Stupid Question - but do you consider air-conditioning in a school to be important??

[~clover~]

Though I was happy with most other factors there, there were a couple of older teachers which I have heard from some can be a negative as younger teachers are generally more enthusiastic? The principal seemed great but the AP didn't seem to happy to be there, hard to tell when you don't know them and going off first impressions.

I wouldn't go by age hun. The principle here is a grandmother in her 60's & is more enthusiastic & fun than DD2's 25ish year old infants teacher. Its the personality, not the age. DD1's kindy teacher was also in her 60's & a great teacher.
I've found alot of the younger ones (around my age) can be quite stuck up at times. Not sure if they actually are or its just me, but they just don't seem as fun either. There is a male teacher at the girls school who the kids are loving in his early 20's, but the others the same age I know of they don't relate to as well.

[LimeSlice]

We went to primary school without - hell even my High School (private grammar school) still didn't have air cn through most of the school! lol
We survived perfectly, yes it was hot sometimes...but honestly it was fine.
That was in Melbourne

We don't have air con at home and now we live in Perth! I would think though that if I were sending Charlotte to school HERE then yes, Air Con would be important - it was 30 last week and that is almost winter lol It is not uncommon for 35+ degree days in October so, ys it would be more of a consideration.

But in Melbourne, whether her school has air con or not will not a priority at all.
And they are probably much healthier NOT having air con

[Bathsheba]

I tend to agree with clover regarding age based generalisations. At the schools where i have worked and sent my children the older teachers have been excellent. Full of enthusiasm and generally more knowledgable and tolerant of children with special challenges. Some of the younger ones who hadn't had children themselves didn't really understand how homelife impacts on a child's learning... the fact that Mum might be pregnant and too tired to help do the reader every night just an example. So yes, it's more about teachers as individuals rather than age. I have also known young teachers from large families to be very understanding about hectic home lives too for example.

[Kazbah]

In Brissie our school didn't have aircon - but then again most of the houses don't. If you're acclimatised to aircon all the time, then sending a kid to school without aircon is difficult for the kid.

Also depends on the design of the school, IYKWIM? My Brissie school (private) was built by convicts, and the architecture was wide verandahs so the sun didn't hit windows, and the breeze could flow through. But without that design it would have been unbearable - I find that buildings down here in Melbourne are hotter than in Brissie cause there's no verandahs, no eaves, no cross-breezes ...

[Bathsheba]

So true Kazbah! People think Melbourne is cool pretty much all year... it is so NOT! Not enough deep verandahs... too many box like buildings...crazy. That's why i love old architecture... the coolest home i have lived in in melbourne was a 100yo terrace house in inner melbourne... thick stone walls to keep out the heat of summer... no a/c but walking inside onto the cool marble tiled foyer was such a relief on a hot day.

[LoveKnowsNoBounds]

I will take on the age comment. I'm glad to hear that older teachers can be fun and enthusiastic. Has anyone found air-con to be a negative? I.e. child getting sick from being too cold?

[Bathsheba]

DH gets sick from the a/c all the time at work. It's mainly because it dries out the mucous membranes in your resporatory system (inside your nose and throat) and this makes the area easier for germs to grow as mucous is a defence against them. Also if the body is subject to extreme changes in temperature it has to work harder to regulate itself... this also exhausts the bodies natural defences. it's always better to adjust the temp gradually... not step from a hot place into a cold room and visa versa... when you have a/c it makes the change too sudden. So yes, people in a/c spaces often do get sicker but you have to balance that with the potential for dehydration and illness associated with heat fatigue. tricky.

[Ginger]

i think A/C at a school these days is essential. i would be hesitant to send my kids to a school without it.

[Cherished]

I was thinking about this the other day. While heaps of homes don't have aircon and get by I'd hate to be sitting in a stinking hot environment and be expected to concentrate and above that learn. So I think aircon will be important when we decided where to send our kids to school. I also don't think it's great to be in aircon all the time but at school kids are outside enough, they have a morning & afternoon tea break and lunch time in primary school anyway, I don't know what they do in high school these days but by then immune systems should be pretty good and getting colds may not be such a problem?

