Hot | But I Smile Anyway...

“What dreadful hot weather we have! It keeps one in a continual state of inelegance.”
Jane Austen

Thank you. Spidey, and Ms Austen. Excuse me as I wipe the glow from my brow!

Trying to be elegant there with the wording. You see, it is not proper to say a lady sweats or perspires. Rather, we ‘glow’.

Sounds lovely, but in reality, it feels bloody awful!

If you weren’t aware, the UK is about to be hit with a heatwave which is promising temperatures never before experienced here.

Yes, the UK might, in some areas, hit 40℃ on Monday or Tuesday.

It was pretty warm the past week, but we managed to host two short sports days at school, in the mornings, so it was slightly cooler, and we were lucky that there was cloud cover.

Still, I have to say that glowing really doesn’t cover what I looked like by the time we walked back to the school from the sports ground. I was hot, sweaty, tired. Did I mention hot? My clothes were stuck to me.

And this is me; an adult, who knows how to regulate my temperature. We knowingly engineered the sports day so there wasn’t too much running, and plenty of rest time for the children, but still they were left with the feeling of having taken part, and the parents who came to watch, had something to photograph and enjoy. But those children were hot and bothered too.

I’ve taken to keeping a spray bottle filled with clean, fresh water in my classroom, and we spray the kids regularly. They love it. They think I’m playing a game when in actuality I am trying to keep them as cool as I possibly can.

We aren’t blessed with a/c in our building.

Being an old Victorian school the parts that are the original building (my department being one of those parts) are unable to have a\c fitted. Some newer classrooms are though. Plus, though we have windows, they can only open a small amount (health and safety, y’all!) I have a door that opens up to the outside, but I can’t just leave it open as I have runners in my class, who need constant watching. These children are also the reason I can’t have a fan, as they could put fingers in the fan head.

So, yes, it is hot.

Some classrooms end up like saunas, and with 30 little bodies, as well as the adults, coupled with the still, warm air, it is not comfortable. Definitely not conducive to a productive learning environment.

What can we do in the next few days? We’re not closing, despite the government declaring the situation a National Emergency, and issuing the first-ever RED weather warning for extreme heat with could cause death…

The official advice is to:

not go outside – great. Swelter in airless rooms that end up a few degrees hotter than outside!
or, go outside and stay in the shade – because all schools have shaded areas of the playground, big enough to accommodate a few hundred pupils…
move to a cooler room – because all schools have ten spare classrooms kept cool for this specific reason
open windows overnight – because that isn’t another safety concern for schools, is it?
switch off all computers, lights and devices – and sit in a sweltering room in darkness, straining your eyes trying to read the class a story…
draw blinds to stop direct sunlight – well, we can do that!
tell parents to provide a hat, water bottles and ensure suncream is applied – because we don’t do that already, whenever the summer hits…

Great advice if we could soundly follow it, but I have highlighted the above issues some schools might have with following it.

I have been looking on various social media channels, and it is amazing how many educators have expressed concern about the temperature and its effect on their pupils, only to have parents and others comment that teachers are just looking for a day off!

Oh, my goodness, after the disruption of the last two years that is the LAST THING WE WANT!

What we want is our children to be COMFORTABLE and SAFE.

Some schools have loosened uniform policy to allow pupils to come in P.E. Kits or cooler non-uniform. Some have reduced the length of the school day for those couple of days. Some have even made the decision to close the school building and do remote learning for those two days.

Some parents will keep their children off, knowing it won’t be right for their child to suffer in this heat, unable to cool down.

Extenuating circumstances, considering we are not equipped to deal with this level of heat.

Yet I read that schools would have to mark that choice as unauthorised absence. So when a parent is looking out for the health and wellbeing of their child, they will get penalised, yet if they send their child in, and they possibly suffer heatstroke, or as many of our younger ones do, have a meltdown because of the extreme heat, that’s okay, even though it could have been avoided?

On Saturday it wasn’t half that hot, but still very warm. I was able to keep my home cool with windows open at night, the blinds kept drawn, and only four people in the house, keeping body heat to a minimum.

If only we were able to do that in school… but it will be hard. Unless you are in one of the 4 classrooms where they do have a/c, because they were part of a newer structure so they got lucky.

I don’t want schools to have to shut their doors. We didn’t in the lockdowns and had remote learning to stop the spread of a virus. But what I think is not right, is not giving parents the choice about the welfare of their child, especially in circumstances beyond our control.

(By the way, Lil Man is playing a match this afternoon, in this heat… It hasn’t been cancelled so far… pray for him!)

So, what do you think about this heatwave?