Kettering schools close over extreme heat red alert

Some schools in Kettering have kept their doors closed today (Monday) as the county faces a red alert for extreme heat.

Temperatures are set to break records with forecasters predicting highs of up to 41C during the 48-hour heatwave, which lasts until tomorrow night.

And with experts fearing the hot spell could bring widespread disruption and danger to life, hundreds of pupils have been told to stay at home.

Southfield School in Lewis Road is closed to most students today and tomorrow with only children of key workers, vulnerable children and those without access to IT able to attend for lessons. Others will be taught remotely.

In a letter to parents yesterday (Sunday), headteacher Steph Roberts said they had initially intended to remain open as usual but made the decision to close after considering subsequent advice and making an assessment of their teaching and communal spaces.

She said: "We appreciate that this is not the ideal way to end the school year but we must respond to the national health and safety concerns now in place for the region as they relate to our site specific context.”

Isebrook School, Wren Spinney School and Millbrook Junior School have also closed their doors today and tomorrow.

The top temperature at the Met Office Pitsford weather station, near Northampton, currently stands at 36.1C at 4.09pm on July 31, 2020 — but records there date back only to 1998.

Northamptonshire’s official highest recorded temperature is 36.7C at Raunds on August 9, 1911.