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Just got this email her indoors is fuming ! (must be the hot weather)
Dear Parents, due to the high temperatures and malfunctioning of air conditioning in many classrooms we are closing from 1.30pm. All children will be supervised in air conditioned areas until 3.40pm if you are unable to collect beforehand. Please collect from the school office. After school clubs are cancelled.
I said leave them there till 3.40 but she says that would be horrid for the boys to be in a hall like that !
What's wrong with the school/ teachers these days...
Leafy suburb school in North London bloody teachers want the afternoon off !
In my day summer of 76 no one got to go home early !
Presumably they'll all return home to non-air conditioned houses and spend the afternoon playing in the garden and getting sunburnt.
That's how i remember 76.
Do you have A/C at home? If not you'd best leave them in school. Elfinsafety, innit?
Leafy suburb school in North London bloody teachers want the afternoon off !
Live somewhere normal
Why would she make the assumption the teachers are getting to go home? Who do you think is supervising the students there until 3.40pm? Is your wife a bit thick?
Yep, everyone seems to be incapable of putting up with a bit of extra heat for a few day.
I know there are vulnerable people like the elderly, pregnant women, asthma sufferers etc. but they should be taking extra precautions already.
Why the need to warn people every 5 mins - the BBC radio is on proper 'panic alert'.
Couldn't the school have just sent a message to everyone saying 'make sure your kids bring a extra water bottle & sunscreen to school'...?
Any building designed to be cooled by air conditioning usually has very poor ventilation arrangements, I can imagine a classroom with big glass area and no opening windows will be like a greenhouse in full sunlight.
anyway, enough blaming those who designed the building and the a/c systems lets try and get the teachers to shoulder the burden...
I think the teachers should be put to work manually turning the a/c compressors and fans
isn't it all just the results of 24 hour news channels?
They need something to act as filler whilst they are waiting for real news (whatever that may be, it's a flexible term)
Why would she make the assumption the teachers are getting to go home? Who do you think is supervising the students there until 3.40pm? Is your wife a bit thick?
It was my assumption as I wrote it ! so you kind sir are a bit thick as you say !
Why do they need to holed up in an airconned room any way, why not just go and play outside?!?
Did the lowest tender get the contract to build the classrooms and install the ACs?
It was my assumption as I wrote it ! so you kind sir are a bit thick as you say !
Ah, your assumption. So she is fuming because she married a thickie?
I can confirm that my office is not using the same policy as that school, despite having no working aircon I have to stay the duration.......3.30pm 😉
If lessons continued and little 'Chardonnay' goes home and complains because she was made to work in intolerable heat no doubt the lawyers or press would be sniffing around!
Old HSE advice for the workplace was an upper limit of 30 degC
HSE previously defined thermal comfort in the workplace, as: 'An acceptable zone of thermal comfort for most people in the UK lies roughly between 13°C (56°F) and 30°C (86°F), with acceptable temperatures for more strenuous work activities concentrated towards the bottom end of the range, and more sedentary activities towards the higher end.'
Can't remember my school(s) ever being closed for sun rain or snow (or wind or any other meteorological events before the pedants wade in).
I blame the parents...
AFAIK there's no upper limit for a working temperature. There is a lower one. Working in JJB's stores spannering bikes in >30C sucked.
which is their old advice, there is now a minimum but no maximum temperature
http://www.hse.gov.uk/temperature/faq.htm
all about risk assessments, innit.
Twas 34 in my classroom this afternoon. We dont have any air con let alone poorly wkrking air con. Not much was done tbh.
Can we blame the head teacher not the teachers
The teachers don't really get a say
I did a training course in Athens once in a school. They clearly worked on into the 40s
As I child in ****stan the day the school AC broke when it was 103F (40c) was uncomfortable
The air con at The Guardian's broken apparently.
They've sent all staff not directly involved in production of the paper home.
Is there a teacher we can blame?
I think you all know whos fault it is....
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The person using my lab before me had the students doing flame tests, with none of the windows open and no AC. It was a bit warm when I was in there the following lesson, even though I'd opened the three functioning windows.
And then it rained an insane amount, much of which came in through the windows that I'd left open. Oops.
But we didn't close early.
I think we all know classroom teachers do not make decisions on when a school closes - Headteachers in cooperation with local authority do that.
It does on the face of it seem a strange decision however.
I carried on teaching physics and the kids were whinging as it hit 30 degrees C in my classroom! I was drenched!
My last few 3 weeks and then my new job back in Finance, triple pay, less hours except the train to London and aircon!
No more kids or parents whinging yay!
More time to ride on week nights and evenings!
34 degree ambient in the office here today over 40 behind glass
(which is the whole wall on one side of the building)
Not pleasant, but you just have to deal with it.
Seems OK in the 1930s Royal Masonic School for Girls. I suspect the brick construction (high thermal inertia) and tall ceilings may help.
I think we all know classroom teachers do not make decisions on when a school closes - Headteachers in cooperation with local authority do that.
Local authority. Sounds like the good old days
I carried on teaching physics and the kids were whinging as it hit 30 degrees C in my classroom! I was drenched!My last few 3 weeks and then my new job back in Finance, triple pay, less hours except the train to London and aircon!
No more kids or parents whinging yay!
More time to ride on week nights and evenings!
Do all you can to publicise that. I'm sticking with teaching physics but I'd like the world to know they are getting me on the cheap
In the yard today I played football and making big islands in the sandpit with big buckets of water. We then went in and melted ice cubes on our foreheads. Good fun all round.
she says that would be horrid for the boys to be in a hall like that !
What? That's far more precious than the teachers trying to stop them baking.
The aircon in our school went kaput this morning. I teach in a room with server equipment and lots of other it Gubbins and...... No windows. By eck it was warm!! Regular breaks and an early stack stopped them falling asleep.
My kids schools just reminded them to drink more, primary school gave the juniors an extra break this afternoon, eldest was allowed to take his tie off.
Seems a very odd decision. I'm astonished schools have aircon. My lad has developed an interest in humanities this week as they are the only rooms with aircon at his secondary school..
I'm astonished schools have aircon.
why?
Air conditioning in schools. It's true what they say about London the streets are paved with gold.
We have air con in some rooms, mainly computer rooms - 24 PCs, 48 monitors, a projector, and 23 sweaty teenagers kick out a lot of heat.
No molly coddling up here, we had kids outside yesterday and today doing Bikeability - bit of fresh air and sun doesn't do 'em any harm! And I don't think any of them moaned about being hot.
PS It's also very good for my sun tan 😀