Having worked in schools and nurseries for a little while now, the thing that always strikes me as soon as I walk through the main reception doors is how warm the rooms are. It reminds me of when I worked in an office and it was always roasting. There never seems to be a happy medium.

My children often come home with their jackets and jumpers in their bags, top buttons on their polo shirts undone and, in my daughter’s case, socks rolled down to her ankles. Of course, I would rather it was nice and warm and not freezing for them but if you find that your children are feeling a bit too warm during their school day, there are some things you can do to help keep them cool at school.

The first thing I do is layer their clothes. With school uniform, that is pretty easy to do anyway because of the types of clothing they wear. My daughter wears a vest underneath her polo shirt with a pinafore over the top of that. She then wears a cardigan over the top of the pinafore. The cardigan has a few buttons that she can easily undo herself to remove her cardigan if she feels too warm. She also wears knee high socks which she can roll down to cool down her legs. In the warmer months, both of my kids wear a tank top over their polo shirt so that their arms are exposed. My son also wears shorts instead of trousers in the summer months.

Secondly, and still on the clothing theme, I make sure their clothing isn’t too fitted or tight. If their clothes are too tight, they’ll end up so uncomfortable and find it hard to concentrate on anything else. Also think about the material of the school uniform you buy. I found that the easy iron, Teflon trousers my son wore in his first year at school combined with the heat in the classroom ended up making his eczema flare up. I found that his skin was much better when he wore cotton trousers.

The third thing I do is provide them with a large bottle of water. They use a screw top plastic bottle so they can refill them if they need to. Different schools will have different policies in relation to what they feel is appropriate for your child to bring to school to drink but at our school, the children are allowed to have diluting juice if they prefer it over water. It’s so important for children to keep hydrated especially when they are feeling warm.

My last tip for keeping cool at school would be to make sure you provide sun cream and a hat for your child in the warmer weather. If it’s a hot day, the chances are your children will be outside enjoying the good weather instead of being stuck indoors.