Parents' air con crowdfund aims to keep pupils cool

Parents in Worcestershire have decided to crowdfund to pay for air conditioning for their children's primary school, which they say was simply not designed for a warming climate.

Pupils at Lickey Hills Primary School, in Bromsgrove, said the warm temperatures inside classrooms makes them unable to concentrate.

Head girl, Beau, said pupils were hot and bothered in stuffy classrooms making them feel "off balance".

Amber heat-health alerts have been issued by the UK Health Security Agency for the Midlands, eastern and southern England from 09:00 BST on Wednesday to 21:00 BST on 12 July, as temperatures are once again expected to top 30C (86F).

The school was built in the 1950s and has 16 classrooms with "large windows and limited ventilation", according to parents.

On their crowdfunding page, they said said they wanted to raise £4,000 to pay for the new units.

"Lickey Hills Primary School is a beautiful older building, but it simply wasn't designed for today's extreme temperatures.

"Large windows and limited ventilation meant that classroom temperatures soared to well above 30C, creating an environment where children found it incredibly difficult to concentrate, learn and thrive."

Pupils have been using fans in their classrooms, but said they were still very warm.

Aylssah said: "The fans have been quite good, and it's been very hot."

Theo said he found it very difficult to learn.

"I can't really concentrate while I am doing my work."

Head girl, Beau, added: "We're all very off balance because we're used to working where the weather's just English weather, but everyone gets so hot and fed up and the room gets so stuffy. We can't learn properly and everyone gets a bit silly."

Headteacher, Dave Dathan, said he welcomed the action by parents.

"We've got an incredibly active PTA and this group of parents saw the struggles and the difficulties of the last week or so and have chosen to raise some funds to try to get some air conditioning units," he said.

"Children learn best when they're comfortable. Children learn best when their needs are being met.

"The temperatures, the peaks of the high 30s that we got to really impacted on them.

"We saw attention spans reduced. We saw children less able to regulate their emotions. It had an impact across the school," he added.

Follow BBC Hereford & Worcester on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.