School during the heatwave: Your questions answered

If you haven't already noticed, it's hot!

A rare red weather warning for extreme heat has been issued for Wednesday and Thursday for parts of southern England, as well as the Midlands and southern Wales.

While temperatures all across the UK are much higher than normal.

Many of you might have questions about the heatwave and what it means for school, lessons, uniforms and exams.

The BBC's senior education correspondent Vanessa Clarke has been answering some of these for you.

Will you be sent home? Is it too hot for PE? We try to answer the big questions below...

The decision lies with your headteacher.

Several schools in the areas impacted by the red weather warning have already said they will be closing early, with some closing entirely, during the worst of the weather this week.

There is no legal maximum temperature for classrooms - and the government does not normally advise schools to close.

Instead, it says schools can usually be managed safely and that keeping children in school is important.

Teaching unions have recommended that schools should aim to keep indoor temperatures at a maximum of 26C.

If a head teacher makes a decision to close a school, then other school leaders or the chair of governors all need to be consulted and agree it's the right thing to do, so it's not a decision taken lightly.

School leaders will be keeping a close eye on temperatures, looking at risk levels, and making sure students aren't getting very tired, particularly vulnerable pupils.

Teachers should be following advice from local authorities by opening doors and windows, reducing unnecessary heat like electric lighting and using fans.

If you feel unwell or too hot at school, make sure you tell your teacher.

Some schools are relaxing their uniform rules and allowing students to wear their PE kits, but again, that's up to the school.

Some parents may already have had a message from their schools saying uniform rules are being relaxed and children can instead wear PE kits.

Some newer schools already do, but many schools are in old buildings that don't.

So teachers will be doing their best to keep things cool. They might move classrooms to cooler parts of the building or opening windows and closing them in the heat of the day.

A Department for Education spokesperson told Newsround:

"We provide a range of practical guidance to help schools keep classrooms cool, including through the use of air conditioning.

"We design new schools to stay cool through effective ventilation and shading, and we are investing to make schools more resilient to a changing climate — including a £710 million Renewal and Retrofit Programme and almost £20 billion to rebuild over 750 schools."

Lessons may be moved to cooler areas of the school and official advice from the government says children should not be taking part in vigorous physical activity on very hot days.

So, instead of PE you might be doing something much calmer and hopefully much cooler.

It's very rare to cancel an exam because of the heat, but they could be moved to another building where it's cooler.

But most exams will be going ahead unless a headteacher deems it unsafe.