July 19, 2022

UK Heatwave: Schools See a Third of Pupils Absent – Parents Prefer to Keep Kids at Home

A As parents decide to keep their children at home during the hottest days predicted in the UK's heatwave, headteachers report seeing about a third of students absent from class. Many schools will be conducting their classes online on Monday and Tuesday, when the weather is expected to soar into the high 30s and possibly even reach 40C for the first time.

Many establishments are remaining open despite the sweltering conditions, and measures are being taken to keep kids cool, such as letting them leave school early or forgoing their regular uniform in favour of their own clothes or PE kits.

…we’re coping well and have adjusted the school day so that there is a reduction in overcrowded areas… Alan Hodges from Denbigh Primary School in Luton said – attendance is down by 30 per cent though…

Speaking to a leading British newspaper, a headteacher exclaimed, "We’re coping well and have adjusted the school day so that there is a reduction in overcrowded areas," Alan Hodges from Denbigh Primary School in Luton said. "Attendance is down 30 percent though."

A primary school principal in central London, Kit Andrew, estimated that about 25% of students were absent on Monday. He continued, "It is in the Borough, so a real urban heat island."

The UK may experience two breaks in the record for the hottest temperature ever recorded in the next two days, according to the Met Office.

It has issued the first-ever "red warning" for extremely high temperatures on Monday and Tuesday, predicting "widespread impacts" to people and infrastructure as well as the threat that the temperatures pose to human life.

Posted in News and tagged News, UK, UK Heatwave, Denbigh Primary School, Pupils, Parents
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