Difficult week for schools amid heatwave and Covid rise

A senior figure in the city's National Education Union (NEU) has spoken of a recent rise in teacher absences due to the virus.

Couple that with the UK being in the midst of a three-day amber extreme warning and you can see why some schools may be worried.

Bingley Grammar is allowing pupils to come in non-uniform over the next two days.

Due to the hot weather forecast for next Mon & Tues students are allowed to wear non uniform.
Please see the email sent to all parent/carers this morning, our students were informed in assembly this morning.
Pls remind all to bring water bottles that they can refill in school.

— bingleygrammar (@bingleygrammar) July 15, 2022

Their PE department will be taking into consideration the heat - which is expected to hit 31C today and 35C tomorrow in Bradford - when planning activities and could move inside if appropriate.

The school has told students to bring sun cream, hats and water bottles.

Ian Murch, president of Bradford's NEU, suggested closing schools earlier to avoid the hottest hours of the two days.

He said: "Not that many people have experienced trying to work when the temperature is as high as 35C. It is extremely difficult.

"People may have come across it once or twice when they have been on holiday and they are able to go sit in the water to cool down. But being in a classroom when it is that hot is a challenge.

"There are certainly things people must not try to do like sports days because you will be putting people seriously at risk.

"They need to provide water to everybody and it may be sensible to finish early on those days because the temperature climbs as the day goes on.

President of the National Education Union in Bradford, Ian Murch

"There are some school buildings that will be particularly bad when dealing with the heat.

"Some of the big secondary schools that were built more recently have got internal rooms with no outside windows and you certainly won’t be able to use those.

"The building will just get too hot to the point where it is a danger to health."

Covid-19 is a problem that just will not seem to go away, especially in the school environment where transmissions can easily shoot up.

Heckmondwike Grammar School has urged pupils to wear face masks again following a "sharp rise" in Covid which saw 10 per cent of their teaching staff off last week.

Heckmondwike Grammar School

On Tuesday, Headteacher Peter Roberts insisted the need for face coverings is not mandatory at this stage but would encourage the use of them in the building.

With the summer school term coming to an end on Friday, Mr Murch feels like such precautions are possibly a bit too late.

He added: "It is not irrational to say wear a mask to try and avoid the spread. If they have got an awful lot of cases in a school you can see why they want to do it.

"It is probably a bit late in the day to make a lot of difference to the spread of infection.

"There are a lot more cases at the moment so we have had a lot of reports of teachers being off with the virus.

Some schools are urging pupils to wear masks

"Schools have been saying do you really need to be off because they are worried about being able to cover for the absence.

"On the other hand, if they expect people to come in when their symptoms are only like those of a cold, they could pass it on to other people who will get worse symptoms.

"So the government is still advising that they should stay off school if they are still infectious.

"We know after two and a half years of Covid that it is a moving beast. You have to keep accessing it all the time.

"It is not just about the cases but what variant it is and how many people are getting seriously ill."

Meanwhile, the West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership have urged residents to take precautions and look out for each other during the heatwave and rise in Covid cases.

The number of people with the virus in hospital beds is now greater than during the previous wave, and the social care sector is under huge pressure.

The main risks posed by a heatwave are not drinking enough water, overheating, heat exhaustion and heatstroke.