Schools don’t really have the luxury of waiting to see what happens when the Met Office issues a red weather warning, which clearly indicates that lives may be at risk. As Britain prepared for temperatures never seen in recorded history, dozens of headteachers found themselves in this situation. The temperature was on the verge of rising above 40°C, and in old, south-facing classrooms with brick walls, that number ceases to be a weather statistic and instead becomes a building safety concern.
Panic was not what happened. It was more measured and, in a sense, more revealing. Schools all over England, from Swindon to Bristol, from Somerset to Berkshire, started making quiet, well-crafted announcements about early closures and complete shutdowns. Nine of the Maiden Erlegh Trust’s ten schools in Berkshire and Oxfordshire were closed on the days when the heatwave was at its worst. With about 1,200 pupils, the Buckingham School switched to online instruction. Their justification was straightforward: there wasn’t much shade outside, and most buildings couldn’t be sufficiently cooled. That is difficult to dispute.
The Dorcan Academy in Swindon specifically cited its architecture, which included several south and south-west-facing classrooms that, according to their own description, would become inappropriate in extremely hot or cold weather. Reading a school’s official statement that its own building design makes it unsafe during the summer is a little bizarre. However, that is precisely what occurred, and it is indicative of an issue that has been subtly developing for many years.
The majority of the school buildings in Britain were built for a different climate. Many come before heat management is given any real thought. Teaching unions and climate advisory bodies have been working to close the legal maximum temperature gap for classrooms. In the past, the Department of Education has prioritized attendance over closures during hot weather. This is a reasonable stance during typical summers, but when the UK Health Security Agency warns of increased deaths among the general population, not just the elderly or the vulnerable, it begins to appear miscalibrated.
According to Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT school leaders’ union, the government must take immediate action regarding ventilation and possibly air conditioning in schools if warmer summers are becoming the norm, as the evidence clearly indicates. “Urgently,” is a powerful word. These heatwaves are no longer a once-in-a-generation anomaly. This was already the second heatwave of the year, according to a Met Office meteorologist, who blamed the warming climate for the increased frequency of these extremes. Whether that message is reaching the appropriate offices with sufficient force is still up for debate.
The heat wasn’t the only thing that defined the week. After unexpectedly heavy rainfall, flash floods struck Somerset and Bristol on the Monday before temperatures peaked. Power was lost in hundreds of homes. For a moment, streets that would eventually bake in record heat were submerged. It was that kind of week, with heatwave warnings and storms arriving nearly at the same time, disrupting schools, emergency services, and transportation networks. The schedules of Great Western Railway were modified. In order to beat the heat, waste workers in Bristol started collecting waste before the sun came up. It appeared as though the entire nation was improvising.
When combined, weather advisories and school closures reveal more than just a practical issue. The deeper question is whether Britain’s public infrastructure is being updated quickly enough to adapt to a clearly changing climate. It’s too hot in the classrooms. It is not possible to cool the buildings. Additionally, every summer that goes by without structural investment is another summer filled with the same tough decisions: send the kids home or keep them in a classroom where learning isn’t really possible anyhow.
