UK braces for record heat as schools face closure pressure

The Met Office issued a Red Extreme Heat Warning for Wednesday and Thursday after temperatures topped 34.6C in Wisley, England, and Scotland and Northern Ireland recorded their hottest days of the year. June’s all-time daily temperature record was forecast to be broken, while the UK Health Security Agency’s heat-health dashboard placed red alerts over the East of England, East Midlands, London, South East, South West and West Midlands from 1am on Wednesday 24 June until 11pm on Thursday 25 June.

Schools sat at the centre of the pressure. Schools are normally not advised to close in hot weather, but the Department for Education’s updated guidance tells headteachers to use heat-health alerts to make informed decisions. Children are more at risk of heat-related illness than adults. The department has also updated emergency-planning guidance to include extreme heat as a severe-weather scenario.

The National Education Union wants a Red Alert to trigger an immediate additional risk assessment and could justify full or partial closure if that assessment shows the risk is too high. Many school buildings have large windows, limited ventilation and little or no air conditioning, leaving classrooms vulnerable when outdoor temperatures climb.

Some schools closed during the July 2022 heatwave, when temperatures reached 40C, and June 2023 was the hottest June in the UK since records began in 1884. The Office for National Statistics put the heat periods in England and Wales in summer 2022 at 3,271 excess deaths, 6.2% above the five-year average.

DfE-commissioned climate-risk analysis warned that learning can become very difficult on very hot days, particularly when indoor temperatures reach 35C.