Youngsters swelter in school where radiators always on

TEACHERS at a city primary school are being forced to keep windows and doors open all day to give themselves and pupils relief from the "stifling" conditions – because they cannot turn the heating off.

Education bosses have been criticised for the "crazy" waste of energy and money because the school cannot control its own temperature in classrooms or the gym hall.

Parents of children at Tollcross Primary have called for urgent action after experiencing first-hand the temperatures endured by the children, who claim to be left feeling, tired, sick and unable to concentrate on their work as a result of the heat.

They have asked the council to provide them with a read-out of temperatures from classrooms but said they have been told this it is "impossible to extract the data".

Andy Murray, a member of the parent council, went to investigate the situation after pupils wrote to him to complain about the heat. He was shocked by the conditions and discovered that many desks are situated beside hot metal pipes.

He believes it is "utter madness" that a heating system can't be controlled by an individual school. He said: "It's all a bit shambolic because the school can't regulate its own heating.

"When I visited in March, the school was stifling hot and there were hot pipes running around the whole of the building.

"I feel uncomfortable if I'm in the building any length of time. There's an irony of teaching children about the environment in a school that's not really environmentally friendly.

"The fact that it's so difficult to get read-outs of the temperature as the whole computer system in the City Chambers is unable to bring the data together is incredible in this day and age."

Mr Murray added that he visited every classroom in the school and had found conditions to be the same in each one and that, as a result, windows were "almost permanently open".

He added, though, that in some cases this makes little difference as, due to the design of the school which was built in 1912, some windows only open a small amount, while others don't open at all.

The problem at Tollcross is caused by the fact the temperature is controlled centrally by the council and the boiler temperature was increased during the harsh winter. The ageing system which is in place also heats the water which means the heating cannot be turned off. But the council said it has now turned down the temperature in response to the school's request and is investigating options for controlling the heating.

A council spokeswoman said: "We are investigating the options for controlling the circulation of heat, the details of which will be shared with the school as soon as they are available."