New study reveals staggering number of UK teaching hours lost amid ‘unbearable’ heatwave
- Research by DeSmog revealed that schoolchildren across England and Wales lost over 15 million hours of teaching time during a June heatwave, with more than 1,700 schools closing fully or shortening hours, impacting at least 760,000 pupils.
- Classroom temperatures exceeded 40C during the “unbearable” heat, triggering widespread cases of heat stress, nausea, and fainting among pupils and staff, while student absence rates spiked significantly across southern England and Wales.
- Direct school closures accounted for roughly 5.9 million lost learning hours, while heat-related absences at schools that remained open led to a further 9.5 million missed teaching hours.
- Education experts from the Sutton Trust warned that heat-induced closures risk compounding educational inequality and widening attainment gaps for disadvantaged pupils who lack adequate cooling and learning resources at home.
- Climate scientists and campaigners urged the government to fund urgent infrastructure adaptations, warning that unequipped school buildings face recurring multi-week disruptions as extreme summer heat becomes the new normal.
More bulletins