the rest of the day in the local swimming pool.

Bellasnana

I re-read the comments I made about your post, although I didn't respond to you directly. On reflection, I think they are uneccessarily harsh and for that I apologise.

I was about to make an observation on this heatwave and how, because of a particular set of circumstances, it is negatively affecting me and then after reading your comment decided against it because I didn't want to be thought of as one of the "some people" who moan! You ended by saying that you were "fed up of hearing about it" Perhaps if you re-read your post you might be able to detect that it could be off-putting to a person who wanted to make a specific point about the current weather?

- that doesn't excuse my harsh comment and, again, I'm sorry I made it. I'm no shrinking-violet so don't want to come across as 'poor me'. However comments from posters who mention "some people" always make me stop and think - am I one of them?

I’m sure I could be justifiably accused of straying from the topic, but I wonder how many of those parents complaining about school closures only book holiday hotels year have air con?
My across the road neighbours took their children to Gran Canaria last week and her comment when I asked how it had gone, was that she was glad her children hadn’t been in school in all that heat. At least the hotel had air-conditioning and a pool.
Something else Schools perhaps ought to get, along with air con in every classroom?

As an interim measure, and so as not to blow the budget, a school could have air conditioning installed in say one or two designated areas, like the hall. In that way several classes could come together to use the space away from stuffy smaller classrooms.

Devising cool areas are the way to go. As in our own houses, good to have one area/room which is kept cool when keeping the whole school/house cool is out of range of budget.

If school/house windows can't be replaced, tinted or shuttered, can the sunniest windows be shaded outside with white greenhouse shading material which would let light in but 50% of heat reflected out. And can be removed in the winter. Or washed over with a white heat reflecting liquid.

It demands a radical flexible change of thinking. At schools, home and elsewhere.

Baggs

I tsught in Thai schools that had no air con and were hotter than anything the UK has to deal with. Teachers and children coped fine. It's only a 'problem' here (just like snow) because it's unusual. Millions of people live all the time in very hot temperatures.

Which they’re acclimatised to, presumably. People in the UK aren’t.

Baggs

I tsught in Thai schools that had no air con and were hotter than anything the UK has to deal with. Teachers and children coped fine. It's only a 'problem' here (just like snow) because it's unusual. Millions of people live all the time in very hot temperatures.

What then do you think we here in the UK need to do to deal with this 'problem', and in particular - schools?

Some schools appear to have coped better than others it would seem.