Failure to plan for rising temperatures has left UK’s schools sweltering

Some of the schools hit hardest were designed and built in the 2000s, as the dangers of a heating climate were recognised. Photograph: Peter Lopeman/Alamy View image in fullscreen Some of the schools hit hardest were designed and built in the 2000s, as the dangers of a heating climate were recognised. Photograph: Peter Lopeman/Alamy Analysis Failure to plan for rising temperatures has left UK’s schools sweltering Richard Adams and Fiona Harvey Many buildings are in use past their predicted lifespans, but even newer designs lack measures to beat heat To see the UK’s failure to plan for the impacts of climate crisis, look no further than Beaconsfield primary school in west London – where a building more than 100 years old copes with extreme temperatures better than its neighbour, built less than 10 years ago. “I’ve got two buildings on my site – the older building is a Victorian-Edwardian-style building. It’s roughly 130 years old. That building is constructed with solid brickwork, very thick walls. It stays warm in winter and in summer it tends to keep the heat out so it is cooler inside. Even this week it’s starting to get uncomfortable but it’s still tolerable,” said Dave Woods, Beaconsfield’s headteacher. Hundreds of schools in England and Wales to close in heatwave Read more “The school’s newer building was constructed in 2017, following the Department for Education’s (DfE) building design guidance in place then, and it’s extremely hot all the time. Even before the peak of the heat arrived we’ve already had classes using empty spaces in the older building just so they could get some respite.” Woods began his teaching career in Sydney, Australia, where schools have long been designed with high temperatures in mind, allowing them to stay open in scorching weather similar to that being experienced across England and Wales this week. Although some of the schools hit hardest this week date from the 1970s, with long flat roofs, inadequate windows and little thought given to orientation, others are much more modern – designed and built in the 2000s, as the dangers of a heating climate were recognised. Even the vaunted Building Schools for the Future plan initiated by Tony Blair, which was meant to replace Victorian-era state school estates with inspirational modern architecture, lacked basic requirements that could have mitigated the predictable impacts of the climate crisis. “I know a colleague a few suburbs away from me who described a school with enclosed glass walkways, an enclosed fully glass atrium, a glass canopy over the top of their dining room, and a whole glazed side of the PE hall that is south facing. Basically it’s a school that has been set up as a greenhouse,” said Woods, the current president of the National Association of Head Teachers. Successive governments have failed to tackle the worrying proportion of school buildings that remain in use long past their predicted lifespan, with many riddled with asbestos and crumbling concrete.