As many as 12 teaching days a year could be lost to global heating by the turn of the century, new research shows.
The Met Office and University College London report analysed nearly 20,000 state school buildings to investigate how climate risks such as flooding and overheating could affect future students’ learning.
It comes after the government scrapped a grant scheme aimed at making school sites more green.
The report, published in a week when amber heat warnings have been issued in some parts of the UK, said some schools may already have one or two days a year when indoor temperatures pass 35C and learning becomes “very difficult”.
But increased “extreme heat events” alongside “more subtle” increases in temperature could lead to the loss of more teaching time, like school closures seen during heatwaves in July 2022.
“Without the implementation of any adaptation measures, students could potentially lose up to 12 days of learning per year on average, as result of generally warmer temperatures and not just from extreme heat.”
Newer schools more likely to overheat
This is based on global surface temperatures rising to approximately 4C above pre-industrial levels by 2100, which is predicted to happen without major climate intervention.
Researchers calculated the number of days schools would exceed the 35°C threshold by looking at schools’ location, the type of building and the local climate.
It revealed newer schools built from the 1960s onwards are more likely to overheat than older buildings due to having better insulation and lower ceilings.
Schools in the south and east of England, as well as London, are at greatest risk of overheating, the report said.
Most secondary sites at risk of flooding
The DfE also released new figures from the Environment Agency (EA) on flood risk, showing the proportion of state-funded schools at risk from surface water and river and sea flooding.
The report said many school buildings, playgrounds and access routes are at risk of flooding with 59 per cent of secondary school sites and 39 per cent of buildings at a high risk.
For primaries, 33 per cent of sites and 20 per cent of buildings are at high risk of flooding. According to EA definitions, “high risk” means a one in 30 chance of flooding in any given year.
Meanwhile over three-quarters (76 per cent) of secondary school sites, and half of primary school sites (53 per cent) are at “medium risk” of flooding.
Figures on the government’s risk protection arrangements – an alternative insurance scheme for schools – show 342 (2.7 per cent) of the 12,697 schools signed up have experienced floods since 2015-16, costing more than £34.6 million.
One estates specialist, who wished to remain anonymous, said some schools and trusts were likely to have anxiety about the scope of insurance schemes to deal with damage caused by major weather events to old school buildings.
Sweltering week for schools
As the report was published on Thursday, one secondary school teacher told Schools Week how teachers have suffered headaches and pupils falling asleep at their desks this week.
She said some colleagues, particularly in newer classrooms, had logged indoor temperatures as high as 32C, including readings of almost 30C as early as 7.30am.
Rosie, who did not wish to give her surname, said her head was “doing his utmost”, giving staff fans, and buying “expensive portable air coolers, reflective window film and white window blinds” for worst-hit classrooms.
But she said the measures are “not making enough of a difference” and the school “simply don’t have the budget for anything more impactful.
She said staff were feeling health effects “with many reporting headaches, nausea, dizziness and impacts on their blood pressure”, while pupils “are falling asleep with heat exhaustion in lessons and are just too uncomfortably hot to focus”.
‘The climate emergency is here’
A Teacher Tapp poll carried out in March for leaders’ union ASCL found 55 per cent of teachers reported classrooms were too hot in summer due to poor ventilation.
“The climate emergency is here and our teachers, support staff and children are feeling the brunt of it,” said Rosie.
NEU general secretary Daniel Kebede said the report made for “grim reading”.
“The government needs to act upon these findings and move further and faster to ensure that all schools are safe and comfortable places to learn, now and in the future,” he said.
Emma Harrison, business leadership specialist at school leaders’ union ASCL, said: “The thought of multiple weeks of education being lost each year to extreme heat events in the near future should be cause for major concern.”
She said there must be “greater support and investment from the government”, particularly following the scrapping of funds such as the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme (PSDS).
Call for greater focus on climate change
Steve Brace, CEO of the Geographical Association, said the report’s findings on overheating, flooding and water scarcity “underline the importance of pupils studying these issues in the geography curriculum and being able to apply what they have learnt through positive action”.
A DfE report published in December found school leavers have “very poor” understanding of key climate change concepts, and reignited calls for the topic to be given greater coverage in the curriculum.
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