Pupils left ‘too flipping hot’ at ground-breaking Scottish school campus after being told not to open windows

Councillor Jean Hall-Muir expressed her frustration at conditions inside the facility, which has been hailed for its ground-breaking energy efficient measures. But a misunderstanding over whether or not windows can be opened is leaving teenage pupils “stressed out and sweating”.

The campus houses St Columba’s and Woodmill High schools and is the largest Passivhaus education building in the world.

However, Cllr Hall-Muir, speaking at a meeting of Fife Council’s environment, transportation and climate change scrutiny committee, called for a “better balance” to be found.

“There is still a lot of frustration,” she said. “Schools, in particular, make me want to tear my hair out because they are still too flipping hot.

“Despite reassurances, even at the new learning campus, we need to better balance what it is like for 35 small hormonal humans to be in a room that you cannot open the windows. It is wretched to be in them when everyone is stressed out and sweating. We have to be able to open the windows and to control the temperature, not from a central thing.

“These are spaces for humans and we need to remember our goals to save the planet is to prolong human life. It is great to do great work on spreadsheets, but we must always include the actual experience. I have nothing but respect and admiration for our headteachers, but what looks good on paper is it is not nice from a 14 to 17-year-old’s lived experience in that same setting.”

Cllr Hall-Muir said pupils were being told windows could not be opened due to energy efficiency measures.

“My request is please have a look to see if there is anything to empower them with the ability to control the environment a bit more,” she said.

“What is the experience like for students? They feel clammed up in there. They don’t feel like they are celebrating doing their bit for the climate.”

Jonathan Coppock, Fife Council’s lead professional for net zero, said they were aware of overheating issues at the learning campus.

“It is a novel project,” he said. “It is the largest Passivhaus school building in the world. There are some teething issues when you first hand over a building. Teams are working hard to resolve that right now.

"One of the misconceptions is that you cannot have open windows. All classrooms will have some windows that can open to deal with some overheating. That is part of the criteria, but there is a real element of education with these more complex buildings and teaching people how to operate these systems.”

Alan Paul, the council’s head of property services, had told committee members the campus hasd“incredibly low” energy use.

He said: “Early figures we are getting suggest that we are not simply world class, but probably substantially ahead of where anyone thought it would [be].”