News / Weather
Schools across Bristol to close due to red extreme heat warning
Schools across Bristol will be closing due to an unprecedented weather alert issued by the Met Office.
The red extreme heat warning has been put in place for Wednesday and Thursday, with June’s all-time daily record temperature forecast to be broken.
Temperatures could reach at least 39°C in parts of southern England and there remains a chance of this being exceeded in places.
Cotham School is just one of the schools in Bristol to be closing on Wednesday and Thursday with headteacher Jo Butler saying that the “safety and wellbeing of our students and staff is our absolute priority”.
Butler said: “Our school buildings were not designed for extreme heat conditions, and we are unable to adequately regulate temperatures across classrooms to safe levels during an event of this nature.
“In such conditions, children are at real risk of heat exhaustion and heatstroke, which can develop rapidly and become serious very quickly.”
Butler said that concerns are not just for classroom temperatures “to far exceed safe working and learning thresholds” but that children will also risk their health by travelling to school in extreme heat.
She added: “We have carefully considered all alternatives but given the severity of the warning and our site’s limitations, closure is the responsible course of action.”
Children at Cotham will be set work on Google Classroom, with parents and carers advised to keep children indoors during the hottest part of the day from 11am to 3pm.
All schools across the Amplify Trust including Ashton Gate Primary, Hotwells Primary and Bristol Cathedral School will be closed on Wednesday and Thursday.
But elsewhere in Bristol, Sefton Park is among the schools that will remain open, with headteacher Alex Powell writing to parents and carers that “unlike many newer schools built in the 1960s and beyond, our Victorian buildings have thick walls and high ceilings which help to keep classrooms significantly cooler than the temperatures outside”.
“At present, our learning environments remain comfortable and safe for children and staff.”
Main photo: Cotham School
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