School cancels ‘Blue Nose Day’ after massive backlash --[Reported by Umva mag]

A school has scrapped plans to turn off its heating all day in a bid to try and conserve energy after a father told the school it was ‘child cruelty’.

Alec Marshall, who has two children that attend Wolsingham School in Bishop Auckland, County Durham, said the original idea would have stopped children from learning and risked the health of the pupils.

In an email to sent to parents and carers on Monday, Wolsingham School announced they would be turning off the heating all day at the end of the week for ‘Blue Nose Day’ – believed to be a play on words of the Comic Relief charity fundraising event ‘Red Nose Day’ – to ‘help reduce our carbon footprint.’

Speaking to Metro, Marshall, 36, said: ‘This is child cruelty.

‘When the heating goes off the school usually send the kids home, yet now they want to turn it off intentionally.

‘There are children whose families cannot afford to put the heating on and the only place they have for warmth is school for six hours.’

He warned that children left in the cold all day could end up being off sick and miss out on lessons.

The father-of-five said his children in Years 9 and 10 came home concerned that the school would be freezing on Friday without heating or being allowed to wear warmer clothing.

Mr Marshall added: ‘This sounds more like blue lips day. You need heating on at this time of year.

‘Go and tell prisons to turn the heating off and see how long it takes until they riot.’

In their initial email, the 400-year-old school, which was rated ‘good’ by Ofsted last year, recommended that students wore ‘non-visible’ layers of clothing underneath the school uniform but said wearing hoodies to keep warm would not be permitted.

The Met Office forecast for Wolsingham showed that the ‘feels like temperature’ would reach only 12 degrees during the day, and was predicted to be 8 degrees at the beginning of the school day.

Following backlash from parents, headteacher Mr Mitchinson confimed in an email on Tuesday that the energy conservation initiative would not go ahead in the winter.

The initiative was being been spearheaded by Wolsingham School’s Climate Action Team, which has so far taken measures to reduce single use plastics by introducing filtered water coolers.

The head of the coeducational school told parents: ‘As you will be aware the students involved in the Climate Action Team have been planning a Blue Nose Day for this Friday 18th October 2024.

‘The event was designed to raise the importance in our school community of being more sustainable and in a small way reduce the schools carbon footprint.

‘The date was carefully chosen by looking at average temperatures by month and short-term weather forecasts, indicating a temperature in Wolsingham of approx. 15C on Friday.

‘After careful consideration and speaking to several parents regarding their concerns, the Blue Nose Day scheduled for Friday 18 October 2024 will now not go ahead as planned.’

Mr Mitchinson said, however, that the Climate Action Team will now plan for the day to take place during the summer.

Mr Marshall said a number of parents were concerned and also complained to the school authorities.

He added that if the idea was not ditched, he was fearful more radical energy and cost saving measures would be introduced:

‘What next? Are they not going to give them school dinners?’ he said.

Mr Marshall has now hailed the school’s decision not to go ahead with ‘Blue Nose Day’ as a sign of the ‘power of parents’

He added: ‘It is brilliant that the school has listened to parents’ concerns. Surely it is better to turn the heating off in the summer as it is a bigger waster of energy to have the heating on when the sun is out. To turn it off when it needs to be on -that is a ridiculous thing to do.’

A spokesperson for Wolsingham School declined to comment further.

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