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

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. “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. …