[MissM]

ESSENTIAL!!! We're out in the Penrith region - and DD goes to an independant school where every classroom has air con. If kids are too hot and bothered, they dont wanna learn!

We haven't had an issue with the air con being too cold/warm, as the kids are kept inside if its too hot/cold outside.

I have my air con on in the car when its 28 why should my DD have to suffer in the heat/cold at school?

[Rouge]

It's not essential. But I don't follow the school of thought that just because I didn't have it the kids don't need it. We didn't have it because we didn't have it. Simple as that. They didn't have the same a/c technology back then. Yes they had a/c but they were expensive, they were also power suckers and HUGE. Now they are more energy efficient, not as expensive and smaller units. I didn't use the internet to source information for my school projects, doesn't mean I'm going to take my kids down to the local library and whip out the old encyclopedia because well chances are that information could be highly outdated.

Progression isn't always a curse. And just because we walked 10,000 miles in the snow with no shoes doesn't make us stronger. Technology has shown to encourage earlier learning, kids are now learning at a more rapid rate. The age for reading has lowered, basic math's has lowered. Our kids are getting smarter. And without technology I am not sure this would happen. What's not to say we would have learnt quicker in our classrooms if we weren't focusing on how hot it was and what work we had in front of us. When I was a kid the only place in school that had a/c was the library and I know I got a heck of a lot more work done and more efficiently done there than in our classrooms.

[JLeigh29]

Just for interests sake, as I know it's off topic, but our school was looking like it was going to have about $50 000 leftover from a funding grant and our principal asked the staff if we had any ideas on how we'd like it spent. We all said air-con in the rooms that don't have it and new air-conditioners in the 4 rooms that have really old, inefficient ones. He said he'd looked into costs and it was about $25 000 to air-con one classroom. We could do our whole house several times over for that! Make of that what you will...

[Bathsheba]

There is a big debate in the media ATM about government schools getting ripped off big time for their grant money Isn't that just the lowest act? Makes me sooo angry when people think just because the government is paying for something they can milk it for all it's worth!!! They are milking tax payers! I don't understand why parents of kids going to government school aren't making more of a hoo haa I tell you what: if I heard that some contractor was doing that to my DD's private school i know about 100 parents that would march straight to their offices and protest! As if we don't pay enough in fees! Sometimes i think that if they means tested parents for education parents might start to think about issues like this. Could it be that because parents aren't paying for the public system that these types of issues are kinda off the radar? I am in full support of the public system but it would serve the parents of this system better in some ways to act a bit more like the parents of the private system and expect to be treated like clients instead of just accepting what they are given.... not feeling that they can be demanding because the service is essentially free? Sensitive topic I know... just putting it out there.

[~clover~]

Bath - ours is one of those schools. We are waiting for a new library, staff room & class room. It was supposed to be finished at the end of the christmas holidays & is still not finished. There was allocated 1.4 million dollars for it & it's gone $750 000 over budget & its still not finished!! I'm not sure if thats for the whole area, or just our school, but its not fair. There are at least 2 other schools in the area i know of having the same problem.
Our school is having meetings & trying to do all they can to work it out. I'm not sure about the others. Actually come to think of it I think I was supposed to right a letter! Better find the last newsletter & re read it! No updates in todays newsletter, so not sure if they've gone further yet.

[cindyb]

I am studying at the moment and the classrooms we are in are not airconditioned and i can tell you now that i abxolutely see it as a neccessity - NONE of us - including the teachers can concentrate when it is hot! Whilst i am in melb and it is only revoltingly hot a little of the year it is just not good for the brain to try to learn whilst it is so busy trying to cool the body down!

Not to mention the smelly rooms!

[Mrs Jak]

It's nice, but IMO not essential.

We are in North Qld and growing up we didn't have it at school and I don't have any bad memories..
Although it gets quite humid here, we rarely get in to the high 30's or to 40.