In its submission to HM Treasury ahead of the Autumn Budget, ASCL states that it is essential schools have appropriate heating and cooling mechanisms for the full academic year to be able to provide comfortable environments for children and young people to learn and staff to work. The call comes following a summer of fierce heatwaves which caused huge disruption to schools and colleges.

Pepe Di’Iasio, General Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “It is astonishing that there is currently a maximum temperature for transporting cattle, but not one for children and staff in our schools. This has clearly got to change. 

“But simply setting a maximum temperature is not enough on its own – it has to be backed up with Treasury investment to ensure schools and colleges are able to maintain safe temperatures. Many existing buildings are old and ill-equipped to deal with the intensity of the heatwaves we have seen over the summer.

“The DfE’s own estates strategy, published in February, recognises that too many children are learning in buildings that are in need of repair and at risk of overheating. Since then we have had the hottest summer on record, with classrooms reaching uncomfortably high temperatures and a huge amount of disruption to learning as a result. 

“There is no getting away from the fact that a significant uplift in capital funding is required to fix this problem, which is only going to get worse as summer temperatures continue to increase. The Autumn Budget is the perfect opportunity for the government to recognise the extent of this issue, and start putting in place the resources needed to address it.” 

ASCL’s submission also makes the case to turn an ongoing demographic fall in pupil numbers from being a risk into an opportunity. As school funding is allocated on a per-pupil basis this decline in numbers is placing huge additional pressure on stretched school budgets.

The association is calling on the government to commit – as a bare minimum – to maintaining total school funding at its current level in real terms rather than reducing it as pupil numbers decline. This would enable the ‘saved’ money to be reinvested in education to put it on a more sustainable footing.

ASCL’s full submission to the Treasury is available to read here.