Overview

• Several UK schools have introduced ‘hot play’ bans that keep pupils indoors when playground surfaces become dangerously hot during heatwaves.
• Former headteacher Chris McGovern warns that confining children indoors risks harming their mental health and creating a “generation of wimps.”
• Tory MPs Greg Smith and Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg have criticised the measures as excessive, advocating simple precautions such as hats, suncream and shaded areas instead of blanket bans.
• WWF research indicates that heat-retaining materials like tarmac and artificial turf intensify high temperatures in schoolyards and increase flooding vulnerability.
• The charity is urging ministers to overhaul school premises regulations from the 1950s and require natural play surfaces such as grass, soil or sand to adapt to extreme weather.