Classes moving to older buildings just to find relief from the heat
Across England, more than 22,000 schools face a warming climate for which they were never designed — and in some cases, the oldest buildings on a site are the ones still standing up to the heat. At a west London primary school, classes have migrated from a 2017 building into one built in 1896, not out of nostalgia, but necessity. It is a quiet indictment of decades of construction policy that planned for the present while the future was already being written in rising temperatures.
- A headteacher in west London is moving students out of a modern building and into a Victorian one just to keep classrooms bearable during a heatwave — a reversal that exposes the depth of the problem.
- Some of the worst-performing schools were built under flagship government programmes meant to modernise education, with glass atriums and south-facing walls that function as heat traps rather than learning environments.
- Over 22,000 state schools are operating across England, many beyond their predicted lifespans, and the government's £20 billion plan through 2035 will reach only 750 of them — leaving the vast majority unaddressed.
- The Climate Change Committee has declared all existing adaptation plans 'not fit for purpose,' urging action now rather than by the 2050 deadline it has itself set for universal air conditioning in schools.
- Researchers and educators are calling for structural rethinking — not just retrofits, but a reconsideration of the school calendar itself, with exams currently scheduled in the hottest and most sleep-disrupting months of the year.
At a primary school in west London, two buildings share the same grounds and tell very different stories. The one built in 1896 — solid brick, thick walls — has remained tolerable through this week's heat. The one built in 2017, to current Department for Education standards, has become unbearable. Classes have moved into the older building for relief.
The headteacher, who began his career in Sydney where schools are designed for extreme heat from the outset, watches the situation with weary clarity. The modern building was constructed to the guidance that existed at the time — guidance that simply did not account for a warming world. Nearby, he knows of a school from the Building Schools for the Future programme — Tony Blair's ambitious modernisation effort — that features glass walkways, a glazed atrium, and a south-facing glass wall along the PE hall. It was built, in effect, as a greenhouse.
The problem runs deeper than any single building. More than 22,000 state schools operate across England, many well past their predicted lifespans. The government has committed nearly £20 billion through 2035 to overhaul over 750 of them — a figure that sounds significant until measured against the scale of what remains. Retrofitting the entire estate for a hotter climate will require far more, and the window is narrowing.
The Climate Change Committee has concluded that all current plans are 'not fit for purpose,' recommending air conditioning in every school and a rethink of the exam calendar — currently fixed in May and June, the months when heat and disrupted sleep make learning hardest. The deadline given to ministers for compliance is 2050, a horizon that already feels out of step with the heat arriving today.
As one environmental sociologist put it, climate adaptation is no longer a future project — it is a present obligation. The irony at Beaconsfield, where a Victorian building outperforms a modern one, is not an anomaly. It is a signal of what happens when policy plans for the climate that was, rather than the one that is coming.
At Beaconsfield primary school in west London, there sits a paradox that captures Britain's stumbling approach to climate change. Two buildings stand on the same site. One was built in 1896—solid brick, thick walls, the kind of Victorian construction that was never designed with air conditioning in mind. The other went up in 2017, following the Department for Education's current building standards. When the heat arrived this week, the older building stayed tolerable. The newer one became unbearable.
Dave Woods, the school's headteacher, has watched this unfold with the clarity of someone who has taught in both hemispheres. He began his career in Sydney, where schools are built from the ground up to handle extreme temperatures. At Beaconsfield, he now manages a situation that would seem absurd if it were not so widespread: classes moving out of the modern building into the Victorian one just to find relief from the heat.
"The older building is constructed with solid brickwork, very thick walls," Woods explained. "It stays warm in winter and in summer it tends to keep the heat out so it is cooler inside. Even this week it's starting to get uncomfortable but it's still tolerable." The 2017 building, by contrast, was "extremely hot all the time." It was built to the guidance that existed then—guidance that, it turns out, did not account for the reality of a warming world.
This is not a problem confined to aging infrastructure. Some of the schools struggling most this week date from the 1970s, with flat roofs and inadequate windows. But others are modern. The Building Schools for the Future programme, Tony Blair's ambitious plan to replace Victorian school estates with contemporary architecture, produced buildings that in some cases function as greenhouses. Woods knows of a school nearby with enclosed glass walkways, a fully glazed atrium, a glass canopy over the dining room, and a south-facing glass wall along the PE hall. It was designed, essentially, as a heat trap.
The broader picture is one of systemic unpreparedness. More than 22,000 state schools and colleges operate across England, many of them well past their predicted lifespans, some contaminated with asbestos and crumbling concrete. The government announced nearly £20 billion in investment through 2035 to overhaul more than 750 schools—a figure that sounds substantial until you do the math. At that pace, retrofitting the entire estate to handle a hotter climate will require billions more, and time is contracting.
The Climate Change Committee, the government's statutory advisers on climate adaptation, recently concluded that all existing plans are "not fit for purpose." The committee has recommended that every school be fitted with air conditioning, though it has given ministers until 2050 to comply—a deadline that feels almost quaint given the heat already arriving. The committee also suggested reconsidering the school year itself, moving exams away from May and June when classroom temperatures and poor sleep make learning difficult. Only tradition, after all, dictates when exams happen.
Dr. Thomas Roberts, a senior lecturer in environmental sociology at the University of Surrey, put it plainly: "Climate adaptation is no longer something we need to prepare for in the future. It is something we need to be doing now." The irony at Beaconsfield—where a building from the 1890s outperforms one from 2017—is not a quirk. It is a warning about what happens when you plan for the climate you have rather than the one that is coming.
Notable Quotes
The older building is constructed with solid brickwork, very thick walls. It stays warm in winter and in summer it tends to keep the heat out so it is cooler inside.— Dave Woods, headteacher of Beaconsfield primary school
Climate adaptation is no longer something we need to prepare for in the future. It is something we need to be doing now.— Dr. Thomas Roberts, University of Surrey
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why does the older building perform better? Is it just luck?
No—it's deliberate design from a different era. Thick solid brick, small windows relative to wall area, high ceilings. Those features were chosen for durability and thermal mass, not climate adaptation. But they happen to work.
And the newer building fails because of what, exactly?
It was built to current standards, which didn't account for sustained heat. More glass, lighter materials, designs that prioritize natural light and openness. All sensible in a cooler climate. Catastrophic in a warming one.
So this is a design problem, not a maintenance problem?
Entirely a design problem. You can't retrofit your way out of a building that was fundamentally conceived wrong. You can add air conditioning, but that costs money and energy the schools don't have.
The government is spending £20 billion. That sounds like a lot.
For 750 schools out of 22,000. Do the division. It's a start, but it's not enough, and it's not fast enough.
What would actually fix this?
Immediate retrofitting of the worst buildings, redesign standards for new construction, and honestly—moving exam seasons away from peak heat. But that requires admitting the problem is urgent, not something to solve by 2050.
Is anyone saying that?
The Climate Change Committee is. The headteachers are. The researchers are. The government is moving slower.