Harry Paticas said, “Our schools are a dated mix of single glazing, dodgy pipes and atriums like Kew hothouses.” In weather Stoke-on-Trent, one school in Hertfordshire recorded temperatures of more than 40C this week as summer heat pushed classrooms beyond what many buildings were built to handle.
Retrofit Action for Tomorrow engaged with 80 schools across England and found 68% reported overheating. More than a quarter described it as “significant”, while teachers reported pupils fainting or vomiting in class and, in some cases, exams being cancelled and study time lost.
Hertfordshire heat and school design
The school in Hertfordshire is the clearest sign of how quickly heat builds inside buildings that were not designed for hotter weather. Modern schools often have too much glass and not enough shading or ventilation to keep out the sun’s heat, while windows may have restrictors that stop them opening too far, or at all, because of student safety concerns.
Harry Paticas also pointed to glass atriums that became common in some buildings from the Building Schools for the Future programme in the early 2000s, saying “they now give the effect of walking into a Kew hothouse.”
England schools and overheating
The pattern is not limited to one building. Retrofit Action for Tomorrow’s work across England suggests overheating is widespread, not an isolated failure, with more than a quarter of the schools it engaged describing the problem as “significant”.
The same research points to a specific mechanical problem: single glazing can let up to 37% more heat into a building than double glazing. That helps explain why some schools struggle even before outdoor temperatures reach extremes.
Catford playgrounds at 60C
The heat does not stop at the classroom door. Research at a school in Catford, south London found hard playgrounds can reach up to 60C during heatwaves, adding another surface that stores and radiates heat back into school buildings and play areas.
Schools were designed in the 1950s to bring in more natural light for public health reasons, but those choices now sit uneasily with a hotter climate. Victorian buildings once relied on passive cooling, cross ventilation, sash windows, shutters and awnings; many of those features have been removed or altered, leaving schools to depend on a design that no longer matches the weather.
The practical answer is retrofit: more shading, better ventilation and changes to glazing and opening windows. Pupils and teachers are already living with the consequences, and the next question is which schools will be treated first as England faces more hot spells.
