When London hit 40°C in 2022, the heat inside Daniel’s school became unbearable. “It was during that heatwave a few years back,” he recalls, “that it got so bad, we had to close the school for two days.”
Daniel, a deputy head at an inner-city state secondary school, says staff dread the summer months. “It’s not just when it gets extremely hot – we have problems with the building when it reaches the high 20s outside,” he explains, “which you can reasonably expect to happen over quite a few weeks of the school year.”
Along one side of a particular corridor, he says, the classrooms become unusable in warm weather and children are reallocated to other rooms where possible, but often they don’t have the capacity. “We obviously allow the students to take off blazers, give them more water breaks – which is disruptive to learning. But it’s kind of putting a plaster on a big wound,” Daniel admits. “During the hottest days, teachers can barely teach, let alone students learn.
“My staff say it’s really hard to function properly, and the kids all have their heads on the desk. It’s hard to get anything out of them.
“You’re essentially losing days, sometimes even weeks of learning for these children.”
