Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the National Education Union (NEU), has proposed several measures to address the UK’s rising temperatures, including changing school schedules and moving exams out of summer months. He noted that during this year's June heatwave, at least 760,000 students in England and Wales missed lessons due to school closures, accounting for over 15 million lost hours of instruction time as classrooms reached up to 40°C. Kebede emphasized the need for retrofitting schools to better handle extreme heat and suggested rethinking the academic calendar to ensure educational continuity amid a changing climate.
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-10-11,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
Story summary
Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the National Education Union (NEU), has called on the UK government to address the severe impact of extreme heat on schools. This comes after repeated bouts of high temperatures this summer, with classroom temps exceeding 40°C and thousands of students sent home. Kebede urged a mass retrofitting program for schools built "for a different climate," ahead of next summer's anticipated El Niño-charged heatwaves. He also suggested changing school start times, reordering holidays, and even moving exams out of the summer months to adapt to the UK’s increasingly warmer climate. Kebede stressed the need for a national conversation on ensuring educational continuity in this rapidly changing environment.
Written for “School Heat Mitigation Plans” on 2026-10-11,
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Leaning: leans left for article 71621 (high confidence, 1 verified quote) · logged 2026-10-11
Schools should consider changing start and finish times, reordering holidays and moving exams from the summer months in an effort to adapt to the UK’s increasingly severe heatwaves, according to the leader of the country’s biggest education union.
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Schools → consider → union
Daniel Kebede, the general secretary of the National Education Union (NEU), said this summer’s repeated bouts of extreme heat had a devastating impact on teachers and pupils, as classroom temperatures topped 40C and hundreds of thousands of young people were sent home.
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thousands → say → people
Speaking to the Guardian, Kebede called on the government to roll out a mass retrofitting programme to ensure schools – which he said had been built “for a different climate” – were better equipped to deal with extreme heat ahead of next summer’s El Niño-charged temperatures.
asserted
he → speak → temperatures
And he said it was time for a national conversation about other measures that could help schools adapt to the reality of a rapidly warming climate.
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schools → say → climate
“There needs to be a really serious discussion about how we make sure there is the continuity of education in this changed climate,” he said.
asserted
he → need → climate
“You might want to consider moving the school year around, or having a longer summer holiday – in hot countries they tend to have a longer summer holiday.
uncertain
they → want → holiday
You might consider an earlier start and earlier finish … and perhaps we don’t want exams to be happening in the hottest part of the year.”
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exams → consider → year
Kebede said he had been inundated with messages from teachers during this summer’s heatwaves urging the union to help.
asserted
he → say → union
“The last time I felt that level of panic in the profession was during the Covid pandemic,” he said.
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he → feel → pandemic
“I was being routinely contacted by members in distress … they felt there was a real risk and danger to themselves and to their pupils.”
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they → contact → pupils
At least 760,000 schoolchildren in England and Wales missed lessons owing to school closures during this summer’s June heatwave – one in five in the UK in the space of a few months – with pupils missing more than 15m hours of lesson time.
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pupils → miss → time
School staff told the Guardian that learning was almost impossible as temperature records were broken, with pupil behaviour and attention deteriorating rapidly.
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behaviour → tell → Guardian
One primary school teacher said: “Everyone was lying or sitting on the floor with their water bottles, sweating, moaning and feeling tired, [complaining of] headaches and nausea.
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Everyone → say → headaches
The adults barely coped and most of the children were calling for their mummies and daddies.
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most → cop → mummies
There was no learning, just surviving the best we could.”
This summer’s severe heat was not confined to the UK: brutal temperatures and devastating wildfires hit countries across Europe.
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temperatures → be → Europe
One of the key demands of the student protesters that have taken to the streets in France this week has been action to make classrooms bearable during extreme heat.
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classrooms → take → heat
Kebede warned that in the UK the impact of these bouts of extreme weather was falling hardest on more disadvantaged communities.
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impact → warn → communities
He said children were often being sent home to flats that were unsuited to extreme heat, and to parents and carers who were unable to work from home or take time off.
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who → say → time
“It is having a really uneven impact and it’s particularly impacting children who live in deprived urban areas …
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who → have → areas
you will have a two-tier system where schools in more affluent areas are able to cope with extreme heat.”
asserted
schools → have → heat
Kebede said many of the UK’s schools were housed in either old Victorian-era buildings or those built in the 1960s and 1970s, and neither style was equipped to cope with the extreme heat that is expected to become a feature of UK summers.
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that → say → summers
He said a major capital building programme could transform schools, making them “fit for the century we are living in” and also creating good unionised apprenticeships and jobs, revitalising local communities.
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we → say → communities
“We really need plans in place now because [what we experienced this summer] is going to be the norm,” Kebede said.
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Kebede → need → what
The Aporia
