Protecting Schools from Heatwaves
Protecting Schools from Heatwaves: Lessons from London Climate Action Week
Check out the work Shade the UK are already doing with local schools SHADE ISLINGTON
Last week saw the return of Sadiq Khan’s climate pet project. For its fifth year in a row, London Climate Action Week (LCAW) has brought together a host of industry groups, climate leaders, and the general public to get involved in climate action and collaborate on solutions. It was originally introduced by the Mayor of London in 2019 after he declared a climate emergency and urged the government to do more to avert ecological collapse.
Between 24 June and 2 July, this hybrid event takes place across London and is also hosted virtually online. The events themselves vary greatly, from keynote speeches by politicians, charity leaders, and start-up founders, to a film screening on efforts to protect the Brazilian Amazon, to how computation could impact sustainability research; there is something for everyone.
I was fortunate enough to attend one of LCAW’s events, entitled “Heatwaves: a Teaching Pack for Primary Schools”. Jointly delivered by Professor Sylvia Knight, of the Royal Meteorological Society, and Peter Littlewood, Director of the Young People’s Trust for the Environment, this webinar was designed to develop young people’s understanding of heatwaves and their impact within schools. In particular, as heatwaves become more frequent and severe, the objective was to provide an explainer for what they are, why they are dangerous, and what schools can do to prepare for or mitigate them.
Alongside this, the team had put together a lesson plan of four sessions, designed to support learners in Key Stage 2 (or equivalent), that present these concepts in an age-appropriate manner, whilst also providing an ordinance-based activity for the kids to complete that contextualises many of their learnings.
Too Hot to Teach?
It became readily clear as to why the speakers decided to undertake this project: schools are becoming too hot to teach in. Looking at the heatwaves of last year, when parts of the UK surpassed a record breaking 40°C, a number of schools were forced to close their doors. Parents and teachers alike were cautious about sending their children in, particularly after the UK Health Security Agency described the heat as a “national emergency”.
Both speakers being current and former teachers, they have witnessed the effects of trying to teach in such conditions, which can range from the inconvenient to the downright dangerous. A significant concern is the increased risk of heatstroke and heat exhaustion, both of which are more prevalent in children as they are less able to regulate their body temperature. The speakers highlighted that the effects of high temperatures can also simply make is harder for teachers to teach and almost impossible for students to learn. Citing examples from their own schools, they note that when temperatures reach drastic highs, the students’ energy levels deteriorate and their ability to concentrate is entirely disrupted.
However, some of the key issues the speakers highlighted surround government support. Despite experts indicating we will likely see more extreme weather events such as heatwaves far more frequently, government advice surrounding heatwaves in schools appears particularly lax. For instance, a quick scan of the government literature reveals just a couple of articles providing advice to educational settings, with the content providing some brief advice on keeping children cool (e.g., cancelling physical activity or keeping windows open) and the dangers of heatstroke. Evidently, this is insufficient to prepare schools at the forefront of the climate crisis.
Furthermore, the speakers also described the challenge of trying to keep children safe within schools as temperatures soar. There are currently no regulations in place for a maximum temperature at which schools must close; this is despite some of our continental neighbours, including Germany, permitting school closures when temperatures surpass a given threshold.
It is evident that the threat to schools posed by heat extremities is existential, yet there does not appear to be sufficient regulations or support in place to prevent the worst of their effects. So, what can be done?
Mitigation is Key
Schools are ill-equipped to fight heatwaves. In particular, the buildings that we teach our children in have been in a bad condition for decades now, meaning not only are many dilapidated and in state of disrepair, but were built at a time when retaining heat within buildings was the most important factor. Now, the severity of this situation was underlined just last week with the release of a report by the National Audit Office (NAO) stating that over 700,000 pupils are currently being taught in unsafe or ageing school buildings that are in need of major repairs, with overheated buildings being cited as a cause of signficant disruption.
Therefore, it seems that a major overhaul to educational infrastructure is key to helping solve heat-related challenges in schools. That said, the speakers were keen to emphasise that whilst there is funding available to retrofit schools through a series of government schemes, the paperwork and bureaucracy involved in trying to secure funding is such a challenge that many schools have been unable to get their applications in on time. Thus, needed repairs and renovations get kicked another year down the line.
It is clear that mitigating the worst effects of extremes of heat will be key in combatting the effects of climate change in schools. In order to do so, the speakers gave a series of key recommendations for schools on how to beat the heat in summer, ranging from small-scale adaptations to reduce the temperature to wholesale infrastructural changes:
Small-scale features: for example, increased access to water fountains and planting trees.
Retrofitting school buildings: for example, painting exterior walls a lighter colour and installing blinds and external shade to block out direct sunlight can have a large impact on classroom temperature.
Changing schedules: whether this is cancelling sports days or rearranging school start times to reduce exposure to the midday sun, there are plenty of measures that can be taken to keep kids cool. However, they tend to require more buy-in from parents and guardians.
The suggestions outlined greatly align with Shade the UK’s ambitions to adapt schools to prevent against overheating. Here at Shade the UK, we recognise how we need to balance the necessity of cooling our schools, whilst also understanding that a number of solutions to achieve this, namely air conditioning, are highly energy intensive and serve to exacerbate global warming. Although active cooling was suggested as a solution, what the speakers recognise here, that resonates strongly with our work, is the need to utilise passive design to mitigate heating, such as through providing external shade, ventilation, and green infrastructure.
Lessons for Schools
The final section of the webinar involved the lesson plan the speakers had developed for classrooms to better understand what heatwaves are and how we will be impacted by them.
A key part of this was their proposed activity for KS2 pupils, one in which the children are provided with a series of ambient temperature monitors and are tasked with finding the warmest and coolest spots across the school. The thermometers are set up in various locations and, after checking the readings on each of these during the warmest period of the day, the children record the results on a colour-coded map of their school, thus allowing them to determine the various hotspots.
The activity not only allows young pupils to get a more engaging, hands-on experience with phenomena of global warming, but it provides them with the tools to find solutions to it. In particular, the aim is for the students to figure out for themselves which locations within the school will likely require the most mitigating actions. For example, if they find a handful of classrooms noticeably warmer than others, then it becomes clearer what areas require adaptation.
Overall, this webinar was as informative as it was engaging. I was fortunate enough to get this level of insight from experts in their field, learning a great deal about the reality of heatwaves in schools and how schools can prepare for a changing climate.
Check out the work Shade the UK are already doing with local schools SHADE ISLINGTON
Written by Oliver Longstaff
