Schools Ban Children From Playing Outside During Heatwaves

Written by Will Jones on July 15, 2025. Posted in Current News

Some UK Schools are banning children from playing outside during heatwaves, keeping them inside for ‘hot play’ breaks when their playgrounds are deemed to be ‘too hot to use safely’

The Telegraph has more:

The move is designed to keep children away from outdoor surfaces that can become very hot to touch in the sun.

But the concept has been branded “absolute nonsense” by critics, who warned that it risked raising a generation of “wimps” taught to “hide from warm weather”.

Schools routinely hold ‘wet play’ sessions when it rains, where children play indoors between lessons instead of going outside.

But ‘hot play’, which is the equivalent for heatwaves, appears to be a relatively new idea.

The practice has been highlighted by the WWF, the environmental group, which is calling for schools to use more natural surfaces, as opposed to artificial ones, to “mitigate the effects of extreme weather”.

Chris McGovern, a former head teacher and Chairman of the Campaign for Real Education, warned that keeping pupils indoors during hot weather was the “worst thing” for them.

He said: “I taught for 35 years. Any teacher knows that the worst thing you can do on a hot day is to keep children confined in the classroom. It’s about the worst thing you can do.

“Of course, there can be situations where a particular child needs to stay indoors, and of course there should be areas of shade within the playground. But using common sense, it’s the worst possible way forward for helping these children.

“Just as in cold weather, they should be out running around. So we’re making them into wimps. We don’t want to make children into wimps. We want to toughen them up a little bit.”

He also warned that constraints on children’s freedom risked damaging their mental health in the long term.

He added: “It’s an awful childhood we’re inflicting on children. And, of course, it encourages them to use their iPads and mobile phones if they’re confined.

“The worst thing they can be doing is staying indoors, playing on their mobile phones, and this is sort of encouraging them to do that. So yeah, it’s the opposite of what we want.”

Greg Smith, the Tory MP for Mid Buckinghamshire, said it was “absolute nonsense” to attempt to “wrap children in bubble wrap and away from anything that might be a bit uncomfortable”.

“The correct answer is to take precautions in heat – hats, sun cream, light clothing – not hide from warm weather,” he said.

See more here Daily Sceptic

Please Donate Below To Support Our Ongoing Work To Defend The Scientific Method 

PRINCIPIA SCIENTIFIC INTERNATIONAL, legally registered in the UK as a company incorporated for charitable purposes. Head Office: 27 Old Gloucester Street, London WC1N 3AX. 

Trackback from your site.