The UK Health Security Agency has updated guidance for secondary school and early years settings on hot weather, telling staff how to keep children safe during heatwaves. The advice says schools do not normally need to close, even though children are more at risk of heat-related illness than adults.
Teachers and other educational professionals can sign up to receive Heat-Heath Alerts through a form. The system uses yellow alerts for possible health risks to the most vulnerable, amber alerts for possible health risks to the wider population, and red alerts for possible significant health risks to the wider population.
Heat-Health Alerts and schools
The update comes from the UK Health Security Agency and the Met Office, which issue Heat-Health Alerts during periods of hot weather. The guidance is framed as support for schools and early years settings, not as a closure order, and it says attendance remains the best way for pupils to learn and reach their potential.
For school leaders, the practical message is to manage the day around heat rather than shut the gate. Schools could relax uniform rules, and children should wear loose, light-coloured clothing and sunhats with wide brims. Teachers should encourage pupils to take off blazers and jumpers, keep them in the shade as much as possible outdoors, and use sunscreen with high sun protection factors.
Yellow Alerts to Red Alerts
The alert level changes the expected response. Yellow alerts point to possible health risks for the most vulnerable, while amber alerts extend that concern to the wider population. Red alerts indicate possible significant health risks for the wider population.
One clear instruction is to avoid vigorous physical activity on very hot days. The Department of Health and Social Care recommends that children should not take part in that kind of exercise, and schools are encouraged to adapt lessons when sedentary activities are more appropriate. For a class or year group already struggling through a hot afternoon, that can mean moving work indoors and keeping movement to a minimum.
UK guidance for hot weather
The remaining gap is operational: the guidance gives schools the rules to follow, but it does not spell out a separate action list for each alert level beyond the general changes to clothing, shade, sunscreen and activity. Schools and early years settings are expected to use the alerts as the trigger for those adjustments, then decide what to change in the classroom and outside it.
