U.K. — More than 1,000 schools across the U.K. closed or sent students home early in late June 2026 due to extreme heat. Temperatures reached a record 35.9 degrees Celsius (96.6 Fahrenheit) in Wales during this period.

Wayne Bates, a health and safety spokesperson with the teachers' union NASUWT, said: "We've had members teaching in extremely hot conditions, to the extent that we've had reports of members passing out in classrooms while trying to teach." NASUWT and other unions have called for the British government to introduce a maximum workplace temperature.

Dave Woods, head teacher at Beaconsfield Primary School in west London and vice president of the National Union of Headteachers, noted that the older part of his school was built in 1908, while the newer section dates from approximately a decade ago. Woods noted current funding for repairs for his school at 7,000 pounds ($9,348) per year. He estimated that fitting air conditioning throughout the school could cost close to 20,000 pounds ($26,700). "You would have thought in 2017, there would have been more thinking ahead because we already knew about changes to climate, changes to global temperatures," Woods said.

Woods added: "We're already looking at some longer-term things, like more tree planting to provide shade onto buildings, external screening onto windows or use of solar film to reflect some of the glare." He said: "But nothing's going to happen extremely quickly." Many school buildings constructed between the 1950s and 1970s are past their intended lifespan, and four out of five schools still contain asbestos in their building materials.

The Climate Change Committee, an independent official group advising Britain's government, issued a report in May 2026. The report projected that by 2050, with approximately 2 degrees Celsius of global warming, heat waves could regularly exceed 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) in southern England. The committee warned that without adaptation, the average number of days per year that indoor temperatures could reach 35 degrees Celsius in thousands of English schools would increase by 70% compared to the present day.

Richard Millar, director of adaptation at the Climate Change Committee, said: "Our key message overall is that the effects being felt now, when we think about heat particularly, this isn't something that we've historically thought about as one of the key hazards from weather or from climate change in the U.K." Millar added: "We increasingly need to think about heat as the evidence of the last few weeks shows us." He stated: "And this is one of areas where we have a gap in terms of a proper plan for how this is led, particularly about the public services side of it." Millar concluded: "It's not just a future problem. Those impacts are here. And we're not prepared for today's weather, let alone tomorrow's."