"While Teachers Soak Up the Sun, Working Parents Face a Heatwave Nightmare"

AS the country recorded it’s hottest June day EVER this week and the nation sweltered in the blistering heat, the hot topic blowing up parents’ WhatsApp groups has been schools closing.

With temperatures hitting a blistering 36.1 degrees, across the country closed or shut early – but should have closed?

Annette Kellow is a single mum and journalist Credit: Lorna Roach Annette has an eight-year-old son Credit: supplied

Even celebrities voiced their opinion, with mum : “Am I the only one who thinks this is madness?”

She added: “Our children happily spend entire days on holiday in this heat and when we collect them at 1pm we’re taking them home to houses that are exactly the same temperature.”

One mum who agrees with Lydia is journalist and single mum Annette Kellow, who has an eight-year-old son, Felix.

Here, Annette explains in her own words exactly why she hates the closures – and how they’re pushing working parents to the brink…

She says: All teachers want to do is top up their tans, chill in a beer garden, and do absolutely zilch to help our kids learn; I just know they’re using the as their get out of jail card.

Many parents are working and have full time jobs, or are single parents like myself.

It’s inappropriate to at the last minute inform us to drop everything, just because they can’t be bothered to teach.

The first email I received on Monday at 10am from my son’s school said “amber alert: is cancelled”. This meant school was shutting it’s doors by lunchtime.

I sighed. I was half way through a deadline and knew it was going to make my life hell to drop everything and pick him up, but like the other dutiful parents I did so immediately.

That afternoon I sat in a splash area in my local park where my son happily frolicked around enjoying the cool water – while I furiously typed on my laptop, barely able to see the screen through the glare of the sun.

Annette Kellow with her eight-year-old son Felix Credit: Supplied She has had to work around school closures due to the heat Credit: Supplied

Suddenly some other kids drenched my laptop with flicks of water and I felt even more annoyed.

The next morning I was at a photo shoot and I got the next email, to say school was closing Wednesday this week.

I huffed and puffed my way through the shoot and then pegged it back, my whole working week ruined.

Every year, Britain gets a few days of sunshine and the country completely loses its mind.

Men walk around topless, women grab the itty bitty shorts, and iced coffee purchases soar.

Trains stop, shops close, and schools have a complete melt down.

She believes it inappropriate to at the last minute, for teachers to inform them to “drop everything, just because they can’t be bothered to teach” Credit: Annette Kellow More than 1000 schools have finished early or completely closed and 20% of students have not even attempted to enter the school building Credit: Annette Kellow

There’s to pay, and with the looming, many parents will need to work and entertain their child simultaneously.

We used to be a stoic country, children sat with masks on their desks in , such was their enthusiasm towards education.

They also seem to assume that many parents have large houses with lush lawns and shady trees – but the reality couldn’t be further from the truth.

Many live in tiny box flats with not enough room to swing a cat, which are now more akin to a sweat box.

If we look back at the heat wave of 1976, schools stayed open, children played outside and the consensus was to keep calm and carry on, something that is totally lost on this soft generation.

Bridget Philipson recently declared that any day off school has a cost – but suddenly missing time off school is not a problem?

Also the school is also happy to dish out fines aplenty when parents want to go on holiday in term-time, or celebrate a birthday – yet doesn’t seem to consult with parents on how they feel about the current situation.

I’ve got a good mind to start fining them back for loss of earnings, and see how they deal with that!

I think it’s also important to discuss the message that this is sending to our children.

They are the generation of the future, but they’re hardly going to be that when they’re told to go home early and miss out on vital learning and socialisation.

doesn’t stop for a bit of sun.

Nurses, builders, shop workers, and officers don’t get to call in and say, “It’s too warm, see you next week.”

Just imagine how the country would run? It would collapse!

While there is a bigger conversation to be had around air con and keeping schools cool for future summers, we will just have to work with the current insulation, vents and shading.

So for now I say to the teachers; grab a chilled bottle of water and start teaching our little ones; it’s your job and no amount of heat should change that.