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Ark Tindal Primary Academy in Balsall Heath, have installed a “shade sail” to keep their pupils cool, as well as relaxing uniform rules. They are now fundriaisng to plant trees as a long-term solution.
Speaking about the changes, Dr Claire Smith, operations manager and sustainability lead at the school said she and her colleagues had noticed a “huge difference” since the shading canopy was installed last year:
“We’re surrounded by brick on all sides, so it gets incredibly hot here in the summer when the sun’s beating down on the playground.” “We went out to lots of contractors – we wanted to go down a natural route so we went for a wooden structure in our [green] school colours.”
“It’s essential to get children outside as much as possible. Their behaviour is so much better when they get the chance to run off some energy at lunchtime, so I think structures like this that make the outside accessible throughout the year make a huge difference.”
Photo credit: Josh Neicho.
More than 40,000 extra people died on England’s hottest days between 1988 and 2025 compared with what would be expected in normal temperatures, according to new ONS data.
Deaths from high heat are expected to keep climbing as climate change and an ageing population combine, with older people, children and the unwell most at risk.
The strain has been visible across the health system: A&E departments saw their busiest period on record, with almost 2.5 million attendances a month in May, June and July, with record-breaking heat cited as a key factor. Nurses reported collapsing on shift amid what their union called “inhumane and impossible” conditions.
YouGov’s long-term data tracking shows an uptick in the belief that ‘the environment’ is one of the UK’s most important issues, amidst a summer of unprecedented heat, fires and drought. Although this increase does not match high points across the trend line, or the impact of summer heat episodes between 2022-2024.
The importance Britons placed on ‘the environment’ rose +11% across this summer – from 14% on the 4th May (pre-heatwaves) to a peak of 25% on the 17th of August, before dropping slightly again to 23% on the 24th of August.
These shifts have been particularly noticeable amongst Lib Dem supporters (+17%, from 23% to 40% in the same period), Labour supporters (+15%, from 22% to 37%) and women (+14%, from 15% to 29%).
This data follows a piece by YouGov published after the June summer heatwave, which suggested that the heat had not impacted people’s climate opinions or actions, despite 71% believing the heatwave was likely to have been caused by climate change.
While this certainly appeared true at the time – the latest data suggests this piece may have been premature in catching the full effects of the extreme heat on environmental salience this summer (especially when previous weather extremes have led to spikes in issue salience data).
